Tuna Pasta Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Tuna Pasta Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette is a delicious blend of healthy ingredients. Tri-colored pasta, tuna, sun dried tomatoes, fresh veggies, feta cheese, and olives come together in a light balsamic dressing. Not your ordinary tuna salad!

It's Secret Recipe Club time again!  I took a couple of months off because this summer has been so crazy busy for me...but now that it's September...I'm back in!  This month I was assigned to A Fit and Spicy Life.  I was really excited for this blog because it is chock full of easy healthy recipes ...and to be honest, after participating in that blogger sponsored Ice Cream Week event a few weeks ago, I was really ready to get back to some lower calorie and healthful recipes!

Mellissa, A Fit and Spicy Life's owner,  is a "Wisconsinite turned Minnesotan."  Now a year ago, I would say I knew nothing about Wisconsin, but after spending a good chunk of my summer helping my daughter relocate to Wisconsin for her job, I have grown to not only know Wisconsin, but I am beginning to love it for all it has to offer.  Extraordinarily good cheese!

What can I say?  I am a foodie, afterall.  Mellissa is a Fit Fluential Ambassador and loves food, wine, cheese, yoga, weightlifting, travel and magazines. So yeah, she had me at cheese!

I browsed through her recipe index and found several things that I wanted to try.  I finally settled on her Tuna Pasta Salad because it sounded so good to me with the sun-dried tomatoes, Greek seasoning and...yes...CHEESE!  I was not disappointed.  This recipe is delicious.  

I did change a few things to make it my own. I added some zucchini, red onion and black olives to the original recipe, swapped the mozzarella cheese for feta and opted to use white balsamic vinegar to keep the color of the dressing pleasing. I love that this tuna pasta salad doesn't use any mayonnaise in the dressing, for a nice change of pace. 

I do love that this salad is packed with flavor and lots of great fresh ingredients.  This time of year the produce is just so good! It's a shame to not take advantage of it.

This recipe made a great lunch for me. I also packed it for my husband for his lunch. It makes a lot of salad, so it would also be a great salad to take to a party or a pot-luck!

I am so glad I was introduced to Mellissa's blog. I know I won't be a stranger! I hope you take a few minutes to check it out too!

 

Tuna Pasta Salad, Tuna Salad

Side Dish, Salad

American

Yield: 8 servings

Author: Renee Paj

Tuna Pasta Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Prep time: 15 MinTotal time: 15 Min

A delicious blend of Tri-colored pasta, tuna, sun dried tomatoes, fresh veggies, feta cheese, and olives bathed in a flavorful vinaigrette.

Ingredients

For Salad

• One 12 oz. box Tri-Color Rotini pasta, cooked to al dente, rinsed in cold water, and drained
• One 4 oz. or 5 oz. can water packed tuna, drained and flaked
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 2 cups fresh, organic baby spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
• 1/4 cup sliced black olives
• 1/2 cup diced fresh zucchini
• 3 TBSP chopped sun-dried tomatoes (dry packed)
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 TBSP Greek Seasoning (or more to taste) - Make it yourself with this recipe!

For Dressing

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup white balsamic dressing
• 1 TBSP Dijon mustard
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Instructions

1. In large bowl, combine all the salad ingredients.
2. In small bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients. Whisk well. (you can put this dressing in the microwave for about 30 seconds to help lessen the bite of the raw garlic, if desired. )
3. Pour dressing over the salad and mix to combine. Store in refrigerator for 30 minutes before serving to allow flavors to blend.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

200.55

Fat (grams)

10.57 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

2.06 g

Cholesterol (grams)

9.17 mg

Carbs (grams)

19.13 g

Fiber (grams)

2.83 g

Sugar (grams)

2.98 g

Net carbs

16.31 g

Protein (grams)

8.40 g

Sodium (milligrams)

810.18 mg

Nutritional Information is an estimate

https://www.reneeskitchenadventures.com/2014/09/tuna-pasta-salad-with-balsamic.html

Copyright © 2014 Renee's Kitchen Adventures

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Looking for more pasta salad recipes? Try these!

• Creamy Tuna Pasta Salad
• Roasted Vegetable Pasta Salad
• Easy Broccoli Pasta Salad

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