Great for Lunch
Today we had one of the best days, since spring began. The weather was in double digits for most of the day, I even opened windows and doors, it was so exciting. Later in the day we had rain, which I gladly welcomed because I had not been to the car wash for so long, and now the car looks squeaky clean on the outside but the inside? ..ditto.
In the last two weeks I have met some great people, on the WordPress platform. I shall be introducing them to you shortly, from Friday this week. Blogging is a venture that has no meaning unless you are interacting with people and exchanging ideas, and if you are a foodie like me, you also need to exchange recipes, from time to time.
Today I want to share with you a simple pasta salad recipe. Last week we had a lot of ham on sale at the local store and now I’m desperately looking for recipes with ham, so you will probably be seeing ham in almost everything I cook or bake. I was even contemplating baking a cake with ham and adding ham to cookies and cornflakes. Today morning I had muffins with ham. For lunch, I had the good old ham and cheese sandwich, toasted, and in the evening I had Pilau (Pilaf) with ham.
I hope you started your week well and I hope the rest of the week will meet your expectations. Have a ham-full week, is that right?
Pasta Salad with Beans and Ham
Preparation time: + cooling 40 minutes; Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 300g (10½oz) farfalle (bow-tie pasta)
- 400g (14oz) fresh yellow wax beans, trimmed and cut
- 3 sprigs thyme
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 250g (8½oz) chunk ham, cut into narrow strips
- 4 spring (green) onions, finely sliced
- 4 large (or eight small) radishes, cut into quarters or halves for small ones, for garnish
Sour Cream Salad Dressing with Paprika
- 200ml (¾ cup; 7fl. oz) sour cream
- 30ml (2 tablespoons) milk
- 15ml (1 tablespoon) extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 3 sprigs thyme, leaves removed and finely chopped
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Cook pasta in plenty of salted water as per package instructions until al dente. Drain under cold running water and leave to cool.
- Place the beans, 3 sprigs thyme and ½ teaspoon salt in a saucepan and add enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, cover and cook 10 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain. Briefly immerse the beans in iced water and drain again. Please do not overcook beans, they should have a nice crunch!
- Combine the pasta, beans, spring onions and ham in a large bowl and toss gently.
- Make the dressing: place the sour cream, milk, olive oil, vinegar, paprika and chopped thyme leaves in a bowl. Whisk thoroughly, until creamy. Season with salt and pepper.
- Stir dressing into salad. Serve on salad plates, and garnish with radishes.
Points to Note
- Variations for meat: you can use smoked chicken or turkey or a combination of spicy cooked chorizo, salami and ham, I leave it to your imagination and palate.
- Variations for beans: you can use green beans, purple wax beans or yardlong beans.
- Last Updated: June 14, 2019
myfavouritepastime.com
Step By Step Photos
Please, always remember to assemble all ingredients before you start.
Ingredients for dressing
To make the dressing combine the sour cream, milk, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, and chopped thyme in a bowl.
Then whisk thoroughly until creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Oops! I forgot to take a photo of the Pasta cooking, but anyway cook the pasta in salted water as per packet instructions until al dente. Drain. Rinse under cold running water and leave to cool.
Now make sure you have the ingredients for the salad ready: the nicely cut ham; cooked and cooled farfalle pasta; cooked, cooled and cut beans, and spring onions.
Combine the ham, pasta, beans and green onions in a large bowl and toss gently, until mixed.Stir in dressing into the salad .
Serve on plates and garnish with radishes.
We ate this salad for lunch, as a full meal.
myfavouritepastime.com Last Updated: June 14, 2019
My Favourite Pastime 
That looks yummy! Looking forward to your other ham recipes.
-Lauren
Thanks for stopping by too. you are welcome to visit at any time. Kind regards!
Beautiful pasta salad…and yes, perfect for lunch…love the dressing, YUM!
Hope you are enjoying your week Liz 🙂
Hi Juliana, thanks for stopping by. Yes i’m enjoying the week. Thanks for leaving me a note, I really appreciate!
Ohhh…I love pasta (who doesn’t!) … and I have a fondness for radishes too. So many people I know hate it…I say…MORE FOR ME! lol
I really like the way you always say to have all your ingredients ready nod nods.
Ha ha have you ever tried to cook without having all ingredients lined up? it’s crazy, I do it sometimes, and then I even stop and switch off the heat…so that’s why I say “always have…” coz I know the consequences! Thanks for stopping by, for leaving me a note! much appreciated!
I have cooked like that….so I am more like you and have all the ingredients out … though i do not always have them premeasured….
I love that I have found your blog by the way *smiles*
Thanks. Have a pleasant week. Ontario is having lots of rain and some areas are flooding.
Looks really good! I can never resist pasta.
Thanks I have been seeing lots of your posts, they are very interesting and creative. Thanks for stopping by!
This looks delish!
It was delish, I have just been to your blog and I was looking at the “Keep the Bunnies Away Cake”. Looks delicious. I will give it a try sometime!! Thanks for stopping by!
That looks like a real nice summertime barbeque type of salad I’ll have to try. Should be interesting if you indeed do cakes and cookies with ham…you could try curing/smoking the ham and giving it a “baconesque” type of flavor or style which would be a bit more manageable with cookies and such i.e. goes nicely with chocolate.
Ha ha, I might just try your suggestion of giving it a baconesque type of flavour, is that a real word? When I do try it I shall give you a shout. I have been following your cooking closely, you do make some wonderful dishes. Thanks for stopping by!
Delicious! May have to try that
It is a must try, thanks for stopping by and best wishes to the nappy wearing screamers!!!
Haha! Thank you!
Thanks for visiting too. It was a pleasure browsing your blog. Hope to see more of your posts!!!
This looks so yummy. Lovely presentation.
Thanks and thank you for stopping by. Thank you for following my blog, too.
Very nice! In fact, all of the photos on your front page are mouth watering.
Thank you very much for the compliment, for stopping by and for the follow. I shall visit your blog tomorrow to learn more about you. Kind regards!