Vegan Pasta Salad

Like Grandma’s but better

This best of all the world’s best pasta salads tastes quite classic, like grandma’s style. A spicy pasta salad, full of flavor but made entirely without animal products, which is why I take the liberty of calling it even better. So, yes, vegans can definitely eat pasta salad, if you simply make it vegan. And I promise that also non-vegans will love it. My dear colleague would say, that “It doesn’t taste vegan at all” (she once wanted to compliment me with this feedback).

Even my 2.5-year-old daughter devoured it and praised it. She didn’t even pick out the chopped onion, at least on the first day. If it’s supposed to be a special kid-friendly pasta salad, then to be on the safe side (because of the threatening “Ugh!” with pushing the plate away, like it was on the second day), I would skip them.

Which pasta?

For a delicious vegan pasta salad, you only need a few ingredients, which you can usually buy anywhere and are usually cheap. First and foremost, of course, you need pasta. It doesn’t really matter which pasta you use for pasta salad. It should be short pasta, such as elbow macaroni, penne or fusilli. If you also want your pasta salad to be really healthy, you can use wholewheat pasta or pasta made from legumes *).

Which vegetables?

Next we need a lot of vegetables. For this colorful pasta salad, I use a mix of pickled or frozen and fresh veggies, namely peas, corn, bell pepper, pickles and red onions. Smoked tofu is also added. All these ingredients give the salad a very nice taste.

Although I love tomatoes, I make this pasta salad without tomatoes because I’m afraid they’ll just “smack” everything. After all, it’s also a great meal-prep dish, so it’s great to prepare and suitable for taking away.

What about the dressing?

The dressing for the pasta salad consists mainly of vegan mayo and, so that everything doesn’t become the worst calorie bomb and at the same time gets some freshness and summery lightness, also from (soy) yogurt.

This vegan pasta salad is seasoned with the pickle juice from the dill pickles, and also mustard, paprika powder, fresh chives (or other herbs such as parsley or dill, a mixture is also welcome), paprika powder, and salt. For the egg taste, I prefer to use the sulphurized salt Kala Namak *).

By the way: As we use soy yogurt for the dressing and tofu instead of cheese, this recipe is also perfect if you are looking for a dairy-free pasta salad.

Preparation

Making a pasta salad yourself is very easy if you know what and how. That’s what I’m here for. I’ll tell you how to make pasta salad with all the details you need to know in the recipe card at the end of the post. You really can’t go wrong here: cook the pasta, cut the bell peppers, pickles, onions, and tofu into small cubes, and mix them together with the peas and corn.

Speaking of pasta salad with peas: rinse the pasta with cold water for a moment, as the dish should ultimately be cold. But don’t scare them too much if you use frozen peas like I did. You don’t have to cook them before preparing them. If you add them in the frozen state they stay nice and crunchy (so there is no risk of overcooking them), they cool the pasta, and the warm pasta thaws the peas. And all this saves time. Win-win on all levels.

For the dressing, you simply mix all the ingredients together. Then pour the sauce over the pasta with the vegetables, and finally, everything is stirred well, and then the pasta salad is best left in the fridge to steep. Preferably the day before you want to eat it, which makes it a wonderful meal-prep dish.

Speaking of the day before: That ultimately brings me to the question of how long you can store it. Since this is a vegan pasta salad, i.e. without meat, sausage, cheese, eggs, or mayo with eggs, there is no risk that it will go bad quickly. You don’t have to be afraid of salmonella or the like at a barbecue party under the sun.

I’ve always eaten the pasta salad within three days, and it still tasted great on the third day. But I wouldn’t push it to the limit (I’m a bit picky personally) and therefore I say that you can keep it up to four days in an airtight container in the fridge.

@plantbased.redhead💚 Cold & Creamy Vegan Pasta Salad with Mayo, Tofu & Veggies🍝 🥗 ☀️ Detailed recipe in 🇬🇧 & 🇦🇹 on www.plantbasedredhead.com 🌱👩‍🦰 sideyohead

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