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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!
Delish! I couldn’t get mint, so just subbed in a little more parsley. Added one red radish for some extra crunch and used regular block feta which I cut into cubes. Served of way more arugula and spring mix greens to turn it into a full meal. Another recipe I wouldn’t mind taking to a party!
I liked it! Of course, I used millet/rice ramen noodles, chickpeas, romaine because I didn’t have arugula, much less olive oil, zoodles for part of the pasta… Otherwise, I think I followed the recipe. I didn’t use any cheese.
Used a gluten free pasta and fresh tomatoes – great salad that makes a meal!
Great pasta salad – delicious and filling! I assembled it in a different order – mixed the dressing right in the bowl and added the warm pasta first to infuse some of the flavor before adding the beans and lastly the veggies and herbs.
Would you assemble the same way if you were saving it for a couple days? I put the dressing on the bottom then layer the tougher items like celery, red pepper, beans, lettuce/greens, then the pasta last (maybe some oil on the pasta), then when I’m ready to eat it I flip the whole thing over and shake it up and it’s great!
Hi Kathy! Yes! I’d make it the same, just put in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to eat.
Minus the maple syrup and the peppermint, this was a great dinner. I did put in 2 cloves of garlic and used a regular yellow onion. we. really enjoy the garlic and onions with red wine vinegar. The feta put it over. top My husband and I really enjoyed this recipe
I really enjoyed this salad today. I made it with chickpea pasta for gluten free and it was perfect in with all the rest of the ingredients. I skipped the vegan feta cheese this time. It is delicious both ways.
One of my faves. Love everything about it especially the dressing which I make often.
Wow! The healthy Pasta Salad was so tasty. What a great surprise. It was bursting with flavor! My husband loved it too. I’m going to keep this recipe for any party I go to where I can bring a dish. I guarantee that EVERYONE will want the recipe. For the win!
The pasta salad wasn’t my favorite and I LOVE pasta. I made it the day before and it was dry. I don’t know that I am a fan of the dressing. It was just okay. Maybe I should have waited until today to put the dressing on. The sun dried tomatoes were a surprise. Didn’t think I would like them.
Healthy pasta salad has great dressing.
I love the chewy textures of the sundried tomatoes, beans, pasta, and olives paired with crisp arugula and fresh herbs. It’s a delicious combination and another salad to make again!
So filling and delicious! This is the best pasta salad ever! I highly recommend!!!
This was a fantastic pasta salad! I added radish and cucumber for extra crunch. Will be making this all summer!
I’m not a big fan of pasta salads, but this one was good! Probably because it has arugula, which I love. It was easy to make enough to serve more people too. I’m thinking I’ll make this my go to pasta salad for potlucks!
Made this as suggested, except, I can’t do peppers, so left out the red pepper and I had Spring mix that was going bad, so I used that instead of arugula. The vinaigrette dressing is incredibly delicious!
Will definitely be making this one again!
This was the first pasta salad that I’ve made and I loved it. The vinaigrette was great, the beans made it more filling and I liked the salad with arugula and the additional veggies. I’ll definitely make this again.