Fast and fresh ranch pasta salad

This fast and fresh ranch pasta salad with crunchy summer veggies and chicken makes an easy, healthy weeknight meal or potluck dish.

I originally created this recipe while we lived in Vermont. And were once again in the midst of moving.

I know, it's like deja vu, right? But don't worry. I'm not moving again. (You hear me, universe? I. AM. NOT. MOVING. AGAIN.)

But, as you can imagine, moving has a way of cutting into the time (and energy) available for cooking dinner. As does hot summer weather, which we've been experiencing here in Maryland in full force over the past few weeks.

So, just as I did back when we were moving, I've lately been keeping my menu planning focused on quick and easy recipes -- especially the low- or no-cook kind.

Case in point, this easy, fast and fresh ranch pasta salad, which you can throw together in the time it takes to cook a pot of pasta, yet is cool, full of fresh veggies and very satisfying. Plus, it will leave you with lunch leftovers that you don't even need to reheat.

Easy tomato and sausage ragu

Why settle for jarred pasta sauce when you can make this easy tomato and sausage ragu with mushrooms and fresh herbs instead? 

Can you believe I was nearly 30 years old before I discovered the awesome glory of sausage?

[Seriously -- if you a regular reader of the Ninj, pick yourself up off the floor, as you know I tend to add sausage or bacon to nearly everything. Are you new? Go ahead, search on "sausage" or "bacon" in the search box. I'll wait ... get it now?]

Growing up, sausage to me meant an oily, hot sausage-and-pepper grinder (hero, hoagie, sub, whatever) -- and those just grossed me out (they still do). Therefore, in my mind I didn't like sausage. Period.

While Mr. Ninj and I were dating, he would occasionally cook for me (ah, those were the days!), and once he made some pasta dish that involve browning sausage as the first step.

This is so pathetic to admit now, but I watched in utter amazement as he CUT THE CASING OFF and added just the ground meat to the pan to brown. Whhhhaaaaattt???? Crumbled sausage? Sausage that isn't in a log shape or drowning in soggy pepper juice? Pure genius!

It's been fast ride straight down the pork hill from that day. All the way to this easy, way-better-than-jarred tomato and sausage ragu.

Thai green curry noodle bowl

Thai green curry noodle bowl: lots of sweet, tangy Thai food flavor in a lightened noodle bowl for a quick, healthy weeknight dinner.

Yo, peeps: I'm back.

Sorry for being relatively incommunicado over the busy holiday season. It was extra extra busy for The Ninj because ... brace yourselves ... we moved. Again. To yet another state.

(I know, right?)

After bidding farewell to Kentucky, we are now happily ensconced on Maryland's Eastern Shore. (Job 1: I'm personally judging the crab cakes and shrimp salad sandwiches at every local establishment I can find. I mean, how else will I be able to identify The Best?!)

If you've read any of my previous adventures-in-moving posts, you know there's a lot of stress involved. And living in a house that looks like it's built out of moving boxes. And trips to the dump-I-mean-recycling-center. And inability to locate food photography props.

Luckily for you, that box was recently unearthed, which allowed me to photograph and now share this amazing Thai green curry noodle bowl with you.

Trust me, you are going to want to make this for a weeknight dinner ASAP.

Butternut mac and cheese

Butternut mac and cheese is a hearty, meatless dish that even the pickiest eater will love; so good, they'll never suspect it's healthy!

This recipe originally appeared in 2013 on the Kitchen Apparel blog, as part of a blog swap. Since that blog is no longer active, Sandra, its owner, graciously gave permission for me to repost it here at Yankee Kitchen Ninja. We'll miss Sandra's gorgeous photography and healthy recipes but wish her much luck and success in her new endeavors.

As part of the blog swap, given that we planned it for October, we considered making something with pumpkin. Then, as now, we realized that we were already completely sick of pumpkin (and assumed you probably were, too) so instead opened our topic up to all fall squash.

And, out of “all fall squash”, we both ended up making a pasta dish using butternut squash.

But come on, who can blame us? It's the squash that, with a little butter and maple syrup, can nearly taste like candy.

