Name: Quick Easy Pasta Salad Recipe {Refreshingly Tasty & Healthy Vegan}
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: International
Ingredients: 1 lb dry pasta, typically packed in one bag, about 454 grams.; 2 tbsp olive oil, organic extra virgin; 1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt; 1 tbsp homemade superfood pesto; 1 tsp dried oregano; 1 tsp organic no-salt seasoning; 1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground; 12 Spanish olives, sliced and diced; 2 small tomatoes, or 1 large tomato, diced; 3 stems of fresh parsley; 2 stems of celery, optional; 1 small cucumber or half large cucumber, optional

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Quick Easy Pasta Salad features superfood pesto, Spanish olives, diced tomatoes, chopped parsley, extra virgin olive and spices. So refreshing, yummy, and healthy. Perfect for a lazy summer meal, school or work lunch box, or anytime you crave for an easy & tasty pasta salad.

Vegan Pasta Salad with Pesto and Spanish Olives is amazingly refreshing, yummy, and healthy. It features an Italian-inspired spices and herbs assortment mixed with extra virgin olive oil, along with diced Spanish Olives and homemade pesto. You can then add all kinds of chopped vegetables. My favorite ones include tomatoes, celery, and cucumber. It is especially perfect to bring as lunch or picnic as it doesn’t require warming up.

Vegan Pasta Salad Ingredients

Vegan Past Salad with Pesto and Spanish Olives — Ingredients

Pasta – any past will do. I typically use dried penne. Read here to learn all the tips and tricks to cook dry pasta easy and healthy.

Spices – oregano, black pepper and organic no-salt seasoning mix.

Herbs – fresh parsley.

Vegetables – It is quite flexible in terms of what vegetables you want to include in this pasta dish. Tomatoes, celery, and cucumber are among my favorite that works great for this recipe.

Pesto – check out homemade pesto using tender parsley and young leek greens here.

Last but not least is organic extra virgin olive oil, Himalayan Pink Salt and Spanish Olives.

What is Pesto?

Homemade Pesto {Yummy Healthy Versatile}

For those who haven’t heard of Pesto, it is a refreshingly tasty bright green sauce made of fresh green herbs, virgin olive oil, spices, and more. Pesto is native to Genoa in Italy, in Italy’s northwest Liguria region.

In fact, “Pesto” means “to crush” in the local language. This implies that in the old-time and way before food processor was invented, people simply used mortar and pestle to make this popular green sauce.

Why this homemade Pesto is a superfood?

I grow parsley and leek in our backyard vegetable garden. They are both perennial, require low maintenance, and grow back after you harvest them by chopping off the green leaves above the ground.

They are both superfoods and contain impressive anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory substances, and other essential nutrients.

Parsley is rich in vitamins such as Vitamin A, C, K, Folate, and minerals such as potassium. As a result, people believe parsley helps lower risks of cancers and heart diseases, as well as support bone health.

Leek are a source of soluble fiber including prebiotics which is essential to keep our gut healthy, on top of other wonderful nutritional benefits.

All these make them perfect DASH food {Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension}. Making a pesto sauce out of them is an easy and yummy way to enjoy these two superfood vegetables. Check out here on how to make pesto easy, yummy, and healthy at home.

Like noodles or pasta? Make sure you check out below:

Quick Easy Pasta Salad Recipe {Refreshingly Tasty & Healthy Vegan}

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 lb dry pasta, typically packed in one bag, about 454 grams.
2 tbsp olive oil, organic extra virgin
1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt
1 tbsp homemade superfood pesto
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp organic no-salt seasoning
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
12 Spanish olives, sliced and diced
2 small tomatoes, or 1 large tomato, diced
3 stems of fresh parsley
2 stems of celery, optional
1 small cucumber or half large cucumber, optional

Instructions

Make a superfood basic but versatile pesto sauce in advance. See here for a detailed guided recipe.
Cook dry pasta. Read here to learn all the tips and tricks to cook dry past easy and healthy.
Wash vegetables, cut parsley into small pieces. Dice tomatoes, cut celery, cucumber, Spanish olives into small pieces.
Add freshly cooked pasta into a large mixing bowl, and then add all the chopped vegetables and herbs. Also add olive oil, salt, oregano, black pepper, and organic no-salt seasoning.
Use a pair of bamboo spatulas to mix well.
All done, enjoy a super refreshing, tasty and healthy vegan pasta salad!