I love pasta, but try not to eat too much to keep me from a carb bombarding (I can really overeat pasta!). So this is a good way to eat pasta. There are a lot of other things in it, and you can still get a bit of pasta to overcome the craving.

The recipe cannot be easier. All you need to do is to cook the pasta and do some chopping. And yes, of course, you also need to deseed the pomegranate without turning your kitchen into a slaughterhouse.

I had the idea for this salad in my mind for a long time and made various versions for my customers. Recently I saw a similar pasta in a Turkish Youtube channel and decided to finally make a blog post for my version.

This is called a salad but it is so filling that you can easily eat it as a main dish and be full. Enjoy!
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Ingredients:

Difficulty: Easy
(serves 4 as a side dish, 2 as a main dish)

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

5 dl (or 2 cups or 200 gr) fusilli pasta*
1 large onion, thinly sliced
6 medium tomatoes, diced
200 gr toasted walnuts, coarsely crushed
seeds from 1 pomegranate
a handful of parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp sumac
1 tsp isot
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1.5 tsp salt, and more to taste
1 tsp dried mint
3 tbsp pomegranate syrup
3 tbsp olive oil

*You can use another kind of pasta as well. Farfalle can be a good option for example. You can also use gluten-free pasta.
Sumac: I got this from the oriental market “Mero” in Itäkeskus, Helsinki. It is a tangy, crimson spice. This spice is really important for the dish, so I highly recommend you find it. That’s why I can’t give you a substitute recommendation.
Isot: This is a type of dried chili pepper. If you can’t find it, you can replace it with more red pepper flakes.
Pomegranate syrup: From the oriental market.

1. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, drain well when cooked and put aside to cool down.

2. In a large salad bowl, put the sliced onion, rubbing the pieces a little with each other. Add tomatoes and mix while pressing a little with the back of your spoon to have the juices come out.

3. Add walnuts, pomegranate seeds and parsley and mix.

4. Add cooked pasta and mix.

5. Add sumac, isot, red pepper flakes, salt and mint and mix.

6. Add pomegranate syrup and olive oil and mix. Serve and enjoy right away. Leftovers are delicious too!