(Not quite like candy, I realize. But more like candy than, say, a paper bag though, right? Bear with me, I tend to be dramatic when it comes to trying to get you to make a recipe I like.)

Sandra's recipe (which I'm happy will live on as part of Yankee Kitchen Ninja!) was a gorgeous, delicious pasta with butternut squash, broccoli and cranberry beans. I urge you to try it. But I also urge you to try this butternut mac and cheese recipe -- it's freakin' awesome, and only partly due to the fact that Mr. Ninj actually ate it.

Little back story: Mr. Ninj is not a fan of vegetables and claims that it's not often the taste but the texture that turns him off (he is genuinely afraid of asparagus in any form). It's sort of like having a 3-year-old picky eater, to which I'm sure many of you can relate. So when he saw the roasted butternut squash sitting on the kitchen counter as I pulled this dish together, he freaked. I assured him that, because it was being incorporated into the cheesy sauce, he'd never even know it was there.

I was lying, of course -- but, holy smokes, it turned out to be true!

Mediterranean pasta with no cook olive sauce

Mediterranean pasta with no-cook olive sauce: an easy weeknight meal featuring key ingredients from the Mediterranean diet to support health and longevity.

You've probably heard about the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet (namely living longer -- yay for living longer!) -- the diet that's rich in good-for-you foods like whole grains, seeds, legumes, veggies, fish, olives and olive oil. Couldn't we all use more of these healthy ingredients in our diets? You betcha. So, just for you, I've created a pasta dish, featuring California Black Ripe Olives, that pays homage to the healthy Mediterranean diet.

I have never met anyone who doesn't love black olives. And, if you're like me, you almost always have a can of them on hand in the pantry, right? Which makes them totally handy for creating quick, weeknight meals. Plus, black olives contain a variety of vitamins and fiber -- and, of course, you can wear them on your fingers.

For all of these reasons (not the least of which is the finger-wearing, if we're being honest), California Black Ripe Olives were the perfect choice to star in my new Mediterranean pasta dish. I paired the olives in a no-cook sauce with tangy capers, lots of fresh herbs from my garden, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and some mashed anchovies (trust me -- they add an awesome yet subtle umami flavor that you will love!), then tossed them all with healthy whole-wheat pasta: it's an easy weeknight meal that's not only delicious, reminiscent of an olive tapenade, but also incorporates many key components of the Mediterranean diet.

Bagels and lox pasta salad

Turn your favorite breakfast into your new favorite dinner with this unique bagels and lox pasta salad.

I have this theory -- which I put into action every Friday night -- that you can turn almost anything into a pizza.

Whatever leftovers I have lurking around in the fridge at the end of the week generally get turned into pizza toppings for Friday Pizza Night. Totally true. Even things like my pan-roasted cauliflower pasta -- minus the pasta itself -- ended up on some pizza dough, topped with cheese. And it's (almost) always a success. Hence my theory.

Now, seeing as how I swear I eat pasta at least twice a week -- I know, at my age I do not need this kind of carbo-loading but I can't help it: I just love the stuff -- I'm working on a similar theory that
lots of your favorite flavor combinations can also be turned into pasta dishes.

And I'm proving my theory today with this bagels and lox salad.

Bagels and lox -- IN A PASTA SALAD. I know, right?!!! Double the carbs, double the fun.

I'm in love with this salad. We've eaten it too many times to count and I'm not tired of it yet -- and Mr. Ninj doesn't have a choice unless he wants to cook for himself. (Yeah, like that's going to happen.)

But seriously, this salad really has got it all going on: crunchy veggies, crunchy-chewy toasted bagel bites, salty smoked salmon and soft mozzarella, all in balsamic-and-onion dressing. Really, it's not so different from a summery panzanella salad ... but with some pasta.

Pasta salad nicoise

Pasta salad nicoise: a modern take on the classic composed salad, portable and perfect for hot summer nights and busy weeknight meals.

Even though National Salad Month is behind us, I just can't stop eating salads!

I blame the hot weather we've been having. Jeez louise, it feels more like August than June out there on most days. Which doesn't really inspire me to fire up the oven.

Not to mention that salads are a such a fast way to pull together a healthy and easy weeknight dinner, especially when you add some healthy protein like the tuna in this pasta salad nicoise, a riff on the classic composed salad.

