Vegan Greek Pasta Salad

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This vegan greek pasta salad is packed with delicious Mediterranean flavors. The perfect healthy recipe that comes together in under 20 minutes – or faster if you’re really quick at chopping veggies! Meal prep this pasta salad for lunch, serve it as a side, or bring it to a picnic or party to share.

Vegan Greek Pasta Salad

Pasta salads are amazing for many things, but first and foremost they are great for feeding a crowd. People bring them to picnics, parties, and potlucks all the time. So about a year ago when I went to a potluck at a friend’s house, a pasta salad was an obvious choice. I was low on time, but I managed to throw together a simple tahini dressing and mixed in some pasta and Greek-inspired veggies + spices, and the recipe was sooo well received that I had to write it down!

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Ingredients for Vegan Greek Pasta Salad

The best thing about pasta salads is that you can easily leave out ingredients you don’t like and add in ingredients you do! Not a fan of olives? Skip them. Feeling in the mood for some chickpeas? Add them in. Here is a guideline to get started making a yummy Mediterranean pasta salad:

• Pasta: I love using rotini because there are so many nooks and crannies that are perfect for holding dressing.
• Cucumbers: persian or english cucumbers are best here because they are seedless and crispy. We don’t want watery cukes with lots of seeds in our pasta salads.
• Artichoke hearts: I used the artichoke hearts canned in water, but feel free to use the marinated ones for extra flavor.
• Kalamata olives: opt out if you’re a crazy olive hater like my boyfriend.
• Grape tomatoes: you can also use cherry tomatoes
• Red onion
• Fresh parsley
• Vegan feta (optional): make homemade vegan tofu feta or use store-bought vegan feta. I love the Follow Your Heart Dairy-Free Feta Crumbles and the Violife Just Life Feta Block. You can also use real feta if you are not vegan.

Ingredients for oil-free tahini Greek dressing

If you’re looking for a delicious Greek dressing without a ton of olive oil, you’ve come to the right place! This recipe uses tahini and water to achieve a wonderful creamy consistency, plus a lot of spices for that classic Greek flavor. Here is the rundown:

• Tahini: try to use a smooth, runny tahini like Mighty Sesame Co Tahini. Runny tahini will mix a lot easier with the rest of your ingredients.
• Water: to thin out the dressing.
• Lemon juice
• Dijon mustard
• Spices: garlic powder, dried oregano, dried basil
• Salt: kosher salt or sea salt work great here
• Black pepper to taste

How to make Vegan Greek Pasta Salad

Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the rotini and cook al dente according to package instructions. Once done, drain the pasta and set aside.  

Prep the veggies. While the pasta is cooking, chop up all the vegetables. 

Make the dressing. In a large bowl, whisk together the tahini and water until smooth. Depending on the tahini, this might take a minute – keep whisking and it’ll come together! Once smooth, stir in the rest of the ingredients for the dressing. 

Mix it all together. First add the pasta to the bowl with the dressing. Stir until the pasta is evenly coated with dressing. Then add the veggies and the vegan feta to the bowl. Mix until well incorporated. 

Enjoy!

Tips for making the best pasta salad

• Pick the right type of noodles. Short noodles with lots of nooks and crannies such as rotini are best for holding onto dressing.
• Boil the pasta in heavily salted water. Salting your pasta water leads to well seasoned, more flavorful pasta.
• Cook the pasta fully. In many recipes you’ll want to cook the pasta al dente to account for extra cook time in a sauce. But since this is a cold pasta salad, we don’t need the extra cook time, so make sure your pasta is fully cooked.
• Add warm pasta to the dressing. Warm pasta absorbs flavor better, so toss it in with the dressing while it’s still a little toasty and it’ll soak up all that greek goodness.
• Let the pasta salad sit for a day before eating. You can enjoy the salad immediately, however it is definitely better the next day after the pasta and veggies have had some time to marinate in the dressing. Let it even sit for a few hours if you can!

More simple vegan lunch recipes

• Vegan Burrito Bowls Meal Prep
• 15 Minute Hummus Pasta
• Vegan BLT Sandwich
• Creamy Vegan Pasta with Summer Veggies
• Summer Rolls & Orange Tahini Sauce
• Vegan Chickpea Salad Sandwich
• Basil Summer Rolls with Peanut Sauce

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