A bride-to-be who was having trouble due to an egg allergy requested this recipe. She requested using this recipe for her wedding cake after creating it for her bridal shower because she loved it so much! I felt privileged and grateful that I could provide her with a moist, tasty cake for their wedding. I made a straightforward chocolate buttercream to go with this recipe.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 40 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 pound tri-color rotini pasta
- ½ cup water, divided
- 5 drops red food coloring
- 5 drops green food coloring
- 5 drops blue food coloring
- 5 drops yellow food coloring
- 1 cup white sugar
- ¾ cup cider vinegar
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons dried parsley flakes, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 small onion, grated
- ½ green bell pepper, diced
- 4 carrots, grated
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil; cook rotini at a boil until tender yet firm to the bite, about 8 minutes; drain and rinse under cold water.
- Put 2 tablespoons water in each of 4 resealable plastic bags; add red food coloring to a bag. Add green food coloring to second bag. Add blue food coloring to third bag. Add yellow food coloring to fourth bag.
- Divide rotini among the four bags; squeeze bag to evenly color rotini. Set aside to allow color to saturate, about 10 minutes. Transfer pasta to a large bowl.
- Whisk sugar, vinegar, oil, parsley, salt, garlic powder, and pepper together in a bowl until sugar is dissolved into dressing.
- Mix onion, green bell pepper, and carrots into pasta. Drizzle dressing over pasta mixture; toss to coat. Refrigerate until flavors blend, at least 2 hours.
- The amount of food coloring will depend on the number of colors you choose to use. If you prefer not to use artificial coloring, this pasta salad tastes great with traditional pasta too!
Reviews
This recipe is a keeper. Made as written with only one change. Used sweet mini peppers vs green pepper for personal preference. Took this salad to a big family cookout. It went over very well. If you are looking for a different pasta salad this is it. It’s bright and refreshing. The only suggestion I would make is add a couple extra drops of the yellow food color. Thanks for the recipe!
A nice change of pace from the Italian and Greek pasta salad dressings. I used a variety of garden vegetables with shell pasta, as that’s what I had. I hope to have a reason to try the Tied Dyed effect sometime!
Please refer to the “Cook’s Note” if your personal choice is not to use food coloring 🙂 On a related note, if you are choosing to go for the tie dyed effect, the recipe should say to use regular rotini pasta, not the tri colored (though the tri colored is delightful if you forgo the coloring). Obviously, this isn’t an every night side, but something to mix things up a bit for a special occasion (the special occasion it was created for was a Tie Dyed themed baby shower). Regardless of your color stance, this is one of our family’s favorite pasta salads and a nice change of pace from the standard italian dressing based pasta salads. I do recommend adjusting the sugar to your personal preference. Enjoy!