Are you a fan of salad nicoise? When I was a kid, every once in a while my mom would make a large, composed salad nicoise -- I loved how incredibly fancy it seemed, with all the ingredients in individual groupings instead of tossed together, which was my only notion of "salad" at the time.

But even now, as then, I'm not a composed salad kind of gal, so I've tossed my salad nicoise all together to let the flavors really mingle in the lemony vinaigrette and added some pasta in place of the more traditional potato because ... well, because it's pasta and I love it heaps more than potatoes.

One of my favorite time-saving tricks is blanching or flash-cooking veggies for pasta by adding them into the pasta pot for the last few moments of cook time. This works especially well for recipes that call for frozen veg like peas or edamame. Here, you can keep dinner prep moving quickly by adding the green beans to the pasta water and then draining and rinsing the pasta and the beans simultaneously.

Huzzah for shortcuts!

Healthy one pot Asian pasta

Get a complete, good-for-you dinner on the table in 10 minutes with this one pot Asian pasta. Weeknight dinnertime just got easier -- and healthier!

Have you tried my one pot tomato basil pasta? Somehow I bet you have, as it's the most popular recipe on this site. Seriously popular: 126,000-people's-eyeballs-looking-at-it popular. (Squeeeeeeee!)

That means I don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that you love you some quick-and-easy weeknight meals. With pasta.

Well, guess what? ME, TOO!

Which is why I've come up with another one-pot pasta for you. As with the one pot tomato basil pasta, it's ridiculously easy and comes together in one pot in 10 minutes. Yes! Ten minutes to dinner, plus leftovers for lunch.

And this one pot Asian pasta is healthy, too, loaded with good-for-you veg like peppers, carrots, mushrooms and bok choy. Plus, the pasta is whole wheat (feel free to opt for a gluten-free pasta if that's your jam). With or without chicken, it's a healthy, complete dinner that I know your entire family will love.

And it's ready in 10 freakin' minutes, people!!

No lie. If you haven't yet tried one of these one-pot wonder pastas, you're going to go cray cray over this. You simply throw all the ingredients into one large pot, bring it to a boil, stir like a maniac and then -- WHAM! -- dinner is complete.

What could be easier?

Lightened Ukrainian mac and cheese

Ukrainian mac and cheese: a rich and cheesy comfort food pasta dish -- with bacon! -- that's lightened, guilt-free and easy enough for a busy weeknight. 

I'm not even going to get into, yet again, how much of a pasta addict I am. But I'm starting to wonder if I'm actually more of a comfort food addict -- and most of my favorite comfort foods are pasta dishes?

Either way, I've got an amazing double whammy for you today. Ukrainian mac and cheese, which is comfort food pasta that I'm completely cray cray about right now.

And there's bacon in it.

Yep, the food world may be scoffing at bacon, calling it "so over", but, for the true bacon fan, BACON WILL NEVER BE OVER. (Can I get an amen or a hellz yeah?!)

But never fear: This Ukranian mac and cheese is also a lightened recipe, so you don't have to feel guilty about digging into all the rich, cheesey goodness.

And speaking of cheesiness, the only cheese in this mac and cheese is cottage cheese, giving it less of an ooey-gooey cheesiness and more of a rich and creamy cheesiness.

Why Ukrainian? Well, the recipe I adapted it from calls for lokshyna, which are Ukrainian egg noodles. Given that I have no bloody idea where I'd find something like that, I simply used whole-wheat egg noodles but kept the Ukrainian nomenclature as a nod to its origins.

Booyah: We're getting all international over here, aren't we?

Carrot and turkey pasta

Enjoy this easy, healthy pasta recipe that features lots of good-for-you carrots, lean ground turkey and dried plums. 

I'm pretty psyched about this carrot and turkey pasta, peeps. Read that sentence again and you'll know why. Carrots. As the main ingredient in a pasta dish.

And -- wait for it -- it doesn't suck.

So much so that it got two thumbs up from Mr. Ninj, and regular readers know that's like having your picky three-year-old eater declare that she is a devoted fan of lentils salads.

