Now that the hot weather has finally arrived, we are starting to have a lot more cold dishes in our house. Plates that are easy to whack together using left overs in the fridge, and are reasonably healthy of course.

This is a brilliant dish for making a quick lunch, whilst having to get the kids food sorted. And the beauty of it is that it is already cold, so it doesn’t matter if it takes you ages to eat it! Cos as all us parents know, how often does our food go cold while we are trying to feed our little ones?

It is also great to make for your lunch to take to work. Just make it the night before and put it in a sealed container or tupperware ready to take to work in the morning.

We use store bought ingredients, so all you have to do is open the packets, put them in a bowl and then toss them all together with some pesto and a drizzle of lemon juice (if you don’t have it in the house you can do without). It is super tasty, fresh and can be made for your lunch the night before, when the kids are asleep.

The beauty of this dish, is that you can add as little or as much of the ingredients as you like. So, we’ve given you how we like it as a guideline and then it’s up to you how much of the ingredients to use. Do you love prawns? Heck, add the whole pack if you like! Not too keen on spinach? Take it out of the dish! The choice is yours.

Have fun with it and make it your own. We just hope we can inspire you to make something tasty, quick and healthy.

The recipe is for 1 adult. So just double or triple the measurements as needed.

Ingredients – Serves 1 Adult

Prep time: 10-15 minutes

• 50 gr left over cold pasta. Short pasta shapes work best (i.e. Penne or Fusilli)
• 2 handfuls of washed spinach leaves
• 6-7 cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 mozzarella
• 2 tsps Green Pesto
• Approx. 75 gr of Cooked and Peeled King Prawns
• Black pepper (to taste)
• A drizzle of Lemon Juice (optional)

Method

This dish is so easy, there will barely be any steps to it!

1. Gather all your ingredients from the fridge. Note: I make extra pasta for dinner and use any left over for lunch the next day. But you can make the pasta on the day. Just make sure if has cooled down before you add the ingredients.

2. Roughly chop the spinach, mozzarella and cherry tomatoes.

3. Add all the ingredients to a salad or large pasta bowl, except the pesto, black pepper and lemon juice for last.

4. Add the pesto, lemon juice and a good grinding of black pepper to taste. Then mix all together with a spoon.

5. Presto pronto, it’s as easy as that! A tasty, quick and healthy dish to have for your lunch.

This can also be given to your kids if they like cold pasta salads. My kids are not so keen… So more for me I say!

We hope you enjoy this yummy summery dish. Please let us know your thoughts and any feedback you might have in our comment section.