Making a healthy + oil-free vegan pasta salad is so easy! You will be amazed how quickly this recipe comes together. You can change up the dressing, the veggies, and even the pasta. Perfect as a side dish, lunch, as a meal on its own or part of your meal prep! No oil needed!!!
I love salad!
I also love healthy! Oil-free salad dressing is the best of both worlds. One tablespoon of olive oil packs a whopping 14g of fat and 120 calories. Not to mention the processing, pressing, and stripping that goes into making oil out of olives. No thanks. I will gladly skip the 1 or 2 or 3 or even 4 tablespoons of oil that is typically goes into a salad dressing recipe. You won’t miss the oil! In fact, you might thank me for showing you a way to have your pasta salad and eat it too … while enjoying it.
How To Build The Perfect Oil-Free Vegan Pasta Salad:
- Choose your pasta: There are so many options such as chickpea pasta, lentil, quinoa, semolina, or whole wheat. You could use shells, rotini, cavatappi, fusilli, elbows, even bowtie pasta will work.
- Choose your veggies: This will somewhat depend on what you are serving with your oil-free vegan pasta salad. For example, if you are serving your pasta salad with falafels then toss in some olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onion with a balsamic vinaigrette. Alternatively, if you are looking for a side dish for Buffalo Tofu, you might want to go with chopped celery, shredded carrots, and broccoli florets with a vegan ranch dressing.
- Choose your dressing: creamy, vinaigrette, made with cashews, or silken tofu. If you are using your pasta salad as the main meal, you might want to go with a creamy dressing + toss in some tofu cubes. If you are doing meal prep, a vinaigrette works best that you can simply pour on and mix in when you are ready to eat.
- Serve it cold!
Oil-Free Vegan Pasta Salad Dressing Options:
- Easy Vegan Ranch
- Dairy Free Green Goddess Dressing
- Vegan Creamy Italian Dressing
- Oil-Free Asian Ginger Dressing
- Lemon Tahini Salad Dressing (Oil Free!)
- Creamy Vegan Avocado Dressing (No Oil!)
- Click here for my favorite Oil-Free Salad Dressing Recipes
Oil-Free Vegan Pasta Salad
This Oil-Free Vegan Pasta Salad is healthy, satisfying, comforting, versatile, and makes the perfect side dish, meal, or meal prep.
Ingredients
- 10 ounces of your favorite pasta (cooked according to directions on the box, drained, cooled)
- 1 cup diced tomato
- 12 olives
- 1 cup chopped or spiraled cucumber
- 2 shredded carrots
- 1 cup raw broccoli florets (chopped small)
- 1/2 cup diced red onion
- 2 cups of your favorite salad dressing
Directions
- Step 1 In a large bowl combine cooled pasta, chopped vegetables, and salad dressing. Gently mix until all ingredients well coated with the dressing. Add additional dressing to taste. Top with black pepper, salt, fresh herbs, additional olives. Serve or eat immediately. Leftovers can be stored in a glass container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. If using for meal prep, do not apply dressing until read to eat. Enjoy!
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