Vegan Southwest Pasta Salad
on Jul 20, 2022, Updated Aug 15, 2024
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This creamy vegan Southwest pasta salad is delicious anytime but especially during the warm summer months. It’s light, refreshing, full of flavor, and perfect as a main dish, side dish or appetizer!
This salad has bell peppers, onion, beans and tomato, so it’s a great way to get more plant-based foods into your diet. Not to mention – it’s packed with flavour thanks to the chipotle dressing! For something similar but with a lighter dressing, you might enjoy this Vegan Black Bean Pasta Salad with Lime Dressing.
If you’re in need of a fantastic side dish for a party, picnic, barbecue, or just for dinner at home, this creamy pasta salad is hard to beat.
The salad has bell peppers, onion, beans and tomato, so it’s a great way to get more plant-based foods into your diet. Not to mention – it’s packed with flavour thanks to the chipotle dressing!
We love this Easy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Salad Recipe and Easy Vegan Cold Pesto Pasta Salad too!
Recipe Highlights
- Vegetarian and vegan (dairy-free), as well as easily made gluten-free.
- Quick & easy! You can put this together in about a half hour.
- Great for entertaining.
- Provides 18 grams of plant-based protein and 11 g of fiber per serving – or more if you use whole wheat pasta!
- Versatile! It can work as a side dish, appetizer, or light lunch or dinner.
- Full of flavor thanks to Tex-Mex/Southwestern favorites like chipotle powder, lime, and roasted corn.
- It’s wonderful for meal prep as the flavours get even better after storing.
Ingredients
- Pasta: This recipe calls for about 375 g of rotini pasta. However, you can substitute it for your favourite kind, including gluten-free or whole wheat varieties. Small pasta shapes like bows, mini shells, macaroni, fusilli and penne work best.
- Black Beans: Canned black beans work or you can use chickpeas, kidney beans or pinto beans. I like black beans best for this recipe though.
- Corn kernels: Use fresh, thawed and drained frozen, or canned corn, depending on what’s available to you. Fresh is best during the late summer months when corn is in season!
- Olive oil: You’ll need 2 tsp to roast the corn. Avocado oil and canola oil are good substitutes. It’s best not to omit the oil since it prevents the corn from drying out!
- Smoked Paprika: If you don’t have smoked paprika you can add regular paprika but the smoked paprika does add a nice hint of smoky flavour to the salad.
- Chipotle Powder: If you don’t have the chipotle powder you can use 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce or 2-3 tsp of the adobo sauce from the can.
- Roasted cashews: You can use roasted or raw cashews for the dressing but roasted cashews add a nice layer of flavour. We’ll cover some options for making this recipe nut-free below.
- Tomato: You can use grape tomato, cherry tomato or Roma tomato.
- Bell Peppers: The recipe calls for red bell pepper but you can use any colour of bell pepper such as green or yellow bell pepper.
- Jalapeno: Be sure to de-seed the jalapeno and wash well (and wash hands well after handling!). Poblano pepper would work as a substitute.
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 & Additions
- Add diced avocado as a topping upon serving.
- Add up to 1 cup of sliced black olives.
- Add up to 1 cup of finely chopped scallions (green onion).
- Sprinkle with feta cheese, cotija cheese, queso fresco or grated cheddar for serving.
- Southwest Macaroni Salad: Use macaroni noodles instead of rotini.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Before You Start: Place the cashews in a bowl and cover with 1 cup of boiling water. Soak them for at least 15 minutes or until the water is cool. You can leave them up to 8 hours so this can be done in advance.
Step 1: In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook your pasta according to package instructions. Once cooked, drain and rinse well under cold water. This will stop the cooking and help prevent the pasta from sticking together once cooled.
Step 2: While the pasta is cooking, mix together the corn kernels, diced jalapeno, and olive oil in a medium-sized bowl (or just mix on the baking tray). Place this mixture evenly on a baking sheet and roast in the oven on broil for 2 minutes.
Give it a stir and then place it back in the oven for an additional 2 minutes or until the corn is golden brown. Remove it from the oven and let cool.
Step 3: Once the cashews have soaked, add the cashews and water to a blender along with the spices, garlic, lime juice, and zest. Blend until completely smooth.
If needed, you may need a little water to adjust the consistency. It should be thick and creamy but able to be poured from the blender.
Quick Tip: When preparing the lime zest, make sure you’re using the green peel only and not the bitter white pith underneath. A citrus zester works best for this!
Step 4: Once the pasta is cooked and the corn has cooled, place it all in a large bowl with the onion, peppers, cherry tomatoes, and black beans. Pour in your dressing and mix thoroughly.
You can serve it immediately, but like many pasta salads, it’s best to let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour. That way, all the flavours really come together!
