A Fresh and Summery Meal – Pressure Cooker Pasta with a Crunchy Salad

A vibrant plate of pressure cooker pasta, full of colours of seasonal fresh vegetables, cheesy pasta and the spicy hint provided by pepper. Perfect summer meal & good for the lunch box as well!

This pressure cooker pasta has become one of my favourite quick meals for sometime. The fact that I love one pot meals and topped by the fact that everyone in the house loves pasta was just an added advantage.

And this one is so super easy to make that I should may be tag it as bachelor cooking 😉 Just saute veggies, add spices, cheese, pasta and water and steam. That is about it.

I first heard about pressure cooker pasta somedays ago on my favorite FB haunt these days the Foodies in Bangalore group. Someone posted a picture of pressure cooker macaroni and it intrigued me, I decided to give it a try. I was very pleasantly surprised with the yummy taste. Post that, its become such a regular meal at home. Any day, I am lazy or want a one pot meal, I turn to this as the Ojas loves pasta and has taken quite a liking to this one too.

We had this with a fresh and crunchy salad and some lousy bread from daily bread. Next time, I won’t do that blunder and I urge you guys to think about it too 😉 If you don’t believe me, see how crumbly the bread is in the picture below. The crust, if you can even call it that, was hardly sustaining the cutting with my sharp bread knife.

But the pasta and that salad was so mind blowing. I loved simplicity of the meal. Sometimes, all you need is a bit of vegetables and cheese, and life seems amazing, isn’t it? A favorite in our house along with the roasted tomatoes & basil pasta 🙂

Recipe – Pressure Cooker Pasta.

Source – Adapated from a post in FB group.

A fresh and summery meal - Pressure Cooker pasta with a Crunchy Salad

A vibrant plate full of colours of seasonal fresh vegetables, cheesyness of the pasta and the spicy hint provided by pepper. Perfect summer meal & good for the lunch box as well

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Course Main Dish

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup chopped vegetables I used yellow, green and red peppers, broccoli, baby corn
• 5 to 6 Cherry Tomatoes
• 2 to 3 red chillies fresh
• 3/4 cup cheese grated
• 1 cup pasta raw
• Handful of or 1 tsp oregano rosemary fresh or dried herbs of choice
• 2 tsps olive oil
• to taste salt (but do remember about the cheese too)
• 1/2 to 1 tsps pepper freshly ground
• 1 and 1/2 cups water

Crunchy Summer Salad

• 5 - 6 lettuce leaves green
• 5 - 6 lettuce leaves red
• 1/2 cup peppers sliced thin yellow and red
• 1/2 cup chopped physalis

for the dressing.

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp red wine
• 1 tsp pepper freshly ground
• to taste salt

Instructions

 

• Heat olive oil in a pressure cooker, add all the vegetables and saute for 2-3 minutes.
• Add grated cheese, the seasoning i.e herbs, salt and pepper. Saute for another minute.
• Add the water and the pasta. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and don't put the whistle on, let it cook on high flame till the steam starts building. Reduce the flame post that and let it cook for about 5-6 minutes.
• Let it stand for 5 mins and serve hot.
• For Salad
  
• Mix all the vegetables together, if u have a salad spinner give it a spin or just mix it well enough.
• Stir all the dressing ingredients till well mixed, pour over the salad veggies and mix again.
• Chill and serve.

Notes

Can it really get easier than this? I think not 🙂

If you make this, share a picture with me on twitter, instagram or Facebook? I would love to hear what you have to say about it !

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!