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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 liked the different herbs in this salad
Very tasty.
This is really good! I think next time I will make it without the beans just because of the texture, but the flavor is delicious.
Gotta love a good pasta salad! This one did not disappoint! The sun dried tomatoes were so yummy in this. The dressing was sweet and tangy. We had it for dinner and I’m so glad we doubled the recipe to have the next day for lunch! It was also so easy to make so we will definitely be making again.
We loved it! We already make some more for tomorrow lunch!
The Healthy Pasta Salad is a keeper! I habitually make too much pasta, as a rule, and this was the first time I cooked just 1/2 a cup of pasta!
When combines with all the yummy veggies, vegan feta and herbs, it still had everything I could ever dream of in a pasta salad, but way less carbs! Couldn’t wait to have the leftovers for lunch today! Thank you Simple Green Smoothie!
This salad was so good I made extra as part of my meal prepping for lunches.
Absolutely amazing!!! I would have the salad again and again and again. Also my first time trying vegan feta. Yes yes and yes.
Delicious pasta salad! I loved that it was so light and filled with lots of veggies. Definitely will make again!
Nice pasta salad, but not a fan of the sundried tomato
This was delicious, gave a new take on my usual pasta salads!
This is my very favorite salad so far. Even my husband liked it. I ended up substituting kidney beans because I couldn’t find my cannelloni beans and since we don’t like sundried tomatoes, I used fresh ones and also added Feta. I also added some banana pepper rings for more intense flavor.
That sounds amazing!
This looks like a great salad. Next time I’ll buy a gluten free pasta but today I used quinoa.
This will be my summer picnic go-to for BBQ potlucks and such- filling and delicious. I used Kaslo Sourdough pasta which is great for gluten sensitive and really healthy. Super recipe.
I have never added arugula to pasta salad before, but I’m glad I tried this recipe. The arugula adds a fresh, peppery taste that I really enjoyed. All of the other veggies, plus the dressing, made the perfect pasta salad. When I’ve had pasta salads at picnics or other gatherings, they usually always have cheese. I did not miss it at all in this healthy recipe. I also like that it was so easy to put together. I will be making this again!
So excited that you tried the recipe with the arugula!
It’s so crazy it’s been a week of eating at least one healthy salad a day, and Vegan and loving it. I have learned so much on this health journey and it’s like I’m just getting started!
The Salad: Healthy Pasta Salad
The Verdict: It was in the high nineties today here in TX and eating a cold bow tie pasta salad with bursts of flavors and color made it better .
Highlights: Bursts of flavor included sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil, parsley, hints of mint and feta cheese (couldn’t find vegan feta, but now I am on a quest to once I go completely dairy-free).
Everyone loved this salad. The vinaigrette dressing with that teaspoon of Dijon mustard really altered the flavors, I think. And the arugula (my current new veggie love) added notes of nutty goodness! This is my second favorite salad next to the Strawberry basil salad. My two toddlers loved it too!!!
Five ✨ for sure!
It’s awesome that you’re learning so much on this journey and even sharing it with your family! Keep rawkin it!
Very good side salad for our meal