Season with additional salt and pepper, if needed, and serve your pasta salad topped with cilantro and fresh lime wedges on the side.
Quick Tip: If you’re not serving the salad right away, consider adding half of the dressing now and reserving the other half for just before serving. The pasta soaks up the sauce as it sits so the salad will dry out a bit over time.
FAQs
Yes. To make this recipe without cashews, substitute 3/4 cup vegan or regular mayonnaise or plain Greek yogurt (not vegan).
You could also use a store-bought chipotle ranch, Southwest or other bottled salad dressing you enjoy.
The recipe is not gluten-free as written but can easily be made gluten-free by using your choice of gluten-free pasta such as brown rice pasta, chickpea pasta or quinoa pasta.
Notes & Tips
- Timing: Start a pot of boiling water for the pasta and get the cashews soaking right away. While you wait, chop up the fresh ingredients so you’re ready to go.
- Serving Size: This recipe can easily be cut in half or doubled as needed.
- No-Cook: You can skip the roasted corn and just fresh, canned or thawed frozen to make this even easier with cooking involved.
- Spiciness: For more heat, add up to 1/2 tsp cayenne or red chili flakes. You can also add more chipotle powder or 1-2 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce.
Storing & Making Ahead
- If you’re not serving the salad right away, consider adding half of the dressing and reserving half for just before serving. The pasta continues to soak up the sauce so the salad will dry out a bit after storing.
- Fridge: Keep it in the fridge for up to 4-5 days. Use a sealed container.
- Freezing: This recipe is not suitable for freezing.
- Making Ahead: You can make the whole salad ahead of time or do a partial prep to speed things up by chopping up the veggies and make the dressing a day ahead of time. If the dressing is very thick after storing, you can thin it out with a little water.
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to comment section below to leave your star rating and review.
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Vegan Southwest Pasta Salad
Ingredients
For the Pasta Salad
- 375 g rotini pasta
- 2 cups corn kernels, 150 g
- 2 jalapeno, diced (50 g)
- 2 tsp olive or avocado oil
- 1 small red onion, diced (160 g)
- 2 medium red peppers, diced (350 g)
- 1- pint cherry tomato, halved (254 g)
- 1 398 mL can of black beans, drained and rinsed (1.5 cup approx.)
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
For the Southwest Dressing
- 1 cup roasted cashews, 125 g
- 1 cup boiling water
- ½ tsp chipotle powder
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 garlic clove, 5 g
- 3 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp lime zest
Instructions
- Soak the Cashews: In a small bowl, cover the roasted cashews with 1 cup of boiling water. Let cashews soak for at least 15 minutes or until the water is no longer hot. This can be done up to 8 hours in advance.
- Cook Pasta: In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook your pasta according to package instructions. Once cooked, drain and rinse well under cold water to stop the cooking and prevent sticking.
- Roast Corn & Jalapeno: While the pasta is cooking, preheat the oven to Broil. Add the corn and jalapeno to a baking tray along with the oil and toss to coat. Spread in an even layer. roast in the oven on broil for 2 minutes, remove and stir around with a spoon. Place back in the oven for an additional 2 minutes or until the corn is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool.
- Blend the Southwest Dressing: Once the cashews are done soaking, place the cashews and water into a blender along with the other spices, garlic, lime juice and zest.
- Assemble the Pasta Salad: Once pasta is ready and corn has cooled, place in a large bowl with the onions, peppers, cherry tomato and black beans. Pour in the cashew dressing and mix thoroughly. Note: If you’re not serving right away, consider adding half the dressing and reserving half to add just before serving so the pasta doesn’t absorb all the sauce.
- Garnish & Serve: Season with salt and pepper if needed and garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve with a wedge of lime and enjoy!
Deryn! My girl! This is THE most amazing, cool, creamy, DELICIOUS pasta salad EVER! I’ll admit I was more than a little bit skeptical about using cashews for the dressing, but am here to tell you that my doors were BLOWN OFF when I tasted it for the first time! Like, WOAH! All my tiny tastebuds were dancing around in delight – it was a flippin’ flavor exPLOSion in my mouth! I was also a bit nervous about the chili, chipotle, and jalapeño peppers because my spice tolerance is practically nonexistent, but it was the perfect amount to add the flavors without the intense heat and sweating. LOL. Now I want it for salads, wraps, sandwiches, breakfast scrambles & omelettes, even French fries!
Just try it ONCE, y’all! That’s all I ask. I can almost guarantee you will LOVE it too!
Haha, thank you so much! So glad you loved it.
This dressing was soo good! I’m going to save the recipe to put on regular veggie bowls too! Delicious, another win! Thank you
Thank you so much, Jennifer! I appreciate the kind review 🙂 glad you enjoyed.