Curried Spaghetti Salad

Today’s recipe is from a cookbook “Spaghetti, America’s favorite pasta”. This book has 'n' number of ways spaghetti can be cooked and various ways it can be served. One such way is to serve it is as a salad; cooked spaghetti tossed with flavored oil. Garlic, chili flakes and curry powder are roasted in hot oil and poured over spaghetti. This salad is mildly spiced, flavorful and a filling lunch. This was our lunch today and both of us liked it.

I followed the recipe with few changes. I substituted oyster sauce with soya sauce and used twice the quantity of shrimp. Both of us like shrimp, hence used double the quantity than called for in the recipe. Store bought cooked shrimp is used for the salad but I marinated raw shrimp with spices, sauteed in some oil and added it to the salad. If one is like my husband who is not very fond of pasta / spaghetti with sauces, this salad is perfect way to serve spaghetti. Last year when I made the spaghetti with lemon sauce, husband liked it a lot and was hoping he would like this as well, and he did. Here is another picture of the salad on white background.

Source: Joie Warner’s Spaghetti
Total Time: 23 - 35 minutes
Preparation: 10 - 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 13 - 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 6 oz. / 170 grams Spaghetti, broken in half
• ½ - 1 lb. Raw Shrimp, peeled (I used 30-45 count 1 lb raw shrimp but cooked shrimp can be used)
• 2 tbsp. Olive Oil, divided
• 1 large Garlic Clove, finely chopped
• ⅛ tsp. Chili Flakes
• 1 tablespoon Curry Powder (I used Rajah brand Hot Madras Curry Powder)
• 1 tbsp. Oyster Sauce (I substituted it with light Soya Sauce)
• 1 - 1 ½ tbsp. Lemon Juice
• Zest of ½ lemon
• ½ small - medium sized Red Bell Pepper, sliced or julienned
• 2 Green Onions, only green part finely sliced (I used both green and white part)
• ½ cup coarsely chopped Basil
• ¼ tsp. Salt

For Shrimp:

• ¼ tsp. Chili Flakes
• ⅛ tsp. curry Powder
• ¼ - ½ tsp. Salt (I used ½ tsp.)

Preparation:

• Cooking Spaghetti - Bring 6 - 8 cups of water to boil. Add ½ tsp. salt, spaghetti and cook until al dente. This takes about 11 - 13 minutes. Drain spaghetti, run under cold water and keep aside until ready to use.
• Cooking Shrimp - While the water is boiling, marinate shrimp with all the ingredients listed under “For Shrimp” and marinate for 15 minutes.
• In a pan take 1 tbsp. of oil and saute shrimp until cooked. Transfer to a big serving bowl.
• Flavored Oil - In the same pan, heat remaining 1 tbsp. of oil, add garlic and chili flakes on medium high heat and saute until garlic is light brown.
• Add curry powder and stir continuously for few seconds. Curry powder will become dark brown and do not let it burn. Remove from heat.
• Add oyster sauce or soya sauce to pan and stir. Transfer to shrimp bowl.
• Salad - Add cooked spaghetti to the shrimp & flavored oil bowl, and toss until well mixed.
• Add rest of the ingredients and toss again. Do a taste test and adjust salt to taste, toss again and serve.