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I have a hard time eating leftovers for lunch every day. Instead, I’m always hunting easy yet tasty lunches that don’t take much prep work. I know that sounds like a unicorn, but it’s not! My healthy pasta salad checks all the boxes (and has a good amount of protein as well). Feel free to keep it a vegan with the vegan feta or toss in your favorite cheese if you can tolerate it.
While I created this healthy pasta salad with lunch in mind, it works great as a shareable side at as a healthy BBQ side dish, potluck or family meal.
How to Make Healthy Pasta Salad
I set out to create this healthy pasta salad after Rawkstar Jennifer told me she was looking for quick and healthy recipes that her high schooler could take to school. I love how the different flavors mix in this recipe without meat or dairy.
Cook the pasta
Follow cooking directions on the pasta package, allowing the pasta to remain slightly undercooked. This will help keep the pasta from falling apart in the salad. Drain and rinse with cold water until pasta is completely cool, then drain well again.
Prepare the vinaigrette
While the pasta is cooling, mix all the Basic Vinaigrette ingredients in a bowl until combined.
Mix in vegetables
Place cooled pasta into a large bowl and add the vegetables and herbs. Gently toss.
Add dressing and mix well
Drizzle Basic Vinaigrette over the pasta salad and gently toss again. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Meal Prepping Tip
Transfer the salad to airtight containers and store it in the refrigerator until ready to use. Follow my Meal Prep Salad tutorial to get the best containers and more in-depth tips.
Pasta Salad Ingredient Swaps
Probably my favorite part about this healthy pasta salad lunch is how much you can customize it to your taste preferences! Here are a few swaps I suggest if you want to try them:
- Swap olive oil with avocado oil.
- Swap red wine vinegar with the vinegar of your choice.
- Use your preferred pasta type, or use gluten-free.
- Cannellini beans can be swapped with another kind of legume (black beans, kidney beans or chickpeas are great swaps).
- Add the veggies of your choice! Radishes or cucumbers are great additions.
- Feel free to add nuts or seeds for an extra crunch.
I have a hard time eating the same thing over again, even when it’s as delicious as this vegan pasta salad. So you’ll find mine with a slight variation every time I make it, and that’s fine.
Storage Tips
Toss the salad well in the dressing as this helps it keep well in the fridge. Store in individual serving airtight containers to grab when you need to quickly. If you like your greens extra fresh, then wait to add those until you’re ready to eat, so they don’t wilt.
More Healthy Pasta Recipes
If you don’t use leftovers to fuel your lunch, you need to make or buy them every day. I love batching easy recipes for lunch that we can grab throughout the week. Here are a few more pasta recipes:
- Vegetable Noodle Soup: Instead of suffering through your next cold, turn to my vegetable noodle soup for the best home remedy recipe to kick that cold to the curb.
- Vegetarian Noodle Salad– toss together and enjoy throughout the week.
Take the guesswork out of lunch when you double or triple a recipe, then save it for the days ahead. The vegan pasta salad below is filling and doesn’t even need to be heated up to enjoy.
Healthy Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- ½ cup farfalle pasta
- ¾ cup arugula pre-washed
- ¾ cup cannellini beans canned, drained and well rinsed
- ¼ red bell pepper diced
- 1 green onion diced
- 2 tbsp black olives sliced
- 2 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes in oil
- 2 tbsp fresh basil, mint and parsley chopped
- ¼ cup vegan feta optional
Basic Vinaigrette
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- ½ garlic clove finely minced
- ⅛ tsp sea salt
- ⅛ tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- Follow cooking directions on pasta package for "al dente" (which allows pasta to remain slightly undercooked). This will help keep the pasta from falling apart in the salad. Drain and rinse with cold water until pasta is completely cool.
- While the pasta is cooling, mix all the Basic Vinaigrette ingredients together in a bowl until combined.
- Place cooled pasta into a large bowl and add the vegetables and herbs. Gently toss. Drizzle Basic Vinaigrette over the pasta salad and gently toss again. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- If meal prepping, transfer the salad to airtight containers and store in refrigerator until ready to use.
Notes
- Use the pasta of your choice: bowtie, fusilli, shells, etc.
- Arugula has a strong, peppery flavor. You can swap with kale or spinach.
- Cannellini beans can be swapped with the legume of your choice.
- I love using basil, oregano and chives yet you can any fresh herbs.
Nutrition
Top Healthy Pasta Salad Questions
It doesn’t have to be! Ditch the store-made pasta salads made with additives and processed ingredients. Home make one instead with loads of fresh greens and a light, oil-based dressing.
This pasta salad should stay fresh in the fridge for up to five days since it is oil-based. Dairy or mayo-based salads will keep fewer days.
Choose a pasta salad that is oil-based (using healthy fats like olive oil or avocado oil) instead of dairy or mayonnaise-based, has plenty of fresh veggies and leafy greens and a good protein source like beans or tofu. This recipe’s got it all!
This was the best pasta salad I’ve ever had! I will add this to my rotation immediately. The flavors were perfect!
The best?! Whoo hoo!!
I love pasta salads, and this is one I will keep in my rotation. I love the addition of fresh herbs, and the sun dried tomatoes.
Great Sunday Salad
This was very tasty. Again, the combination of all the ingredients bursting with flavor was very statisfying.
This was a very tasty salad, I can’t eat pasta so swapped out with miracle noodles and it worked well, love the herb combo
A quick tasty pasta salad that can be a main meal. Great to find a recipe that can be complete in about 20 minutes. I left out the vegan feta but added pine nuts. I also used more of everything except the pasta I used about 4 oz. fed a group of 8 as a side with plenty left over. Next time I’d add more herbs
Love this salad. A pleasant change from the traditional salads. I love all the various flavors coming together. Will definitely make this one again.
Adding the beans was a nice change. All the other ingredients were my usuals and the dressing was light and flavorful.
This pasta rawked!! Love me some pasta salad leftovers!!
Reposted as I forgot to rate the recipe! 5 stars!
I’ve never really liked pasta salads before because they felt so heavy, but this was chock full of other ingredients that it made this salad light, bursting with flavour and a party of textures. I switched up the cannelloni beans for chickpeas that I had on hand (and they are one of my fav beans!) and absolutely LOVE this salad! Loved the hits of mint and sun dried tomatoes. Win!
So perfect to sub in the cannelloni beans!
I’ve never really liked pasta salads before because they felt so heavy, but this was chock full of other ingredients that it made this salad light, bursting with flavour and a party of textures. I switched up the cannelloni beans for chickpeas that I had on hand (and they are one of my fav beans!) and absolutely LOVE this salad! Loved the hits of mint and sun dried tomatoes. Win!
Loved this! The textures and flavors pleasantly complemented each other for a wonderfully filling salad! I will be making this salad often.
Colorful and tasty salad. However, hours later, I am still feeling the acid and herbs. In the future, I might make a greatly simplified version of this salad with only a few key ingredients. It is beautiful as is, but spending two hours washing, drying and chopping is a bit much for me. Much as I have enjoyed the salads and an increase in energy, I am remembering why I never make them.
Never been a fan of pasta salads but THIS one!!! Its so so good!! I added olives, kale, grape tomatoes and cucumbers as extras and it was so filling!! I love how it was a simple dressing and honestly helped bring out the flavours of the veg! Super yummy and filling and not heavy at all!!
My boyfriend and I thought this was delicious at first bite!
This salad is truly delicious! I love the pasta and the dressing and the veggies. The salad is easy to make and is great for lunch and tastes amazing!