Week 1: Spinach Pasta Salad

I finally got around to making my spinach dish and I made something totally different that I had planned to make.  I found a recipe for spinach pasta salad while trying to find a spinach and tilapia recipe.  I had one recipe pinned for Lemon Asparagus Pasta Salad and I combined that with Spinach and Tomato Pasta Salad.

Spinach Pasta Salad

4 cups spinach, cut coarsely or use baby spinach

several handfuls of cherry tomatoes cut in half

small bunch of asparagus cut into 1 inch pieces, cooked gently

6-7 oz small pasta-orzo or ditalini

3 oz feta cheese

half a lemon

freshly ground pepper

Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 tbsp capers, drained

Cook pasta according to the directions on the box.  While pasta is cooking, cook asparagus.  Combine spinach, feta and capers in a large bowl.  Once pasta is done, add about 3/4 cup of the pasta liquid to the bowl and mix to combine.  Drain pasta and asparagus.  Add to salad.  Add tomatoes to salad.  Sprinkle on freshly ground black pepper and Parmesan cheese.  Zest half the lemon over the salad.  Squeeze some fresh lemon juice on the salad (half the lemon is a little too much).  Combine everything.  You can serve the salad hot, room temperature or cold.  I served it warm.

Brian thought olives would be a good addition to the salad but since I don't like olives, I vetoed that.  Don't go overboard on the lemon.

I'll post the tilapia recipe on my blog soon.