Today I have another recipe from my mom’s Vintage 80th Birthday Party Luncheon.
In addition to the 3 different quiches that I served there was a selection of salads also.
I made the yummy corn and blueberry salad. Yes, I know it sounds like a weird combination but you just have to trust me on this one – it is wonderful!
I also had some of Pioneer Women’s Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Salad left over from our Fourth of July celebration.
We also had today’s recipe – Asian Spinach Salad and a Sweet & Sour Salad (that recipe coming later this week)
I love the combination of the pasta with the spinach. The dressing was delicious and the salad would be great with or without the chicken. I used chicken.
When I am putting on a party where I am doing all the food I try and prep as much as I can the day before. With this salad I cooked the pasta the night before and just kept it refrigerated until I put the salad together. Be sure and cook it al dente. You don’t want it over cooked.
I also precooked and shredded the chicken so it was quick and easy to put together before serving. The dressing is easily made several days before and just kept in the refrigerator. You want to wait until right before serving time to put the dressing on as spinach salads doesn’t hold up as long as lettuce ones do.
I have made this salad for dinner also and with the addition of chicken it makes a great main course. It is a perfect summer time meal. Next time I think I will add in a can of mandarin oranges too.
There are lots of great textures in the salad – the crunch of bean sprouts, water chestnuts and sunflower seeds!
I found the recipe over at This Week for Dinner
Asian Spinach Salad
Ingredients
- 1 small bag of spinach
- 8 oz. bowtie pasta cook, strain, cool
- 2-4 Tbsp. Sesame seeds
- 1/2 C. Sunflower seeds
- 1 can sliced water chestnuts
- 3 chicken breasts – season heavily with lemon pepper grill and cut into bite size pieces
- 1 C. bean sprouts
Dressing:
- 1/2 C. Canola oil
- 1/2 C. sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp Seasoned Rice vinegar unseasoned works too
- 1/2 tsp sesame SEED oil
- 1 tsp grated fresh garlic
Instructions
- Toss salad ingredients together: spinach, cooked bowtie pasta, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, water chestnuts, chicken breasts, and bean sprouts
Dressing:
- Combine Canola oil, sugar, salt, sesame oil, soy sauce, Seasoned Rice vinegar (unseasoned works too), sesame SEED oil, grated fresh garlic
- Store in refrigerator. Return to room temp before combined
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Leigh Ann and Jennifer, I think sesame seed oil and sesame oil must be the same product as I have only ever been able to find the latter. If you can get hold of it it’s definitely worth using it in the recipe- when I made the dressing without it the flavour was noticeably different. A great recipe though- thanks for posting!
I fed this to a Relief Society meeting last week and everyone loved it – thanks for the recipes, I also made the Pink Lemonade Cake but must have done something wrong, it was very firm, weighed a ton, maybe something with the cake flour?
This looks delicious, I think I will make it with the leftover Asian Chicken I have!
I made this last night and it was great! I only needed half of the dressing though. I will make it again.
Debbie, Glad you enjoyed it. Ii had a lot of dressing left over too but just used it on a salad the next couple of nights.
Jennifer,
I meant to change that in the recipe – I have no idea what sesame seed oil is and I couldn’t find it do I left it out. I should just delete it from the recipe!
I didn’t know that there was a sesame oil and a sesame seed oil….I wonder what the difference is? Would it effect the taste if you only used one or the other?
That salad looks great! Spinach and pasta is such a good combo.
Just wondering if this dressing might be somewhat similar to those Asian Salads where you use the package that comes with the ramen noodles? That stuff is a killer (though tastes great) with the second ingredient being MSG. I’m trying to find an alternative and wondered if this recipe might be close?
Cat, To be honest I have never eaten top ramen so I don’t know if they are similar or not? If you give it a try oet me know!
I think I will try a variation of this for a baby shower I am throwing this week- looks yummy….
p.s. This is my new favorite website!! I found you when I googled a copy-cat recipe for nordy bars and I have tried many of your recipes since then (and used a bunch of your party decoration ideas as inspiration for my daughter’s 1st birthday party) Thank you for your inspiration! I am telling all of my friends about you:)