Japanese pasta salad with roasted kabocha
This exceptionally tasty pasta salad is like the creamy classic but with a Japanese twist! It combines a creamy miso dressing with seaweed, black sesame, kale, corn and my fave squash.
Servings 6
Ingredients
roasted kabocha squash (about 3 cups)
- 1 x 2 lb kabocha squash, cut into cubes
- 2 tablespoon avocado oil (or other high-heat vegetable oil)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ tsp ground pepper
pasta salad
- 3 C dried orecchiette pasta
- 2 ½ to 3 C stemmed and finely chopped lacinato kale (about 1 small bunch)
- 1 C fresh or frozen corn kernels
- 1 C finely chopped red onion
- ¼ C finely chopped cilantro
- 1 x 5g pkg seaweed snacks, cut into strips
- 2 tablespoon black sesame seeds
creamy miso dressing (makes about ⅔ cup)
- ½ C vegan mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoon mellow white miso
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 garlic clove
- ½ teaspoon chili flakes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Add cubes of kabocha squash to a large baking sheet. Add avocado oil, garlic powder, sea salt and ground pepper and toss with your hands to coat well. Spread out in an even layer and bake for 30 minutes, flipping half way through the bake time.
- Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook paste to al dente. Just before draining add kale and corn to the water, stir to submerge, then drain together. Do not rinse. Let cool until room temperature before assembling the pasta salad.
- To make the dressing combine the mayonnaise, miso, water, lime juice, garlic and chili flakes in a blender until smooth or combine all the ingredients together in a bowl and ensure to finely mince the garlic to incorporate.
- Once pasta and roasted kabocha squash is cooled toss together with red onion, cilantro, seaweed, black sesame seeds and all the dressing. Serve immediately. You can also toss everything together and refrigerate for a few hours before serving. I like letting the pasta salad sit out to take the chill off from the fridge before eating.
