Craft A Heartier Pasta Salad By Using Frozen Potstickers

Pasta salad can be made in a variety of ways, from the traditional way to a unconventional one, like adding salmon and dill to the recipe. Picture it: You're at a picnic in the park and a couple of varieties of pasta salad rest on an idyllic, weathered wooden table. Pasta is the star in each salad, likely something like a fusilli, macaroni, or orzo to capture all of the delicious dressing and accompanying vegetables. But adding potstickers to your standard pasta salad is just a little more unique, with the extra benefit of bringing some hands-off heartiness to the dish.

Once you've perfected your recipe and avoided the common mistakes when making pasta salad, potstickers are just the addition to keep things interesting. Whether you're working with a pork, chicken, beef, or seafood potsticker, or keeping it plant-based, the wrapper brings a different, gentle texture, while the denser filling packs a savory punch.

Once your pasta salad is prepared but still undressed, check your packaged potsticker's sodium content, because many of the frozen brands available at the grocery store will already be salty. If that's the case, you'll want to reduce the amount of salt in your main pasta salad recipe, adjusting the seasonings if needed once it's all mixed up. Once cooked, toss in the potstickers with your pasta salad. Keep in mind, one component that upgrades a good pasta salad to a great one is uniformly-sized ingredients. 

You'll also want to carefully consider how to dress your potsticker pasta salad. In most cases, thicker, mayo-based coatings, and thinner, vinegar-type blends will perform interchangeably well. However, for a pot sticker pasta salad, you might want to skip the creamier dressing and opt for a vinegar base dressing. The more fluid option will complement the potstickers better, while also keeping the whole, newly fortified medley on the lighter side.