Vegan Pesto Pasta Salad

It’s also super easy to customize. You can make it as simple as pasta and pesto. You can skip the olives if you’re not a fan. You can add nuts, cheese or more veggies like green peas, cucumber, sun dried tomatoes or artichokes.

For more cold noodle salads, this Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad with Tangy Dressing and Vegan Cold Buckwheat Noodles with Miso Sauce are delicious.

For more pasta salads, this Vegan Black Bean Pasta Salad with Lime Dressing, Pesto Orzo Pasta Salad with Chickpeas, Easy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Salad Recipe and Creamy Southwest Pasta Salad are great!

Ingredient Notes

• Basil: You’ll need fresh basil for this recipe.
• Olive Oil: You’ll need just a little oil for the pesto sauce. This gives the salad a nice creamy texture.
• Garlic: Fresh garlic is best here!
• Nutritional Yeast: Nutritional yeast stands in for parmesan in the pesto sauce. New to this ingredient? What is nutritional yeast?
• Lemon: You’ll need a whole fresh lemon to make the juice and zest. These ingredients make the salad bright, fresh and zesty!
• Pasta: You can use any kind of pasta shape you enjoy but a spiral shape like fusilli works well since it has lots of surface area to hold the pesto so you get more goodness in every bite. Other bite-sized shapes like penne and bows also work well.
• Tomato: You can use cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes or any diced fresh tomato like Roma.
• Olives: The recipe calls for black olives but you can also use kalamata or another olive you enjoy.
• Red Onion: This could be substituted with shallot if needed.

This list is not complete. Please see the recipe card at the end of the post for the complete ingredient list with measurements and detailed instructions.

Variations

• Hot or Cold: This recipe can be served as a hot pesto pasta dish or a cold pasta salad.
• Simple Pesto Pasta Salad: Omit all the salad ingredients and simply mix the pesto with your choice of pasta.
• Creamy Pesto Pasta: To make the pesto sauce creamy, you can add up to 1/3 cup mayonnaise of choice.
• Pesto Pasta Salad with Feta: Serve with your choice of crumbled or cubed feta, such as this homemade tofu feta or any store-bought feta. A scoop of this tofu ricotta would also be yummy as an alternative to feta.
• Other Cheeses: You may want to serve your pesto pasta topped with parmesan cheese or add cubed mozzarella to the salad.
• Other Vegetables: This salad makes a great base for different veggies. Try steamed or roasted zucchini, cucumber, green peas, pepperconcini peppers, olives, artichokes or sun-dried tomatoes.
• Adding Protein: To add a protein source to this recipe, cook it separately and serve on top or mix it in at the end. For plant-based options, try a meat-alternative like sausage, baked tofu, tempeh, chickpeas or hemp seeds.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Start by bringing a large pot of salted water to a boil on the stovetop. Cook your pasta according to the package instructions, just a little past al dente..]

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and rinse it well under cold water to prevent sticking, tossing to make sure all the pieces get rinsed off.

Step 2: Add all of the pesto ingredients, starting with 2 tbsp of water, to a small blender or mini food processor and mix until smooth.

Once blended, slowly add a little more water to adjust the consistency, if needed.

Quick Note: This pesto is lighter than a traditional pesto. It’s more of a dressing than a thick, chunky pesto. If you want to make it chunkier, you can add up to 1/3 cup pine nuts, walnuts, green peas or blanched almonds.

Step 3: Add all of the ingredients, pasta and pesto to a large bowl.. Mix until all ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the salad and the pasta is well-coated in the pesto.

You can enjoy your salad right away or chill for 1-2 hours in the fridge to give the flavours time to meld together.

Storing

Store any leftover salad in a sealed container in the fridge for up 4 days. If you’re meal prepping, split it up into servings in containers before hand and store until you’re ready to enjoy.

If you’re making it in advance, store in the fridge until just before serving. It’s okay at room temperature for an hour or so but try to keep it cool.