Colorful pasta salad with tuna

An easy summer recipe, light and full of color!

Don’t you just love easy, simple and quick recipes that result in delicious, filling, all-in-one dishes?

It looks like they’re becoming hard to find.

And what do I mean by that? Well, the internet abounds with people who cook. Professional chefs, amateur cooks, nutritionists, food bloggers, everyone is trying to make their own impression, and everybody falls in the same trap: the more, the better. The more complicated it is, the more eye-catching it will be and the more people it will lure. And if made to look easy through a video of cleverly-chosen images put together, even better!

I may be the reading type of person who prefers to read a recipe rather than watch it but I don’t underestimate the power of moving images. It’s the purpose it serves that sometimes bothers me. There are thousands of videos out there made by people who have a passion for what they’re doing and have put some serious work and effort in making something that will pass on knowledge and experience. Many of those videos have been extremely helpful to me, too, and I’m so grateful for them.

And then there are the others. The ones that have been made only to raise the number of views and clicks. Fast-forwarded making of recipes, made to look easy and healthy when, in fact, they’re the exact opposite. Complicated recipes, countless ingredients, quantities that you have to guess, and what you get if you try it is rarely what you saw. Simply because steps have been omitted in order to create a video short enough to make you believe it’s easy, quick and simple.

But what are we really searching for when we’re looking for a recipe that’s easy, quick and simple?

Easy as in… it only needs one pot.

Quick as in… 20 minutes the most.

Simple as in… you only need to chop, mix and stir.

And when the dish you make has everything you could ask for in a meal, it immediately gets added to your favorites. And I’m sure the same thing will happen with this pasta salad.

I usually prefer wholegrain pasta for my recipes but for this colorful salad I chose tri-color penne. Combined with the vegetables’ colors, it not only pleases the taste buds but the eyes as well.

All you need for this salad are simple ingredients that you probably already have in your fridge and pantry. You can use canned vegetables or boil some fresh or frozen ones.

The sauce is equally easy to make. You mix the ingredients together in a bowl or you add them in a jar and shake them altogether.

And what you get is a balanced meal that has everything: carbohydrates, protein, fiber, a healthy amount of fat and a generous amount of deliciousness!

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