Out of Fresh Veggies?

It is spring. For some reason, to me, that means pasta salad. I am going to do a recipe today, but go ahead and mix and match however you want.

I had 2 frozen brats, so I used them. I defrosted them about halfway in the microwave, defrosted enough to cut but still hard enough from being partially frozen to cut easily. Once fully defrosted, the good sausage I used gets too squishy to cut easily yet hard to break up the way one can with ground meats. I sliced, then cubed the slices before frying them in a frying pan without any oil.

I boiled a small bag of shell pasta, the bag said 9 minutes, so I had them boil for that long, with 1 teaspoon of salt added to the water. If you don’t salt the water, that’s fine, but the pasta will taste a bit bland. The dressing takes care of that. Once the timer went off, they went into the collander to drain, then into the mixing bowl.

I didn’t have any fresh veggies in the house, so I defrosted a partial bag of mirpoix. That is just the French term for onions, carrots and celery, and no chopping, it was already diced. The gherkins, those I diced.

For the dressing, I used a basic mix for potato salad or deviled eggs, equal parts mayo, yellow mustard and pickle relish. I think next time, I’ll use Dijon mustard instead of yellow. And add some sharp cheddar cheese cubes.

I folded everything together gently, and done.

I did something I don’t usually do. I measured out servings, started with 1 cup in each of three containers and a bowl for enjoying right then, then added a half cup to each. There was a little bit left over, so into the bowl. It was so good.

Mustard and brats are a classic combo. The mayo mellows out the mustard enough for me to find the strong spicy taste enjoyable. The pieces of sweet gherkin give sweetly acidic bursts as I munched. Fresh diced onion would have been a nice addition, but it is good the way it is.