Smoked Salmon Pasta Salad

My first entry for #CookoutWeek2017 is smoked salmon pasta salad. This would be a great cookout recipe for the pescatarian in your life who isn’t interested in the ribs or burgers on the grill. This is also a great side for any cookout, really. The salty smoked salmon is a great contrast to the crunchy veggies and lemon mayo dressing. The smoked salmon pasta salad is also an amazing lunch dish, especially for these miserably hot days of summer. Ok - in fairness, it’s a balmy high 60 here on the coast, but I still sympathize with my readers who are baking in the Southwest.

This salad features one CSA veggie this week - carrots! Aside from the carrots, it was a green veggie week from the CSA again - we got lettuce, spinach, kale (the most beautiful kale bunch I’ve ever eaten, by the way), broccoli and another kohlrabi. And thyme. Check back in on Friday for some bad thyme puns and a lovely cocktail featuring the thyme. For the thyme being (hee, hee), here’s my quick run down of the veggie usage this week. Carrots, broccoli, and green onions from the market went into Korean scallion pancakes - I’ll have that recipe up on the blog in a few weeks, once I’ve run through it again. Kale and spinach went into egg bowls. The lettuce has gone into salads and a few sandwiches this weekend. The kohlrabi….is looking lonely in the veggie drawer. If you have any inspired ideas about kohlrabi, please, please, post them in the comments below.

Back to the smoked salmon pasta salad. One of the great happy points of living on the Oregon coast is that we have access to some pretty extraordinary seafood, including locally smoked coho salmon. A scant third pound was plenty for a salad that easily serves four as a main dish and could serve closer to six as a cookout or potluck side. I dearly wish we had a grill, as I would love to serve this as a side to some grilled oysters, pop open a bottle of white wine and call it dinner. Until that happens, I’ll just enjoy this the next few days for lunch.

Just a reminder - there is a great giveaway going on this week as part of #CookoutWeek2017,. You can enter below to win:

• From blog host The PinterTest Kitchen: $100 Amazon gift card, to use to buy all the supplies you need for your next cookout
• From our sponsor The French Farm: A gift pack of gourmet products hand-crafted by small businesses and using only the finest ingredients - La Favorita Genovese Pesto, Caprichos del Guadalquivir Cadenera Orange Marmalade, and L’Abeille Occitane Lavender Honey
  
• From our sponsor Smokin’-Os: A sampler pack of their “smokin’-os” wood rings, to help you add wood-fired, smokey taste to your grilled foods, even if you don’t own a smoker
• From our sponsor Primal Kitchen: $200 of Primal Kitchen goodies, including condiments made with avocado oil and bars and shakes with grass-fed collagen
  
• From our sponsor Langers Juice Company: Your choice of 10 bottles of Langers Juice, with flavors including traditional Apple and Grape, as well as interesting mixes such as Pineapple Orange Coconut, Cranberry Blood Orange, and Mango Peach
• From our sponsor True Made Foods: A 3-bottle sampler pack of sauces with real flavors made from real vegetables and less sugar - Ketchup, BBQ, and Veracha

This prize pack has an ARV of over $400! You have until July 1 at 11:59 PM to enter by following our sponsors and bloggers on social media:

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