Pasta salad is a lifesaver on hot evenings and is a quick fix when you're feeding a crowd. One of the quickest ways to cool down freshly boiled pasta is to skip the cool water and turn to your vegetables instead!
The best pasta salad has noodles that are still a little chewy and aren't water-logged. To get the best texture possible, toss a bag of frozen veggies (I have a thing for peas) in the bottom of your mixing bowl. Add your cooked noodles and within minutes you'll have perfectly chilled pasta and thawed vegetables.
If you're hosting an outdoor bash, you can also throw them in a few minutes before guests arrive to make sure things are extra chilled and any mayo-based sauces aren't too warm! Other vegetables that work well are frozen pearl onions (especially if they're chopped smaller in a food processor first), carrots and diced pepper.
Related: Twelve Steps To a Better Pasta Salad
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I love doing this! I add frozen peas to tons of stuff just at the end since they thaw very quickly and add a lot to a dish! From stirfry, salads, noodle dishes and even lean cuisines!
FYI.... All frozen vegetables need to be cooked before eating. Thawing or using residual heat from other cooked food is not enough to kill potentially harmful bacteria.
I was under the impression that frozen vegetables were blanched before freezing in order to kill bacteria...?
If that's the case, unless you have them sitting on your counter (outside the bag) before hand - what bacteria are they going to pick up?
Frozen peas are definitely a go-to pantry staple of mine. I love them tossed with orecchiette, goat cheese and mint.
I'm not sure about the safety issue, but I always boil mine first anyway, as part of the thawing process.
Sorry @Beaner42 - I'm not going to stop eating frozen peas. They're one of my favorite summer treats! (And the only vegetable I would eat when I was 2. :)
I love adding frozen peas to dishes just prior to serving. In a pinch, when my larder isn't as stocked as I'd like it to be and I'm craving a healthy salad for lunch, I dump a bunch of frozen mixed veggies into a small container in the morning, drizzle with olive oil and vinegar, salt and pepper and then by the time lunch rolls around, teh veggies have defrosted and I can throw them over some greens for a nice salad. I've never cooked them and never gotten sick.
Peas are high in sugar content, so they are usually blanched before freezing. It stops the sugars from turning to starches that make them look less attractive and taste a little less awesome as well.
Also, the frozen shelled edamame is a great addition, especially to Asian-themed dishes - although they do not thaw as quickly and perhaps benefit from a brief cooking cycle.
I am on the side of the no-cook responders. However a brief rinse in hot tap water is usually helpful to remove freezer odors that cling to the frosty outside of the peas - this is especially true if the bag has been opened and kept in the freezer.
I throw in frozen peas or edamame in my pasta salads, and frozen peas in fried rice.
I just had a pasta salad for lunch today - leftover rotisserie chicken, shelled edamame, cucumber, halved grape tomatoes, and asian ginger dressing. Oh, my, stars!
The only people do don't have a thing for peas have never had real peas. I grew up with canned brownish peas devoid of flavor, not the delicious sweet tasty things you can get fresh and frozen
There is almost nothing you can't add them to to make it better.
Lets face it peas are the bacon of the veggie world.
I find that when I don't heat up frozen peas, they stay wrinkly and don't have as nice a texture as when I do cook them a bit. But if I were in a hurry--I would totally just throw them in! Thanks for the tip. :)
I add frozen peas to all kinds of things, and my son likes to eat them right out of the bag. As for bacteria? Um, I don't think so. My little boy has been eating peas and other frozen things since he could chew and is just fine.
I land on the side of the non-pea-cookers on this - and may I suggest if time is not of the essence, some sliced roasted mushrooms? They make frequent appearances in my pasta salads.
Pshaw, frozen peas don't need to be cooked to kill bacteria. There are plenty of vegetables that are eaten raw -- heck, if I grow snap peas in the back yard, I eat them fresh from the vine and sometimes don't even wash them first! If you're paranoid about bacteria then you might want to boil everything before it enters your mouth, but I can't see any reason to worry more about a bag of peas from the freezer section than about a bag of baby carrots from the produce section.
By the way, I love the tip about adding frozen peas to a pasta salad, I'm totally going to try that sometime!
If you could get sick from eating frozen peas than I would have spent the majority of my 22 years in a very poor state. Long live the joy of eating frozen peas (& brocolli!)
Just because you (or your kids) haven't gotten sick from eating uncooked frozen veggies and just because you can eat the same fresh vegetables raw doesn't mean there aren't risks to not cooking frozen veggies.
According to the Frozen Food Foundation:
"It is important to note that frozen vegetables do need to be cooked according to the instructions on the label. Some popular recipes, articles and websites call for adding partially frozen or thawed vegetables directly to dips, salads and other recipes without cooking them. However, frozen vegetables are not intended to be consumed without cooking, as they may contain bacteria that are killed when cooked properly and thoroughly."