Healthy Pasta Salad – Simple Green Smoothies

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.

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.

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.