Lisa Gets Leaner | Spoonie Food - Pasta Houmous Salad

Pasta salad! It's glorious in taste, texture and easy to prepare. A few months ago I read a post on BuzzFeed about different ways of eating houmous (this one!), and learnt about the magic of replacing tomato sauce in pasta dishes with houmous. It. Is. Fabulous. I much prefer it cold than hot, so lo and behold, pasta and houmous salad!

Ingredients as pictured:
(sorry about the mash-up of measurements, convenience called)

100g cooked wholewheat fusilli pasta: 145 kcal

Half a pot of Co-operative Caramelised Onion Houmous: 230 kcal

30g Co-op Sweet and Crunchy Salad: 7 kcal

1 cup raw mushrooms: 15 kcal

1½ medium tomatoes: 22 kcal

10g spinach: 3 kcal

=423 kcal

Instructions (again, if needed?!)

• Cook a load of wholewheat pasta so you have plenty for times of hunger in the near future
• Weigh the salad and spinach
• Chop tomatoes
• Chop mushrooms and measure out one cup
• Put the salad, spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms into a bowl (might need a big'un)
• Plop the houmous in the bowl
• Drain the cooked pasta and rinse with cold water
• Measure out 100g of pasta and add to the bowl
• Mixy mixy!
• Nom.

This dish is super tasty. The caramelised onion houmous is the most flavoursome of the range available in my town and also the lowest in calories! It acts as a salad dressing and protein source in one, now THAT'S a superfood! I use wholewheat pasta is higher in fibre which is good for digestion and whatnot, and the ME food guide I have says brown carbs are da bomb. Co-operative's Sweet and Crunchy salad is made up of carrot, red cabbage and iceberg lettuce which provides a lovely crunch. I love a good crunch. Of course you can switch it up any which way you want. In my opinion sweetcorn makes everything better, and replacing the tomatoes with beetroot is just gorgeous. Try it with every flavour houmous you can, mix up the vegetables, squirt some sriracha on it! You can do whatever you like! It's such a versatile idea to play with. Even my omnivore friend was surprised how tasty this was :)

Hope you enjoy it if you make it!

Happy nomming!