I love my bike rides to and from work, but they have a tendency to deliver me home absolutely famished—and I am not known for being patient when I am famished. This has, on more than one occasion, led me to have frozen mangoes and beer for dinner. I make no apologies, that is a delicious dinner, if not somewhat nutritionally unbalanced. Anyhow, this tasty dinner was borne out of such a bike ride hunger, which means it is quick, easy, and delicious! Nutritional balance is a plus.
I started with marinated artichoke hearts. I am in love with them as of late. Bite sells these fantastic looking $50 jars of them (there must be at least 10L of artichokes there) and I am sorely tempted to buy one and eat nothing but artichoke studded everything for a week or two. So, yes, this became a pasta salad after I decided I probably shouldn’t have artichokes and brie for dinner two nights in a row.
Macaroni was my pasta of, well, default, because it was either that or lasagna noodles. It worked out well. I added a can of drained & rinsed chickpeas for flavour, and a healthy amount of torn up greens from our neighbor’s garden.
And now for the flavour punch—a hefty hunk of Boursin garlic & herb cheese. Practically an entire package, really. I will likely sweat garlic on my ride to work tomorrow. Worth it.
A drizzle of good olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada) and a few good grinds of a nice black pepper pull it all together. Fantastic!
Boursin & Artichoke Macaroni Salad
2 cups dry macaroni
1½ cups marinated artichoke hearts
4 cups fresh mixed greens, rinsed, de-stemmed, and torn into bite-sized pieces
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2/3 cup crumbled garlic & herb Boursin cheese
½ tsp freshly ground black pepperNice olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada), to serve
Cook the macaroni according to package directions and drain. Stir in the artichoke hearts, fresh greens, chickpeas, Boursin, and black pepper.
Serve with a drizzle of nice olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada) and a few grinds of black pepper.
