Vegan Pasta Salad

This vegan pasta salad is packed with flavor and color and drizzled with a fabulous sesame dressing. Ready in 15 minutes.

Don’t you just love all the color in this dish? I love that this vegan pasta salad takes something quite bland on its own, like pasta, and adds all this beautiful color, freshness and flavor to it, turning it into a gorgeously colorful, high nutrient power meal.

Since you serve it cold, this is an ideal meal to whip up quickly and keep in the fridge so that your next few meals are covered.

It’s filling, satisfying, and tasty as all heck.  Not to mention that this meal comes together in the time it takes you to cook the pasta. Now that’s what I call fast food.

And if you love pasta (and salad) then also check out our vegan macaroni salad!

How To Make Vegan Pasta Salad

Full instructions and measurements can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is just a summary of the process. 

• It’s so simple to make this salad!
• You just put on a bag of pasta to cook (go for the whole bag, you WANT to have leftovers here), and while it’s boiling away, you chop up your fresh veg to go with it, and mix together your sauce ingredients in a bowl.
• As soon as the pasta (regular or gluten-free) is finished cooking, you simply drain it, rinse it under cold water, drain again and then add it to a serving dish.
• Pile all your chopped veggies on top, toss it up, then pour over your sauce and you have a beautifully tasty and fabulous looking salad.

The Sauce

The sauce is a simple and tasty mix of sesame oil, soy sauce (or tamari if you want to make it gluten-free), maple syrup, crushed garlic and dried herbs and there you have it!

As a bonus I also added in some vegan mayonnaise, just to add some extra creaminess and I can tell you, it’s not an essential ingredient, but boy does it round out those flavors nicely!

What Kind of Pasta Is Best For Pasta Salad?

We used bowtie pasta and that worked great in this salad, but penne, shells, elbow, fusilli would also all work great in this recipe.  

Make Ahead

This salad is great to make up ahead of time as it actually just gets even better after a few hours chilling in the fridge! So if you need to make it the day before, that works really well for this. 

Storing your leftovers

Keep your leftovers stored in the fridge and enjoy within around 5 days. It is not freezer friendly. 

More Vegan Salad Recipes

1. Vegan Quinoa Salad
2. Vegan Couscous Salad
3. Marinated Tofu Salad
4. Vegan Caesar Salad
5. Vegan Chickpea Salad
6. Vegan Greek Salad

Vegan Pasta Salad

---

★★★★★

5 from 4 reviews

• Author: Alison Andrews
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Total Time: 15 mins
• Yield: 6
• Diet: Vegan

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

Description

This vegan pasta salad is packed with flavor and color and drizzled with a fabulous sesame dressing. Ready in 15 minutes.

---

Ingredients

For the Salad:

• 2 Stalks Celery
• 1 Red Bell Pepper
• 1 Yellow Bell Pepper
• 2 Spring Onions
• 20 Cherry Tomatoes
• 2 Small Cucumbers
• 20 Green Olives

For the Pasta:

• 18 oz (500g) Dry Bowtie Pasta (or penne, shells, elbow, fusilli)

For the Sesame Dressing:

• 2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
• 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 2 Tbsp Maple Syrup
• 1/2 tsp Crushed Garlic
• 1/4 tsp Dried Basil
• 1/4 tsp Oregano

Optional:

• 1/4 – 1/2 cup Vegan Mayonnaise
• Fresh Parsley (for serving)

---

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions.
2. While the pasta is cooking, chop up the celery, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, spring onions and cucumber. Cut the cherry tomatoes and olives in half.
3. Prepare the dressing by adding the sesame oil, soy sauce or tamari, maple syrup, crushed garlic and dried basil and oregano to a jug and mixing together.
4. When the pasta is cooked, rinse and drain it and add to a serving dish. Then pile on all the raw veggies on top and mix in together.
5. Pour over the dressing and combine.
6. Then add the vegan mayonnaise (optional) and mix together.
7. Keep covered in the fridge where it will keep perfectly well for a few days.

---

Notes

*To make this salad gluten-free simply use a gluten-free pasta and use a gluten-free soy sauce or switch for tamari.

*The amount of mayonnaise you use just depends on how creamy you want it to be. Mix in 1/4 cup first and then see if you’d like to add more.

*Nutritional information includes 1/4 cup of vegan mayonnaise.

*This recipe was first published in October 2016.

• Category: Savory, Side
• Method: By Hand
• Cuisine: Vegan

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 Serving (of 6)
• Calories: 486
• Sugar: 10.9g
• Sodium: 703mg
• Fat: 15.1g
• Saturated Fat: 2.3g
• Carbohydrates: 75g
• Fiber: 5.3g
• Protein: 13.1g

Keywords: vegan pasta salad