Easy Vegan Pasta Salad Recipe

This plant-based pasta salad recipe is easy and versatile. I made it for our Thanksgiving dinner. Every year, most guests eat barbecue, and we grill veggies and vegan burgers, and there is regular lettuce salad, so I decided to add two extra vegan sides (a plant-based diet is better for the environment, so including vegan meals in your Thanksgiving dinner is a way of celebrating it more sustainably). First, I prepared vegan tofu ricotta, and then I made this pasta salad, because I didn’t have much time (a friend was visiting from New York), and I was reluctant to go out for groceries during the chaos that this holiday entails, so I wanted to use what I already had.

I love pasta, I think it’s the Italian blood flowing in my veins, or the simple fact that I’m human. However, I never eat it cold; it’s always with loads of tomato sauce in a burning-hot bowl, so it was nice changing it up a bit, and making up this recipe. As I’ve said before in other posts, I don’t follow recipes’ instructions very accurately. I mostly made them up on the go, depending on what ingredients I have, what I’m craving, and how much time I have.

Since I innovated a bit with this dish, I’m sharing with you this super easy gluten-free vegan pasta salad recipe, so you can prepare it when you have numerous guests coming over, or you just want to meal-prep for the week.

VEGAN PASTA SALAD RECIPE

INGREDIENTS YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE THIS EASY PLANT-BASED PASTA SALAD

• A box of gluten-free fusilli (or penne rigate / you can also use regular wheat pasta)

• Vegan Mozzarella

• Tomatoes

• Onion

• Spinach (optional)

• Olive Oil

• Salt

• Spices

In my case, I used Jovial’s gluten-free fusilli, but any kind of short pasta could work, even if you don’t want it to be gluten-free. Regarding the mozzarella, I used Oat Zarella, which I had just bought for the first time. Make sure you use a vegan mozzarella that you can cut in cubes (not shredded), so you can make it a kind of vegan caprese pasta salad.

As I had some spinach on my fridge, I cut it and put it on the salad to add extra taste and color. You can do this with any other ingredients you have in your fridge–for instance, basil. The same applies to the dressing, which in my case was mostly olive oil, to which I added some herbs and spices.

Put some water to boil for the pasta (add a little salt). Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes, onions and mozzarella in cubes.

Put the pasta in the boiling water until it’s cooked, according to the packaging’s instructions.

In a bowl, add some olive oil, paprika, black sesame seeds, and rosemary (or any herbs and spices you have or would like to use on your vegan pasta salad).

Drain the pasta, and put it in a big bowl. Add the tomatoes, onions, mozzarella, and the dressing. You can also add extra toppings, like spinach.

Vegan Pasta Salad Recipe

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━


Sides ┃ Salads

• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 12
• Total Time: 17 minutes
• Servings: 6
  
  
  

Ingredients:

• 1 box of fusilli
• 1 box of vegan mozzarella
• 3 tomatoes
• ½ onion
• Spinach for topping
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Spices and Herbs

Instructions:

1. Bring water to a boil in a large pot.
2. Cut tomatoes, onion and vegan mozzarella in cubes and place them in a big bowl.
3. In a smaller bowl, add olive oil, spices, and herbs, and mix.
4. Strain water. Add pasta to the bigger bowl with rest of ingredients, and mix. Add spinach as a topping.
   
   
   

If you’d like to see more vegan recipes, please don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter!

Hi, I’m Melina

I’m the creator of Sustainable Rookie, and my goal is to share what I learn throughout my sustainability journey, so that I can help other people live a more conscious life.

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy: