Sweet and Sour Pasta Salad

Nancy made a pasta salad for dinner tonight.  It was very tasty.

Sweet and Sour Pasta Salad – original recipe from Food.com By Danielle in New Hampshire  Nancy's changes in bold italics 
Added March 19, 2002 | Recipe #23049

INGREDIENTS

Servings: 16
1 (16 ounce) package tri-color spiral pasta – based on comments on the website, I used an 8oz package, and used Ancient Harvest Quinoa Supergrain rotelle
1 medium red onion – I substituted green onion
1 medium tomato, chopped – substituted celery, steamed carrot slices, tiny broccoli florets
1 medium cucumber, peeled, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped – substituted peeled and chopped kohlrabi
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley - omitted
Dressing – one of the comments on the original recipe said there wasn’t enough dressing, so even though I cut the pasta in half, I didn’t cut the dressing in half, especially since I had more veggies
1 1/2 cup sugar – I used 1 cup.  
1/2 cup vinegar – it didn’t say, so I used a mix of white vinegar and apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 teaspoon garlic powder

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

1 Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse with cold water.  Add a little olive oil to keep from sticking.
2  Place in large serving bowl, add onion, tomato, cucumber, green pepper and parsley veggies, set aside.
3  In a saucepan combine the dressing ingredients, cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until sugar is dissolved.
4  Pour over salad and toss.
5  Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Hah. We couldn’t wait. It will probably be better tomorrow, though.
6  Serve with slotted spoon.