Chicken Pasta Salad with Asparagus Recipe

When the weather turns warm, it's nice to have a few good main dish salad recipes to turn to. The following recipe was inspired by a recent recipe from Jenn's Food Journey. I didn't have all the ingredients she called for and wanted to make it gluten free, plus I wanted to add the asparagus which is in season in our garden. So, this recipe can be made with gluten-free pasta or regular pasta. If you're going gluten free, I highly recommend Tinkyada pasta as the best brand I've found for taste and for keeping its integrity when cooked.

Chicken Pasta Salad with Asparagus Recipe - Gluten free (or not)

1 large can chicken breast, drained and shredded or broken into small pieces
4 c. Tinkyada (gluten-free) penne pasta, cooked, rinsed, drained, and cooled
2 c. fresh asparagus, cut diagonally into 1" pieces and steamed until bright green and slightly translucent, then cooled quickly in ice water (The important thing here is to NOT overcook it.)
1/2+ green pepper, diced
1/2+ red bell pepper, diced
1/2+ onion, chopped
1/3 c. kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
1/2 c. Miracle Whip salad dressing (You may want a little more or less.)
1 t. Bragg's Liquid Aminos
3/4 t. dry mustard
Sea salt to taste
1 sprig parsley
Put all ingredients into a large bowl and mix gently. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve, then pour out into the serving dish and garnish with parsley. Also, it's fun to put a few extra kalamata olives on top to add to the color.

Difficulty level:  EASY
Time needed: About 20 minutes to cook, cool, and assemble, and is even better the next day.

I really liked this because I like getting some protein in a salad, I love chicken, I need kalamata olives, the dry mustard gave it a little zip, and the exciting green and red of the peppers and asparagus helped balance the boring color of the pasta.

This post is linked to: Making the World Cuter Mondays and Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and Making Monday Marvelous and Made from Scratch Tuesday and Delectable Tuesday and Anything Related Tuesday and Take a Look Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday  and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Wandering Wednesday and What's Cookin' Wednesday and We Did it Wednesday and Thrilling Thursday and Lisa's Gluten-Free Blog and Favorite Things Friday and I'm Lovin' it Friday and It's a Hodgepodge Friday  and Fat Camp Friday and Fun With Food Friday