An easy to make pasta salad that contains dried dill, pickle juice, & cubed sharp cheddar cheese.
We Need More Pasta Salad
When it comes to pasta salad, I haven’t shared much on the blog — yet. But my wife loves pasta salad, and I know a lot of others do too. So I figured it was time to start adding some fun, flavorful pasta salad recipes to the mix.
But not just your average pasta salad. We’re going for themed pasta salads here. And today’s recipe? It’s all about the pickle. We’re using dill, pickle juice, and of course, we had to include one of our essentials: cubed cheese.
So here it is — our first themed pasta salad recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Ingredients
Here is the ingredients you need to make this pasta salad.
- Pasta - For this recipe the recommend pasta is penne. When I made this pasta I used a Red Lentil pasta. This is great because the pasta contains protein that you don't find in regular wheat pasta. The Explore Cusine that I had said on the box "contains 22g of protein per 3.5 oz serving". If you need a gluten free option it works for that as well.
- Cucumber - I used 1 large cucumber. You could use a English cucumber or two of those mini cucumber. I peeled the cucumber in this case but if you use a mini cucumber, you probably don't need to.
- Mayonnaise - Always use real mayonnaise. We typically don't buy the store brand for this and go with Duke's.
- Sour Cream - Try to find sour cream that contains just cultured cream. Daisy is the easiest to find brand. Often store brands contain other added ingredients to try and produce sour cream with the flavor and texture, but you really want just the cream, none of that other stuff.
- Pickle Juice - Quality matters here. You want the juice from a jar of pickles that had a lot of flavor. The cheapest stuff won't add much more than just adding vinegar would. What I like to use is juice from one of the many refrigerated pickle brands. Those usually have seasonings floating around.
- Dill Weed - Dill weed is the dried leaves of the dill plant. You could use fresh dill as well if you have it. I think it has better flavor and it's what I use when I have fresh dill in season from my graden.
- Garlic powder - Don't use garlic salt.
- Salt & pepper - Season to taste with salt and pepper. For a pasta salad I add it in the end and see how it tastes. The salt content of the pickle juice you use can vary, which is another season you need to just taste it first and then salt to your liking.
Please Note
Above you will see a box of the pasta that I use for this salad. The downside with it is that the pasta didn't hold up very well in the fridge. By the next day it was pretty soft. So I think it makes a great option if you are going to get it right away, but if you need it for the next day, you are better off with a regular Penne pasta.
One thing you could try and I haven't yet, is see what happens if you undercook the pasta some. If it's more firm to begin with that may help. The bottom line is this pasta is different, so plan accordingly so you aren't disappointed.
Red Lentil Pasta with Cheddar & Dill
Ingredients
- 8 oz red lentil pasta or any other pasta of your choice
- 1 large cucumber peeled and diced
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 2 tbsp pickle juice
- ½ tsp dried dill weed
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
- Add in the pasta and cook according to the instructions on the box. You want the pasta to be al dente. Drain it from the pot
- When the pasta is done, immediately plunge it into an ice bath to stop the cooking, or rinse it under cold water.
- In a bowl, combine the mayo, sour cream, dill, pickle juice, salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste."
- Then, stir in the cheese and cucumber.
- Finally, add in the pasta. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
- Refrigerate for a couple of hours for best results
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