Enter your email & we’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from us every week! By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Hurry the Food Up. Basically it’s the best pasta salad recipe ever, the one that all your barbecues and parties have been missing… until now! And it’s vegan to boot!
How to serve this Mediterranean pasta salad?
This is intended to be a vegan cold pasta salad recipe, so why not make a batch up in advance and keep it in the fridge? The flavours mellow and become richer overnight, so we would definitely recommend this option! You can pop it in a jar and take it to work with you (we’re really into meals in jars at the moment – check out our noodle soup in a jar!) Or, as the weather gets warmer, bring it along to a party or barbecue! The Mediterranean flavours of balsamic, basil and tomato are so perfectly suited to eating outdoors in the sunshine (fingers crossed!). On that note, if you’re looking for a slightly lighter salad alternative, this try out this Olive Garden House Salad. Deffo a tasty classic! One top tip: make sure that the pasta and the dressing/tomatoes have cooled down before you mix everything together. If you assembled it all while still hot, the spinach and basil can wilt and go brown very quickly.
How healthy is this vegan pasta salad?
This easy vegan pasta salad is full of greens like asparagus, peas and spinach, which give it texture and colour. The sauce is made from cherry tomatoes gently fried with garlic, then cooked with balsamic vinegar, a touch of sugar and some cornstarch for thickening. The result is a sharp sweet sauce which adds a fresh flavour to the dish. In fact, it tastes so good you’d wonder how it can possibly be healthy. But it really is. In terms of health, this has to be one of the best vegan pasta salads. All those vegetables add crucial vitamins and plenty of fibre. The sauce/dressing is very light, with only a small amount of salt and sugar, and very little saturated fat. Overall, one portion of our Mediterranean pasta salad comes to 483 kcal, 18g protein, 13g and 10g fat (of which only 1g is saturated). That’s a decent amount of protein and fibre – enough to make it a filling meal – and a solid amount of calories for a lunch or light dinner (if you want more like this, try out our top light vegetarian dinner ideas!). Furthermore, there are choices you can make within the recipe to make sure it is as healthy as possible. For example, you could use whole grain pasta instead of white pasta. Whole grain foods contain more nutrients than refined grains, because the process of refining grains strips them of much of their nutritional value. While we’ve got you here, you should check out our vegetarian for weight loss e-book if you want more tips on healthy eating, with an emphasis on losing weight! A healthy Mediterranean pasta salad to welcome in the warmer days and boot out the winter months? Bring it on!
