Another scrumptious salad from our wonderful dietitian Konsita Kuswara!
The Mediterranean dietary patterns continue to show benefits for health including helping to reduce the risk of developing chronic disease. Based mainly on plant foods, rich in wholegrains, olive oil, fish and nuts, some chicken, small amounts of red meat and some fermented dairy such as cheese and yogurt.
Here is a salad based on Mediterranean flavours and including brightly colourful vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals, antioxidants and other phytonutrients; eggplant, tomato, red capsicum, green beans, baby spinach and red onion each have many different benefits for health. Dont forget you cant have too many vegetables so make sure you add at least as many as the recipe suggests and aim to have no ore than 1 cup of pasta in total.
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
- 500g shell pasta
- 1 large eggplant, slice thinly
- 1 large red capsicum, cut into strips
- 1 cup green beans, cut in half
- 3 handfuls of baby spinach leaves
- Red onion, slice thinly
- Handful of parsley
- Can of tuna
Dressing
- 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- Drizzle of lemon
- Black pepper
Method
- Combine eggplant, capsicum and green beans in a bowl. Drizzle with some olive oil and mix well. Roast the vegetables I the oven for 30mins on 180 degrees.
- Cook pasta until al dente. Drain.
- Mix pasta, roasted vegetables, tuna, baby spinach, onion and parsley. Drizzle with more olive oil and lemon until evenly coated.
