You can’t have a perfect summer evening get together without pasta salad on the table, in my opinion. This is my go-to dish when attending any potluck for a few reasons–the first being that it’s literally impossible to f*ck up and takes about 15 minutes to prepare. It’s also easy to fix ahead of time if you’re short on time, super clean (if you use my favorite gluten free brown rice spirals), and insanely delicious (I even found myself eating it straight out of the tupperware hours after dinner was over the first time I made it).

I love getting all the ingredients I can from the local farmer’s market or Veggie Bin if you’re located in downtown Charleston. The fresher your ingredients, the better your pasta salad (or any dish for that matter) will be. I feel like making the shift to be more mindful about where I buy my produce has been a game changer for the way my body looks and feels.

Ingredients:

• Gluten Free Brown Rice Pasta Spirals (these are my favorite).
• 1 cucumber, sliced into halves
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• Lemon juice from 1/2 lemon (can always add more to desired taste)
• 1/4 cup quartered artichoke hearts
• Fresh basil (I usually just pull apart a few leaves by hand)
• 3 tbs Primal Kitchen oil + vinegar dressing
• Optional: 1 can cooked chickpeas for added protein

Hope you guys enjoy and definitely let me know if you end up giving this recipe a try!