Living La Vida Holoka


Asparagus Pasta Salad with Lemon Herb Vinaigrette

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This flavorful Asparagus Pasta Salad is made with shell pasta, fresh asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, and finished with a homemade lemon herb vinaigrette!

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Sometimes you clean out the fridge and magic happens.  Last week, I gave the fridge a good clean out ahead of my latest shopping trip.  Knowing I’d be buying another three week’s worth of groceries, I decided to use up some of the groceries in our fridge to make room.  I had a bunch of asparagus, baby bella mushrooms, and some homemade sun-dried tomatoes that I desperately needed to use.  So I decided to make a pasta salad.

This time of year, when it’s too hot to turn on the oven, I like to stock the fridge with a few cold salads, including pasta salad.  Pasta salads make excellent summer side dishes or a quick lunch.  Plus, they’re one of my favorite, easiest ways to use up fresh produce!

Asparagus Pasta Salad with Lemon Herb Vinaigrette

 
In my opinion, asparagus doesn’t get enough credit for its versatility.  You can steam it, saute it, throw it on top of a breakfast tart, or even turn it into fries! 

To make this pasta salad, I cut the asparagus into small pieces and sauteed it with baby bella mushrooms and garlic in a little olive oil, adding the sun-dried tomatoes at the end.  I let that cool down for a bit, then added it to cooked shell pasta (I used Banza) and some chopped red onion. So simple, but so good!


I could have easily thrown a bottle of dressing or some oil and balsamic vinegar on this salad and called it a day.  But my herbs are growing like crazy right now (you should seriously see my oregano – it’s like a bush!), so I made a quick herby, lemon vinaigrette in my Blend-N-Go blender. 

I used about half of the vinaigrette I made and saved the rest to keep adding to the pasta salad.  As the pasta salad sits, it’s going to soak up all of that good flavor from the dressing.  I always suggest adding more dressing the next day. 

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Asparagus Pasta Salad with Lemon Herb Vinaigrette

Asparagus Pasta Salad with Lemon Herb Vinaigrette

Ingredients

    For the pasta salad:
  • 8 oz. shell pasta
  • 1/3 cup red onion, chopped
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 cups fresh asparagus, ends trimmed and cut into small pieces
  • 1 cup sliced baby bella mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
  • 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
    • For the vinaigrette:
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1 tsp. honey
  • 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar,
  • 1 tbsp. fresh basil
  • 1 tsp. fresh thyme
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

    For the pasta salad:
  1. Cook the pasta according to package. Drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside.
  2. Once cooled, add the pasta to a large bowl with the chopped onion.
  3. Add olive oil to a skillet over medium heat.
  4. Add the garlic, cooking for 1 minute, then add the asparagus and mushrooms, cooking just until softened. About 5-8 minutes.
  5. Then, stir in the sun-dried tomatoes, cooking for about 1-2 minutes.
  6. Remove skillet from heat and allow to cool. Then, add to the pasta bowl and season with salt and pepper.
    7. For the vinaigrette:
  7. In a blender, add the olive oil, lemon juice, honey, vinegar, herbs, and salt and pepper. Blend just until smooth.
  8. Add half of the dressing to the pasta salad, reserving the other half to add to the salad, as needed.
  9. Serve salad immediately, or keep in the fridge in an airtight container.
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When it’s hot and gross outside, and the last thing you want to do is cook (it was 96 the other day, so I was thrilled to have salads in the fridge), pull out a pasta salad, toss in a protein if you desire, and you’re good to go! You’ve got lunch, you’ve got dinner, and you’ve got a veggie loaded pasta salad full of fresh flavor! 

Did you make this Asparagus Pasta Salad with Lemon Herb Vinaigrette recipe? Share it on social media using the hashtag #livinglavidaeats. Don’t forget to tag me @lavidaholoka!

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Asian Style Kohlrabi Noodle Salad

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This Asian Style Kohlrabi Noodle Salad is a refreshing, crunchy veggie noodle salad packed with healthy vegan ingredients and Asian inspired flavor!

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New Jersey is opening back up again and we were able to enjoy some backyard barbecuing with the family this past weekend for Father’s Day.  Then, my husband’s birthday was this past Monday and we barbecued again – steaks for the two of us.  We had store bought potato and macaroni salad for Saturday and a big tray of my Italian pasta salad for Sunday.   I was so sick of heavy salads by Monday, that I wanted to throw together something light and refreshing.  Especially since it was the first 90 degree day of the season!

I got a bag of kohlrabi noodles in my last Hungryroot delivery.  It was my first time ever trying them and I honestly don’t know what took me so long!  I’ve never had kohlrabi in any form before, but it kind of reminds me of a sweeter radish with a whole lot of crunch!  A lot of people seem to use them as a pasta alternative, but I loved the fresh flavor so much that I decided to keep them in their raw form and use them in a refreshing salad! 

