Have you checked out Kitchen PLAY? If not, you need to.

Every month, they do a “Progressive Party” with bloggers where each one is challenged to create a course based on a certain ingredient. Most months, they assign different courses (amuse, salad, dessert, etc), and for the month of July, the courses focus on easy summertime cooking.

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I’ve been following the Progressive Parties for months now, so when Casey emailed me asking if I’d like to be a July blogger, I said yes before even finding out what the ingredient was!

Thankfully, the secret ingredient was Dreamfields Pasta. To be honest, I’d never tried Dreamfields Pasta before this challenge, but Nick and I love pasta and eat it all the time at home, so I knew it would be fun to cook with and create a recipe around. Dreamfields pasta has 5g of fiber and only 5g of digestible carbs per serving, which makes it a great choice compared to other pastas.

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For this specific progressive party, we were given the challenge to create a pasta dish that is quick and easy and has 5 ingredients or less.

With summer speeding by already (seriously – how is it already July 11th?), I’m all about quick + easy dishes. Our days are filled with work, puppy play and gardening, and that doesn’t always leave me much time at night to cook dinner if we want to eat at a reasonable time.

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I always have pasta in the pantry for this very reason. It cooks super fast, is incredibly versatile, and is great for making a fast entrée or side dish.

Right now, Nick and I are really enjoying southwestern flavors: roasted cumin, smoky ancho chilis, bright cilantro. And with the summer corn coming in at farmer’s markets (and soon to our own backyard), I knew I wanted a side dish that mixed some of my favorite summer produce together.

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If you’re looking for a quick side dish for your own dinner or something easy to take along to a picnic, this will come together in 15 minutes, easy.

Charred Corn and Jalapeno Pasta Salad with Cilantro Oil

Makes: 8 servings

Ingredients:

  • 1 box Dreamfields Pasta Rotini
  • Kernels from 3 ears of fresh corn
  • 1 jalapeno, seeds removed and pepper diced
  • ½ cup fresh cilantro, minced
  • 1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp olive oil, divided
  • 1 Tbsp +1.5 tsp salt, divided
  • ½ tsp pepper

Directions:

  1. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 Tbsp salt to the water and pasta, stirring occasionally. Let the pasta cook 8-10 minutes or until al dente. Drain and rinse.
  2. While pasta is cooking, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add diced jalapenos and let them cook 3-4 minutes until softened.
  3. Toss the corn kernels into the pan with the peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until the corn starts to brown.
  4. In separate bowl, stir the minced cilantro into the 1/3 cup olive oil and let this sit until ready to serve.
  5. Once the corn and jalapenos are cooked, toss the pasta, corn and peppers, and cilantro oil together in a large bowl.
  6. Stir in 1.5 tsp salt and the ½ tsp pepper.
  7. Serve warm, cool, or room temperature.

This post was sponsored by Kitchen PLAY and Dreamfields Pasta – Make sure to check out the other bloggers’ quick and easy pasta dishes!

 

Each month Kitchen Play also features a contest to involve as many additional bloggers as possible. Visit the Contest page at Kitchen PLAY for more details on how you could win $100 for trying this recipe and posting about it.

31 comments

  1. Pingback: Kitchen Play » Blog Archive » Charred Corn and Jalapeno Pasta Salad with Cilantro Oil

  2. Love the southwestern flavors going here, especially the cilantro. I’m thinking a squeeze of lime would be a welcome touch. Nice job!

  3. booooook marked! Love the looks of this and Josh is all for anything that involves corn and jalapenos! You make so many rocking dishes Brandi!

  4. Oh yum… this just sounds soooo summery! I love it. Great job!

  5. What a beautiful pasta salad!

  6. Something about charred corn is so amazing. I like how you used it in this pasta!

  7. I have yet to try Dreamfields too. I love pasta salad, especially in the summer! I would gobble this right up!

  8. That corn sounds like such a great pasta addition!

  9. sounds delicious!! love how simple this is, too :)

  10. This looks amazing. I love the idea of cilantro oil!

  11. This sounds absolutely delicious- I love southwestern flavors and putting them with the convenience of pasta is perfect for a summer dish!

  12. Such a simple but flavorful recipe! I’m a huge fan or pasta as well. Looks great girl! Fun challenge :)

  13. 5 ingredients or less sounds like a big challenge but your recipe looks absolutely awesome!

    I have to agree with you on how quickly the summer is just whizzing by! I can’t believe it’s only two weeks until my birthday – I swear I just had my last one and was living with a roommate in Lakeland! I feel like I just woke up one day in my Orlando apt, no lie. LIFE, SLOW DOWN!

  14. what a great flavour combo :) looks fab my dear!

  15. Love the flavors – this looks delicious!

  16. Brandi, this is the perfect summer dish! If our grill was a little more accessible, I’d be on this so fast. I’m bookmarking the recipe for when I go to my parents’ house upstate!

    • I actually charred the corn + jalapenos in a skillet on the stove top! Easy – just let them cook in some olive oil until they’re starting to brown. So good!

  17. I love Dreamfield’s pasta – it doesn’t make my blood sugar jump like regular pasta and its really tasty!

    But you had me at jalapenos!

  18. This is a lovely pasta salad. Looks so light and healthy too

  19. Dreamfields is good stuff. As a diabetic, I don’t eat pasta often, but if I do, it’s Dreamfields. Great recipe!

  20. This sounds like so much fun! And this pasta…you had me at cilantro oil. I’d be dousing everything I eat in that!

  21. wow, this looks amazing! pasta salad is one of my favorite summer side dishes, + i’m always looking for new ways to serve it up. i’m thinking of throwing in a few extra ingredients – perhaps some fresh diced tomatoes, lime, + cotija cheese, to name a couple. thanks for the inspiration!

  22. update! i made this yesterday with a bunch of additional ingredients + a few changes. it’ll be on my blog later this week. thanks for the great idea!

  23. MAN, we freakin’ loved this pasta salad. Thanks so much for the recipe! I even did a quick post about it for Kitchen Play. (I took my photo in a bowl with polka dots, like you did, as a sort of homage. But I don’t think it’s a very effective homage, since I have to point it out.)

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