Now that you're already reeling from the fact that a carrot-based pasta is awesome, let me turn it up to eleven: There are also prunes in this pasta dish.

Whoops, sorry, I meant dried plums. Apparently prunes got a bad rep as prunes and have now been reinvented as dried plums. The plum formerly known as a prune.

Whatevs. I still love prunes. I mean dried plums.

And I've got 'em in this pasta, adding a little touch of natural sweetness.

Pan-roasted cauliflower pasta

A better way to eat cauliflower: healthy and easy pan-roasted cauliflower pasta with spicy sausage, arugula and olives.

I think I may have mentioned a few hundred times that I'm a pasta addict. In fact, I always say that if you really wanted to punish me, you wouldn't have to send me to prison -- just make me give up carbs.

Yet I don't do your standard American spaghetti and meatballs. I like my pasta to be interesting. Like when it includes healthy, yummy ingredients like butternut squash, pumpkin, olives, beets, broccoli and even sardines.

And sometimes bacon. (Who am I kidding? Often bacon.)

No bacon in this cauliflower pasta but there is spicy Italian sausage, another one of my pasta add-in faves. The spiciness pairs really well with the pan-roasted flavor of the cauliflower and the peppery arugula.

Yep, you pan-roast the cauliflower in this stove-top meal. It comes out tender with just the right amount of cruciferous crunchiness left. And who couldn't benefit from a better way to eat lots of cauliflower than drowning it in cheese sauce or picking it off a crudite platter, am I right?

Light broccoli slaw pasta salad

Light broccoli slaw pasta salad: Two of everyone's favorite summer sides and pot-luck staples combined into one healthy meatless meal salad.

Spring is in the air, peeps: We've finally had some warmer weather, the flowering trees are tinged with green buds and I'm preparing to plant my garden. Squeeeeee!

I cannot wait for fresh summer veggies. As much as I love cold-weather squash and root vegetables, I'm once again really ready for some leafy greens, crunchy brassicas and sun-ripened tomatoes.

Booyah.

To get you psyched for the bountiful days that are coming (complete with all those gorgeous CSA veggies for which I happily supply you with delicious, good-for-you recipes), I made this lightened broccoli slaw pasta salad.

Yes, slaw and pasta salad in one. This dish combines two of everyone's favorite summer sides and pot-luck staples -- broccoli slaw and pasta salad -- into one lightened, meatless meal salad.

Light mac and cheese with greens: gluten-free or not

Enjoy this lightened yet rich and creamy mac and cheese, loaded with good-for-you collard greens, two ways: gluten-free or not.

Eating lighter and adding veggies to your diet doesn't have to mean giving up the foods you love. Case in point: mac and cheese.

Regular readers know I'm pretty much addicted to pasta. Even though I know the carb-loading is doing nothing for my waistline, I'm powerless against the pull of cheesy, filling comfort food (seriously: I may need a support group). To make my addiction slightly less bad for me, I've been embracing healthier styles of pasta, like whole wheat pasta and brown rice pastas.

The good thing about brown rice pasta is that it's also gluten-free, which I know is an important recipe element to many of you. So, whenever I can, I like to share recipes that can be made gluten-free if needed but don't exclude those who don't eat gluten-free.

You've got a love a pasta recipe where everybody wins. So you're definitely going to love this win-win lightened mac and cheese with collard greens.

Collard greens, I hate to say, are terribly misunderstood. If you're one of those people who has only ever tried them braised (I think praising them for their "liquor" is rubbish), with the life cooked out of them so that they're a nasty, sickly green color, I won't blame you if you say you hate them. I hate them cooked that way, too.

But you've got to give them another try. Hey, I used to claim to hate pork chops, too, because the only way I ever ate them was the way my mother cooked them: dried out to the point of being inedible unless immersed in a side of applesauce because 1970s cooks worried that pinkish, juicy pork would give us worms ... or worse.

Turkey cordon bleu pasta

Use your holiday leftovers in this recipe for deconstructed turkey (or chicken) cordon bleu pasta: quick and easy to make, lighter than you'd think.

As I promised last week, I'm continuing my Thanksgiving leftovers posts this week, despite the fact that Thanksgiving hasn't even arrived yet, because I love using up the leftovers almost as much as preparing the holiday feast. So much so that a reader suggested I make two turkeys this year.

