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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!
I cheated. Yesterday (Monday), I took this salad my daughters for lunch for three. (Monday’s salad was dessert.) Hubby wasn’t able to come, so I left his salad in the fridge. I doubled the salad recipe accordingly and tripled the Basic Vinaigrette recipe, as Hubby and my son-in-law go heavy on dressings and sauces. I used baby spinach in place of arugula and added sliced avocado on the three salads. I did modify the tripled basic vinaigrette a bit: I used white Modena vinegar instead of red wine vinegar, added 3/4 tsp fresh ground coriander, and used 3 small cloves of garlic–we like garlic. I plated the salads, drizzled 2 Tbsp dressing over each salad, and left the dressing on the table for anyone who wanted more and set out shredded cheese for those who wanted it. The salad was fantastic!! I’d give it more than 5 stars if I could. It wowed everyone just as served! No one added dressing or wanted the cheese. It is very hardy and kept us full well into the evening. So far in the salad challenge, this is my #1 favorite, and that is saying a lot because all of the others were excellent. I will be making this salad on a regular basis. The dressing will be my go-to dressing year-round. I can see modifications to make the dressing Southwest/Mexican, Greek, or Indian.
I love pasta salad and this one is delicious!
I’m not a fan of arugula, so I took your suggestion and used Organic Baby Spinach. I love pasta salads. This one did not disappoint.
I really like that the ingredients are from my kitchen and have no artificial preservatives. The salad is delicious!
This has such a pleasant flavor! I’m not fond of pasta salads generally, but I’m glad I tried this. There’s plenty of tasty veg in this, which I believe is what makes it so delicious! And btw I recommend using the arugula. I don’t like strong-tasting greens on their own, but in this salad the arugula works well as part of the overall taste experience.
Dear Jen,
I am wondering what you think of the fact that much of the bagged greens are washed in chlorine and are wrapped in a petroleum product? I appreciate the care with which you offer excellent suggestions. I do whole food cooking for those who have compromised immune systems due to chemo and I try to learn all that I can.
With Appreciation,
Janice
I like this it’s different
I have variety
Plus I like make the salad dressing from scratch. I didn’t add the garlic though since I can’t have it
Best pasta salad ever! I added some fresh strawberry tomatoes and halved the amount of olive oil because the sundried tomatoes were kind of oily already. I will definitely make this again.
Love this recipe – easy and delicious!!
I so wished to try this as a pasta salad, but left the pasta at home when we traveled, so I used my daughter’s zucchini spirals. The beans added a good source of protien and the vinaigrette was tasty! I can’t wait to try this is a real pasta salad! I had basil and chives and feta, so why not?
way to make this Healthy Pasta Salad even healthier with zoodles!! You RAWK! 🙂
This was a good, basic pasta salad recipe. I don’t eat a lot of pasta, due to carbs & gluten. So I substituted gluten-free pasta. It was just okay. May have tasted better with regular pasta. I used regular feta.
This was pretty good but we didn’t find it fantastic. It may have improved with aging. We ate it right after it was made without giving the flavors much time to meld.
Delicious!! I love pasta salads all year round.
Of all the salads I have made so far in the challenge, this one, by far, was the easiest to make with yummy, simple ingredients that combined to make a simply superb meal. I was doubtful of the white beans combined with pasta and the herb choices (mint? Who knew!)but it worked beautifully. My only concern would be that I would dial back the amount of dressing on the salad but otherwise I would not change a thing! Well done.
I loved it. I am not a traditional Caesar salad fan, but I love this version. The cheese sprinkle was also a great addition.
This was good, but I like a dressing with more punch.
Would up the mustard and vinegar.