Pasta, White Bean, and Cabbage Salad With Caraway Dressing

Before you start filling out paperwork to have me committed, please just hear me out. I know that most sane people would take one look at "Pasta, White Bean, and Red Cabbage Salad With Caraway Dressing" and run screaming from the room. I mean, seriously, how many random ingredients can you put into one salad? But some night in the future when you serendipitously have leftover pasta AND leftover white beans in the fridge, you will think back to the crazy lady with that resourceful little recipe. This recipe is not for the faint of heart, it has quite a bite to it and I'm not sure if that comes from the raw garlic or crushed caraway or the raw onions or all of the above. Speaking of crushing caraway -- good luck with that. Seriously, I had my husband go at it for ten minutes with a mortar and pestle before I learned (just now) that you don't have to pulverize the seeds; you just want to crush 'em up a bit to get the flavor to come out. NOW you tell me! If you think you have the moxie to deal with this dish, it might become one of your favorite (weird) salads of all time.

Pasta, White Bean, and Cabbage Salad With Caraway Dressing - Serves 6+ (Modified from "1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes")

Salad:
4 c. cooked & cooled pasta (I vote for penne, because it has a nice chew to it)
2 c. coarsely chopped cabbage
2 c. cooked, drained, and rinsed white beans (you can use canned if you must)
1/4 c. minced onion
1 small red bell pepper, diced

Dressing:
1/2 c. vegan mayonnaise
1/2 c. vegan sour cream
2 tsp. lemon juice
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. crushed caraway seeds
1/4 tsp. salt
pepper to taste

Combine all of the salad ingredients, add dressing, chill & eat!