An excellent suggestion!

Since there are only so many turkey sandwiches that you can eat before you get sick of the stuff, I like to change it up with different kinds of dishes, such as last week's turkey, apple and fennel bread salad (I'm still eating it regularly, people -- it's that good). Another great one? Today's turkey cordon bleu pasta.

Yes, pasta! You know, because nearly all my favorite comfort foods are pasta, I swear.

Now, this is not quite the same as the chicken cordon bleu you might be envisioning -- there's no pounding, no stuffing, no breading, no layering and nothing at all French-ish (even though traditional Chicken Cordon Bleu, I'm told, is all-American and has nothing to do with France or the similarly named culinary institute -- go figure). So it's more of a deconstructed chicken cordon bleu. But with turkey. And pasta.

Healthy butternut and sausage chili mac

A healthy new twist on the classic chili mac dinner with butternut squash, sausage and kale, served Cincinnati-chili-style over pasta.

Now that we've put the pumpkinpalooza frenzy behind us for another year, it's time to talk about other delicious fall flavors. Like butternut squash. Fortunately for Mr. Ninj and the rest of you that have "texture issues" with squash (insert eye roll here), butternut squash pairs extraordinarily well with sausage.

And bacon. But that's a whole different post. Today we're focusing on butternut with sausage.

I'm calling this dish "chili mac" because it's a bit hard to classify: too hearty to be simply pasta with sauce yet not saucy enough to be chili. I'm also describing it as "Cincinnati chili style", so I hope you're familiar with Cincinnati's slightly offbeat way of eating chili served over spaghetti.

What I can tell you without any waffling is that this chili mac is pure fall awesomeness, thanks in large part to the sweet, seasonal butternut squash, which, in my opinion, is so much better than its cousin the pumpkin. Such a shame that the pumpkin gets the lion's share of the love and props. I bet a butternut-spice latte would be just as awesome. (Note to self: Next year, create a butternut-spice latte.)

I have seriously fallen in love with this chili mac -- I can't stop making it and, when I do, I can't stop eating it. Have you ever made a dish that gets you really excited for leftovers the next day? This is one of those dishes.

Pumpkin Gorgonzola pasta

Enjoy all the best flavors of fall in this hearty but lightened pasta, with a rich and creamy pumpkin gorgonzola cheese sauce.

Now that it's October, I give all of us official permission to start talking about pumpkin recipes.

Granted, I'm probably the only food blogger on the planet that hasn't been posting pumpkin recipes since Labor Day, but I'm loyal to produce seasonality.

I don't mean to malign the poor pumpkin; I love it, I really do. Well, except for pumpkin pie -- but that's just because I'm a pie crust hater. And pumpkin spice freakin' lattes -- but that's just because they are all over the place like a really bad rash. How about a butternut latte, Starbucks? Or a kale-scented candle, Yankee Candle people? I'd buy either one of those in a heartbeat.

Anyhoo, we're talking pumpkin. More specifically, we're talking pumpkin pasta. Even more specifically, pumpkin pasta with a rich, creamy Gorgonzola cheese sauce.

Awwwwwwwww yeah.

This pasta recipe is an oldie-but-a-goodie around Casa de Ninj. It's a Cooking Light recipe that I have been making for 10 years.

(ERMERGAHD, 10 years!)

It's a recipe I like to make not only because it is aw-aw-awesome but also because it reminds me of how far I have come since I really started cooking. Which, frankly, wasn't until about 2000, when I got married -- and realized that if I didn't step up and do the cooking, we'd be eating non-stop takeout Chinese from the Busy Bee, which was Mr. Ninj's favorite (in fact, he just refers to all Chinese restaurants now as "The Busy Bee").

Peruvian pasta bolognese

Spicy Peruvian-style pasta bolognese is hearty, cool-weather comfort food with a garlicky ginger kick.

I was asked in an interview recently what my favorite comfort foods are. Hmmm, let's see: well, there's pasta, pasta and ... oh wait, yes ... more pasta.

(I can't help it. I'm Italian. On both sides of my family.)

