Penne Salad with Sesame-Orange Dressing

With its attractive appearance and fresh flavours, this salad perks up wilted appetites in mid-summer.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 250g Whole Wheat or Spelt Penne
• 1 carrot, quartered lengthwise and sliced
• 236g peas
• 1 small cucumber, quartered lengthwise and sliced
• 1/2 red or green pepper, seeded and diced
• 3 spring onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh coriander or flat leaf parsley, chopped

For dressing

• 78.07ml orange juice
• 3tbs tahini
• 1 1/2 tbs fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbs fresh ginger juice
• 1 tbs Clearspring Rice Malt Syrup
• 1 tbs Clearspring Toasted Sesame Oil
• 1 tbs Clearspring Shoyu Soya Sauce
• 1 tbs fresh coriander or flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 ts Dijon mustard
• 1/4 ts Clearspring Traditional Sea Salt
• 1/8 ts freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Cook the penne in plenty of boiling, salted water according to the directions on the pack, until ‘al dente'. Drain and immediately rinse with cold water until cool. Set aside.
2. Bring 1 litre of lightly salted water to the boil in a small saucepan, add the carrot, simmer for 1 minute, add the peas and cook for 2 more minutes. Immediately drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine the pennette, carrots, peas, cucumber, peppers, spring onions and coriander or parsley.
4. In a small bowl whisk all the dressing ingredients together until well blended. Drizzle about 78mls of dressing over the pasta and vegetables. Add more dressing, if desired. If the salad sits before serving, toss it again at the last minute.

Chef

John & Jan Belleme

John & Jan Belleme are leading autorities on the healing powers of traditional Japanese foods. Before turning his focus to food and health, John was a research biologist for the Veteran's association in Miami, Florida, and he worked in laboratories at the Universities of Miami Medical School and Harvard University Medical School.

For more than twenty-five years John has applied his background in medical research to interpreting the literature on traditional Japanese medicinal foods.

In 1979, after living and studying in Japan for over a year - where the Bellemes learned the craft of miso making firsthand - they co-founded the American Miso Company, one of the world's largest producers of traditional miso.

Since the 1980s the Bellemes have researched and written, and in many cases illustrated, over 130 published articles on the subject of Japanese foods, including four books: Culinary Treasures of Japan; Cooking with Japanese Foods: A Guide to the Traditional Natural Foods of Japan; Clearspring - The Real Taste of Japan and The Miso Book.

John and Jan travel throughout the eastern United States giving lectures about authentic Japanese foods, and every winter, with partner Sandy Pukel, organise a week-long health cruise that features prominent experts in macrobiotic cooking, healthy living, holistic medicine, yoga, meditation, shiatsu, Pilates, and natural beauty aids. They live in Saluda, North Carolina.