Asian Pasta Salad
by Chungah
A refreshing pasta salad loaded with sweet mango and fresh avocado!
I recently had the amazing opportunity to attend the California Avocado ambassador trip in downtown Los Angeles where we stayed at the historic Millenium Biltmore. Because I couldn’t get out of work, I joined everyone a bit late and began my trip at the Industriel, a downtown Los Angeles restaurant offering farm fresh cuisine with a twist on the French Provencal tradition.
So at the Industriel, we began dinner with an incredible appetizer, a watercress salad with pine nuts, blueberries, California avocado, green beans, and a poached egg tossed in a green garlic vinaigrette. These people knew that I couldn’t resist anything that involved a poached egg. And avocado, of course.
Once we finished dinner, I had a great night’s sleep before waking up to the best room service involving corn flake crusted French toast. And yes, I am totally recreating this to share with you all!
After breakfast, we all reconvened at the lobby of the hotel to walk over to Border Grill, but before we left, I just had to snap a photo of this gorgeous floral arrangement. Don’t think that I didn’t want to steal this and use it as a centerpiece for my dining table.
Once we arrived at the restaurant, we were immediately served with huge glasses of sparkling white sangria. Oh and that black backdrop there? It’s actually the waiter’s apron. The poor guy held up this heavy tray for quite some time while we all snapped photos. Life of a food blogger, right?
After we fueled up on these sangrias, it was time for a pasta salad contest. We all formed groups to create the best, most innovative pasta salad with of course, California avocados. I teamed up with another fellow California Avocado ambassador, the oh-so-sweet Ali from Gimme Some Oven where we created Guac-Wok, an avocado pasta salad with an Asian twist.
Scrambling within a 15-minute time-frame and frantically looking for Sriracha, which was nowhere to be found, we barely managed to get everything on our plate. We didn’t win the contest but it was definitely a winning recipe in my book. I could make a meal out of this any day of the week!
After the judging process was over, it was time for lunch – prepared by Chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger – where I experienced the most epic ribs in the 25-years of my existence. These babies were glazed in cumin on a bed of heirloom beans and bacon salad, topped with California avocado pineapple salsa. And that pairing of grilled street corn? Yeah, this was epic. I’ll have to do my best to get this recipe to recreate at home because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this since I had it!
It was an amazing trip, and I am so blessed to be a part of such an amazing group of bloggers:
- Kristin from Dine and Dish
- Ali from Gimme Some Oven
- Dara from Cookin’ Canuck
- Shawn from I Wash You Dry
- Rachel from A Southern Fairytale
Also, a HUGE thank you to California Avocado for sponsoring such a wonderful trip!
I also couldn’t leave you all without the recipe of that Asian pasta salad we made for the contest, especially since July 4th is coming up and it’s actually biggest avocado consumption day of the year!
This salad will go perfectly with your July 4th spread, and of course, it’s loaded with fresh avocado so you should be all set!
Asian Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 8 ounces elbows pasta
- 1 California Avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
- 1 mango, peeled and diced
- 1 carrot, peeled and grated
- ¼ cup shredded red cabbage
- 1 green onion, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the dressing
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons sugar, or more to taste
- ½ teaspoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- To make the dressing, whisk together soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and sesame seeds; set aside.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- In a large bowl, combine pasta, avocado, mango, carrot, cabbage, green onion, pine nut, soy sauce dressing, salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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Disclosure: This trip was sponsored by California Avocado. All opinions expressed are my own.
I tried this recipe last week and it is amazing! Had it for two days and could’ve had it for another 2! Super easy and very very rich in flavour!
Hi!
Were you able to get the recipe for the ‘epic’ ribs as my kids love ribs..looks relish!
Thanks,
No, unfortunately, I did not. I may just have to go back there for their ribs and do some recipe development!
I have just made this recipe (almost exactly to the recipe, I left out the onion). Although I really liked it, sadly my husband was not a fan. What has really confused both of us though was how yours looks so fresh and pale? Ours was a dark brown from the dressing, which would be natural with that much soy sauce in it? Going to be trying some more of your recipes this week!
I’m so glad you tried this recipe! And what a bummer that your husband didn’t like it. Although everyone has different preferences.
As for the coloring, I only take photos of the food that has been made exactly as the recipe is written so I’m not entirely sure why the salad came out dark. Yes, the dressing is dark but it does lighten up when tossed with everything else. Hope that helps!
Mabye you used dark soy sauce ? Dark soy sauce give a very dark colour while light soy sauce dont .
I want the recipe for your pictured item above with pineapple, elbow noodles, avocado, lime, peanuts, etc…. It looks AMAZING
Thank you
Melissa, I actually do not have the recipe for that – it was made on-the-spot for a pasta salad contest.
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Just found your blog and can hardly wait to try some of the recipes. Thanks for sharing them and the beautiful pictures.
Love your creative recipes
Send me more. Thx for your consideration.
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