And I'm talking real pasta. Even though I'm a largely healthy (or healthier) food blogger, don't get me started on the "veggie pasta" spiralizer craze. Long strands of zucchini are no more pasta than slabs of fried eggplant are bacon. Sorry, I'm just not buyin' it.

But I do realize that regular pasta-based carbo-loading isn't the best if you're not a long-distance runner; therefore, I've been experimenting lately with healthier pasta varieties, such as whole wheat or quinoa pastas.  I have to because I don't think there's any way that I could ever voluntarily limit my pasta intake. 

Sometimes, however, a recipe is so good that it simply requires old-fashioned semolina pasta and nothing else. This Peruvian bolognese is one such recipe.

The recipe is based on a Peruvian dish called tallarin saltado, a noodle stir-fry made with beef or chicken, onions, a few tomatoes, ginger and other spices. This version takes the same flavors but melds them into a spicy bolognese-style sauce using pork sausage ... with no stir-frying required.

One-pot tomato basil pasta

Solve the weeknight dinner dilemma with one-pot tomato basil pasta -- a super-fast, healthy meal that can be made in only 10 minutes.

So, you know by now that my goal is to help you to cut the crap from your diet by showing you how to make easy, delicious, healthy meals and snacks at home. I don't need to beat a dead horse.

(OMG, where the hell does that awful expression come from? I don't even want to google it to find out.)

So, instead of horse beating, I'll just tell you about this one-pot tomato basil pasta recipe.

Yep, you read that correctly: one pot. Because I go completely cray cray over “one-pot” recipes that actually require you to cook the pasta separately. That's two pots, people; I may not love math but I can count to freakin' TWO. Therefore, I swear to you this recipe only involves one pot. Do you own a big pot? Good. Got a stove and 15 minutes? Excellent. That's pretty much all you need to get a wholesome, real-food dinner on the table tonight.

Baked ziti with tomatoes, broccoli and olives

Cheesy baked ziti, loaded with good-for-you veggies -- roasted tomatoes, tender-crisp broccoli and tangy green olives -- makes a hearty meatless meal!

I love pasta way too much.

If you've browsed my recipe index at all, you'll understand. Not that loving pasta is bad, but all those carbs aren't the best for my quickly-approaching-middle-age waistline.

I've been experimenting quite a bit with lower-carb, gluten-free pastas made from things like brown rice and quinoa, and I really do like them. In certain dishes. Like my beet pesto and greens pasta.

But there are some hearty pasta dishes for which I have to stick to the real McCoy.

This baked ziti, loaded with good-for-you veggies (and no meat!), is one such dish. While it's familiar name is "baked ziti", I actually recommend rigatoni for this dish.  Rigatoni is larger than ziti, which means a larger tube opening to hold the thick veggie sauce -- to which I'm afraid a more delicate brown rice pasta just wouldn't be able to stand up. Additionally, I think the thicker rigatoni lends a heartier element to the whole dish.

And speaking of that hearty veggie sauce...

Beet pesto and greens pasta

Easy roasted beet pesto, used as a sauce for gluten-free pasta and tossed with peppery beet greens: a gorgeous, healthy dinner that's simple and quick!

There is no more wonderful vegetable than a beet. There: I've said it. I've gone on record:

Beets rule.

Why, you may ask, do I make such a statement? ERMERGAHD, LOOK AT THAT COLOR! What other natural food has that kind of color -- and tastes good? (And yes, I know there are other colors of beets, but we're talking your average, fuchsia, beet-colored beet today, OK?)

However, that stunning color comes with a price: it stains. It stains EVERYTHING. This is an excellent property if you are, say, a Pilgrim who wants to dye your drab flaxen frock a gorgeous hot pink color (well, then I guess you wouldn't really be a very good Pilgrim now, would you?). It's not such a great property if you are simply trying to make dinner without ending up looking like a serial killer.

I know my love of beets is true love because I keep ... (wait for it) ... dedicated beet gloves in my kitchen.

(True story: Mr. Ninj was rummaging in the cabinet under the kitchen sink for a pair of rubber gloves to use in the garage and I shrieked, "Not those! Those are my BEET GLOVES!" Yes, I'm a complete dork.)