Asian Kohlrabi Noodle Salad

 
Since I really didn’t know what I was working with at first, I looked up a bunch of kohlrabi salad recipes. A lot of the recipes I saw were slaw style salads made with apples and herbs.  They sounded pretty tasty and I’ll definitely be making a slaw in the future!  But after tasting the kohlrabi for myself, I was instantly inspired to made an Asian style salad. 

I grabbed some of our snow peas and scallions from the garden and found rainbow baby carrots (also from my Hungryroot box), mini cucumbers, and some peanuts to use.  The dressing I made is simple.  It’s just enough to finish off the salad with a nice hint of sweet and salty flavors, plus a little bit of tang from fresh lime juice!


I can see why the kohlrabi would make a nice pasta alternative, but I’m really enjoying it in its raw form.  It has such a great crunch to it and even hours after soaking in the dressing, it still had some nice crunch left to it. 

Toast the peanuts in a pan for a couple minutes to make them even crunchier and bring out more flavor.  Then, toss everything up in a big bowl and pour on the dressing.  Give the salad at least 30 minutes to soak up all of that good flavor.  If you can make it ahead of time, it’ll be even better!  

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Asian Style Kohlrabi Noodle Salad

Asian Style Kohlrabi Noodle Salad

Ingredients

  • 10 oz kohlrabi noodles
  • 2 mini cucumbers, quartered
  • 1/2 cup snow peas, chopped
  • 3/4 cup rainbow baby carrots, julienned
  • 1/4 cup green onions, chopped
  • 1/3 cup peanuts, chopped
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 1/4 tsp. red chile paste
  • Dash of sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp. honey
  • 1 tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the kohlrabi noodles, cucumbers, snow peas, baby carrots, and green onions.
  2. Add the chopped peanuts to a small skillet over medium heat. Stir frequently and toast until the nuts are golden brown in color, about 5-8 minutes.
  3. Remove the peanuts from heat and allow to cool. Then, add the peanuts to the salad.
  4. In a small bowl, mix the lime juice, red chile paste, honey, soy sauce, and olive oil.
  5. Pour the dressing over the salad and serve, or chill in the fridge until ready to eat.
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This is such a refreshing, cold salad for those steamy summer days!  If you want to make a full meal out of it, you could totally add some shrimp to it – that’s what I did the next day for lunch!  So good and such a great hot weather dish! 

Did you make this Asian Style Kohlrabi Noodle Salad recipe? Share it on social media using the hashtag #livinglavidaeats. Don’t forget to tag me @lavidaholoka!

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Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Quinoa Salad

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Pan roasted veggies, quinoa, and a light lemon dressing make this Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Quinoa Salad a healthy and flavorful summer side dish!

This post may contain affiliate links.  Making a purchase through one of these links helps support this blog.


This whole quarantine situation has made it really difficult for those sudden food cravings.  I’m only shopping every two to three weeks and I’m trying to do everything online as much as I can.  So if I forget to add something, oh well.  I just have to wait and add it to my next order.  If I still have that same craving, I’ll usually order double the amount of whatever it is that I want.

The past few weeks, I’ve been craving eggplant.  Give it to me breaded and fried, roasted, or sauteed.  It doesn’t matter.  I just have to have it!  In the past month, we’ve not only eaten about three eggplants, we’ve also planted two eggplant plants (how many times can I say the word “plant” in a sentence?) in our garden. 

So far, I’ve made eggplant Parmesan, breaded and fried it to throw on top of pizza, and made this quinoa salad.  It’s going to be the summer of eggplant and I’m totally okay with that! 

Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Quinoa Salad

 
So let’s talk about how this salad came about.  Quarantine cooking has been interesting.  I love to cook!  It’s therapeutic to me.  But it’s also made me get a little more creative in the kitchen and a lot more resourceful. 

While I was digging through my cabinets to make a side dish, I found an opened bag of quinoa with just enough left to throw together a salad.  A little goes a long way, so if you have a cup, you’ll have a lot of quinoa to work with. 

After going on a produce buying binge, I had some eggplant and grape tomatoes to use up, along with some crumbled goat cheese. It all came together to make one tasty salad!


If you can cook rice, you can cook quinoa.  And if you love sheet pan meals, this is almost as easy as “one pan and done!” 

While my quinoa was cooking, I roasted the eggplant, tomatoes, onion, and garlic. Allow everything to cool slightly.  Then, toss it all together with some crumbled goat cheese (you could use feta, too) and a simple dressing made with lemon juice, olive oil, and roasted garlic. 

