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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 is a great salad, very filling and fresh.
So good!! Especially after a long bike ride this morning- yum!
I don’t usually go for pasta salad, but I loved this one. Thank you for helping me try new things.
I’ve personally never made a pasta salad before, and I was very surprised by the lively tastes.
I’m so glad you stepped out of your comfort zone and tried this one!
Liked the flavor of this salad however don’t love to eat pasta that much but my family does so may try with quinoa next time,.
I rarely make pasta salads, but this one has become a new favorite. It’s got so many delicious components (I especially LOVE sun dried tomatoes!). And as a bonus, it tastes as good warm as it does cold 🙂
Made this recipe for lunch today, my husband and I both enjoyed it. I used a whole wheat fusilli pasta. Yum. Love the dressing too! Made a double batch so we have leftovers.
Day #7. Admittedly, I’m not the biggest fan of arugula. But it surely works so well in this salad. Delicious!!!
Score a win for the arugula! Glad you tried it and liked it in this salad!
Another winner!
I used some leftover perogies from a recent local #SaveUkraine fundraiser instead of pasta to great effect in this recipe. Fresh herbs really adds flavour and texture. I skipped the olives as they’re a
Hard no for me and added cucumber and grape tomatoes as well as sundried. Toasted pine nuts for garnish and #yum.
Looking forward to even more flavour in these prepped for lunch this week.
Love this one! I added 1/2 T more red wine vinegar.
While this was good, it has been my least favorite. I’m not a big vinaigrette fan as I just typically taste the vinegar. I did swap out sun-dried tomatoes for grape tomatoes (I needed to use them) and I didn’t add olives as I just can’t do them. I’m going to give this a try again tomorrow and let the flavors meld more.
I like a pasta salad and this was delicious. I liked the beans and herbs. I don’t normally use a dressing and loved this. Will make this again
Delicious pasta salad! I usually use an oil and vinegar dressing in my pasta salads, but this was a definite upgrade! I loved the addition of the fresh herbs, although I did not have the parsley. This salad easily doubled, but I kept the arugula and feta separate and will add at serving time. I also used regular feta, as I couldn’t find vegan feta. Will definitely make again!
This is my favorite recipe so far. I do love pasta. A variety of flavors. I might try with the tahini dressing next time.
I love the addition of beans to this salad to add more fiber and protein to the meal! Fabulous mixture of flavors and textures as well! Thank you so much!
I used gluten-free pasta made from chickpeas and baby spinach ~ perfect dressing with a springy freshness!