Southwestern Pasta Salad

Southwestern Pasta Salad  (slightly adapted from AllRecipes, 8 servings, Total Time: 30 minutes)

Ingredients

·         1 (12 oz.) package rotini pasta

·         1/3 cup vegetable oil

·         ¼ cup fresh lime juice

·         2 Tbsp. chili powder, or to taste

·         2 tsp. ground cumin

·         ½ tsp. salt

·         2 cloves garlic, crushed

·         2 ears corn on the cob, cooked and kernels cut off cob

·         1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed

·         ½ cup diced green bell pepper

·         ½ cup diced red bell pepper

Directions

1.      Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

2.      In a large bowl combine oil, lime juice, chili powder, cumin, salt and garlic. Stir in pasta and set aside to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

3.      Stir in corn, beans, green pepper, and red pepper. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

I started out with ¾ of my package of rotini pasta, but after tossing everything, I found that I needed more pasta because the coating was much too thick.  I like the taste of this dish (it tastes like chili), but it does have a lot of carbs.  Good if you are carbo-loading, not so good if you’re looking for a lot of protein.  The pasta has a nice crunch to it, as do the bell peppers – that mixes nicely with the softer texture of the corn and black beans.  Overall, I like it; however, it leaves my teeth feeling coated, almost like I just drank a soda or something very sugary.  For this reason, I don’t think that I will make this dish again.