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Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Quinoa Salad

Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

    For the quinoa salad:
  • 1 cup quinoa + 2 cups water
  • 1/2 eggplant, or 1 small eggplant, peeled and cubed
  • 1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes
  • 1 clove garlic, with peel on
  • 1/2 cup red onion, chopped
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • Small handful of fresh basil and/or oregano
  • Crumbled goat cheese
    • For the dressing:
  • Roasted garlic clove (from above)
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

    For the quinoa salad:
  1. In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a boil.
  2. Add the quinoa, and reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for about 15 minutes, or until water is absorbed and the quinoa is tender.
  3. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
  4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  5. Add the eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, and onion to the baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
  6. Bake the veggies for 25-30 minutes or until the eggplant has softened and the tomatoes start to burst. Allow to cool slightly.
  7. Add the quinoa to a large bowl and mix in the roasted vegetables and herbs.
  8. Top with crumbled goat cheese.
    9. For the dressing:
  9. Remove the peel from the garlic clove.
  10. In a small bowl, mash the garlic and add lemon juice, and olive oil.
  11. Season dressing with salt and pepper and stir into the quinoa salad.
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Just like pasta salad, the longer this salad sits, the better it gets!  Plus, it makes quite a lot, so you’ve got salad for lunch, dinner, or an easy side dish to last you most of the week! 

Did you make this Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Quinoa Salad recipe? Share it on social media using the hashtag #livinglavidaeats. Don’t forget to tag me @lavidaholoka!

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Grilled Steak and Potato Salad

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Hearty steak and potatoes are turned into a lighter dish for summer with this Grilled Steak and Potato Salad recipe full of classic flavor!

This post may contain affiliate links.  Making a purchase through one of these links helps support this blog.


The day I made this recipe, we were expecting a military flyover in New Jersey.  There have been a couple of them this past month to salute front line workers and I’ve quickly become obsessed with military planes.  They’re loud, they’re fast, and just so cool to watch!

Twenty minutes before the flyover was supposed to happen – and not knowing how close it would happen to our house – I threw a foil cover on this salad and decided to wait on making the dressing.  SO WORTH IT!  Not only did the flyover happen RIGHT OVER OUR HOUSE, but it gave the steak enough time to rest and it turned out to be perfect!  Win-win!   

A simple salad that tastes luxurious!

 
I used a strip steak to make this salad.  I had added a couple strip steaks to my last grocery order.  But while my Instacart shopper was shopping, I got a replacement notification.  They only had one steak available.  Hoping it would be big enough to share, I approved the replacement.  Well, it was a little over half a pound.  So I decided to be quarantine boujee and made myself one hell of a salad!  For me, it was enough for two lunches.  Not too shabby!  

It took a little longer for me to put this salad together than I had anticipated.  Not only because I was distracted by the upcoming flyover, but because it was so windy outside that I couldn’t use our gas grill (the flame will keep blowing out and I wasn’t dealing with that).   So I ended up cooking everything on our cast iron grill pan.  Instead of cooking everything on the grill basically at once, I had to grill a couple ingredients at a time.  Still worked out, just took longer! 

Grilled Steak and Potato Salad

 
I threw some sliced creamer potatoes on the grill pan first to get them started.  Once they got nice grill marks, I gave them a flip and pushed them off to one side.  I worked ingredient-by-ingredient adding the mushrooms until they were done cooking.  Then, I added sliced onion and grape tomatoes, cooking just until they burst. 

The last thing I put on the grill was the steak.  I didn’t trim the fat off until the steak was done cooking so I could lock in all of those juices and flavor.  The steak cooked for about 5 minutes on each side to get it to a medium doneness.  Then, I removed it from the pan and let it rest for a few minutes.

The dressing I made was simple.  I did a quick blend of lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and some fresh herbs from the garden.  It was just enough and didn’t take away from the other ingredients in the salad.  

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Grilled Steak and Potato Salad

Serving Size: 2

Grilled Steak and Potato Salad

Ingredients

    For the salad:
  • 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup creamer potatoes, halved
  • 1/4 cup red onion, sliced
  • 1 1/2 cups baby bella mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 cups grape tomatoes
  • 1 strip steak
  • 3 cups Romaine lettuce, chopped
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
    • For the dressing:
  • 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1 small garlic clove
  • 1 1/2 tbsp. fresh herbs, like basil, oregano, and parsley
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

    For the salad:
  1. Preheat gas grill, or grill pan, to medium heat. If using the gas grill, brush veggies with the olive oil. If using a grill pan, add the olive oil to the pan.
  2. Add the potatoes, sliced side down, the onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes to the grill (you may want to use a grill basket or add foil to the grill).
  3. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the center of the potatoes has softened, the onions and mushrooms have softened, the tomatoes start to burst, and there are noticeable grill marks.
  4. Season the steak with salt and pepper and place on the grill. For a medium cook, grill for about 5-7 minutes on each side. Allow the steak to rest for a few minutes.
  5. Serve sliced steak and veggies over Romaine lettuce. Dress with lemon-herb dressing.
    6. For the dressing:
  6. Blend the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, herbs, and salt and pepper just until the garlic and herbs are chopped and ingredients are incorporated.
  7. Pour over salad and toss.
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This salad was super satisfying and the steak was so tender!  It just melted like buttah with every bite!  So now I absolutely have to make this boujee quarantine meal again.  And this time, share with my husband! 

Did you make this Grilled Steak and Potato Salad recipe? Share it on social media using the hashtag #livinglavidaeats. Don’t forget to tag me @lavidaholoka!

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