Asian Pasta Salad
A refreshing pasta salad loaded with sweet mango and fresh avocado!
I recently had the amazing opportunity to attend the California Avocado ambassador trip in downtown Los Angeles where we stayed at the historic Millenium Biltmore. Because I couldn’t get out of work, I joined everyone a bit late and began my trip at the Industriel, a downtown Los Angeles restaurant offering farm fresh cuisine with a twist on the French Provencal tradition.
So at the Industriel, we began dinner with an incredible appetizer, a watercress salad with pine nuts, blueberries, California avocado, green beans, and a poached egg tossed in a green garlic vinaigrette. These people knew that I couldn’t resist anything that involved a poached egg. And avocado, of course.
Once we finished dinner, I had a great night’s sleep before waking up to the best room service involving corn flake crusted French toast. And yes, I am totally recreating this to share with you all!
After breakfast, we all reconvened at the lobby of the hotel to walk over to Border Grill, but before we left, I just had to snap a photo of this gorgeous floral arrangement. Don’t think that I didn’t want to steal this and use it as a centerpiece for my dining table.
Once we arrived at the restaurant, we were immediately served with huge glasses of sparkling white sangria. Oh and that black backdrop there? It’s actually the waiter’s apron. The poor guy held up this heavy tray for quite some time while we all snapped photos. Life of a food blogger, right?
After we fueled up on these sangrias, it was time for a pasta salad contest. We all formed groups to create the best, most innovative pasta salad with of course, California avocados. I teamed up with another fellow California Avocado ambassador, the oh-so-sweet Ali fromGimme Some Oven where we created Guac-Wok, an avocado pasta salad with an Asian twist.
Scrambling within a 15-minute time-frame and frantically looking for Sriracha, which was nowhere to be found, we barely managed to get everything on our plate. We didn’t win the contest but it was definitely a winning recipe in my book. I could make a meal out of this any day of the week!
After the judging process was over, it was time for lunch – prepared by Chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger – where I experienced the most epic ribs in the 25-years of my existence. These babies were glazed in cumin on a bed of heirloom beans and bacon salad, topped with California avocado pineapple salsa. And that pairing of grilled street corn? Yeah, this was epic. I’ll have to do my best to get this recipe to recreate at home because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this since I had it!
It was an amazing trip, and I am so blessed to be a part of such an amazing group of bloggers:
- Kristin from Dine and Dish
- Ali from Gimme Some Oven
- Dara from Cookin’ Canuck
- Shawn from I Wash You Dry
- Rachel from A Southern Fairytale
Also, a HUGE thank you to California Avocado for sponsoring such a wonderful trip!
I also couldn’t leave you all without the recipe of that Asian pasta salad we made for the contest, especially since July 4th is coming up and it’s actually biggest avocado consumption day of the year!
This salad will go perfectly with your July 4th spread, and of course, it’s loaded with fresh avocado so you should be all set!
ASIAN PASTA SALAD
A refreshing pasta salad loaded with sweet mango and fresh avocado!
INGREDIENTS
- 8 ounces elbows pasta
- 1 California Avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
- 1 mango, peeled and diced
- 1 carrot, peeled and grated
- 1/4 cup shredded red cabbage
- 1 green onion, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, or more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
FOR THE DRESSING
INSTRUCTIONS
- To make the dressing, whisk together soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and sesame seeds; set aside.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- In a large bowl, combine pasta, avocado, mango, carrot, cabbage, green onion, pine nut, soy sauce dressing, salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve immediately.
Disclosure: This trip was sponsored by California Avocado. All opinions expressed are my own.
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