Caesar Pasta Salad

Bacon, lettuce and tomato pasta salad is a perfect side dish or main meal. You can decide which pasta you prefer, you know your family and what they would eat, the calories are the same. If you are on a gluten-free diet, the brown rice pasta is pretty good!

 

Lower Calorie BLT Pasta Salad Recipe ~

Ingredients

• 8 oz uncooked elbows, low carb or whole grain (brown rice pasta for gf)
• 4 slices 25% reduced fat centre cut bacon
• 2 large ripe tomatoes, beefsteak or vine ripe, diced small
• 4 tbsp reduced fat mayonnaise
• salt and fresh pepper to taste
• 2 cups baby spinach

Method

1. In a large pan cook bacon on medium-low heat until crispy on both sides.
2. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package directions.
3. Chop tomatoes and combine it along with any accumulated juice with mayonnaise and pepper in a medium bowl.
4. Drain pasta and rinse with cold water to cool.
5. Combine pasta with tomatoes and spinach mixing well.
6. Toss in bacon right before serving.

Serves 7 – Serving Size: 1 cup – Nutrition Per Serving
Calories: 149.1, Fat: 4.3 g, Carbohydrate: 26.7 g, Fibre: 4.2 g, Protein: 5.3 g

Tips

• To avoid adding too much mayonnaise, add it just before serving as macaroni salads tend to dry out if they sit too long therefore requiring more.
• Centre cut bacon has less fat than regular bacon if you like the taste of real pork bacon, or you can use turkey or chicken bacon instead if you don’t eat pork.