This cold vegan Italian Pasta Salad recipe is always on heavy rotation at our house. It's easy to make with either homemade or store-bought Italian Dressing. Made with vegan pepperoni and loaded with vegetables. It makes a perfect entrée, salad, or side dish! It will, without a doubt, be the star of your summer potluck!
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Looking for more vegan salad recipes? Try our chickpea tuna salad, spicy kale salad wrap or vegan potato salad with whole vegan eggs.
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Why This Recipe Works
- A super simple and quick pasta salad to make.
- A great make ahead dish, perfect for barbecues, potlucks or picnics.
- A very versatile recipe. Switch up your vegetable add-ins and the pasta you use.
- This simple, homemade, Italian dressing is quick to make with pantry ingredients and sets this pasta salad apart from the rest.
Key Ingredients & Substitutions
Pasta: You can use fusilli or your favorite pasta noodle shape. Choose a pasta shape that holds the dressing and other ingredients well, like fusilli, farfalle, or penne. All excellent choices, as they have ridges or pockets that can trap the vinaigrette. This salad works well with either wheat or gluten-free pasta's.
Vegan Pepperoni: There are several different brands of vegan pepperoni such as Yves, Sweet Earth Foods, and Field Roast that can be found at many grocery stores or ordered online through vegan grocery-delivery services. Substitutions like vegan sausage sliced very thinly can work too. We also enjoy this recipe from Minimalist Baker using tofu.
Salad Dressing: A tangy, Italian, dressing that complements the ingredients of the salad. Store bought dressing can work too.
Vegetables: Loaded with veggies, spinach, bell peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes.
See recipe card below for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Recipe Variations
- Boost the protein: Add chickpeas for a great protein boost.
- You can use a store-bought dressing, we prefer to make our own to get that really great, zesty flavor.
- Swap the pasta: bite-sized pasta like rotini, farfalle or penne work well.
- Vegetable Substitutions: Add shredded carrots or sliced zucchini. Diced artichokes and sundried tomatoes also make great additions!
- Gluten-Free pasta: Use your favorite gluten free pasta noodles. We love using the Barilla brand gluten-free pasta.
Step by Step Instructions
Cook Pasta
Step 1: Add pasta to boiling water and cook al dente, according to the package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water. Set Aside.
Prepare Vegetables For Salad
Step 2: While the pasta boils and cools. Rinse and chop the cucumber, bell peppers, tomatoes, spinach and onion. Cut your vegetables in bite sized pieces. Place all of your chopped ingredients into a large bowl.
Step 3: Chop pepperoni into bite sized pieces. Add to bowl.
TIP - you can buy prepared Italian dressing to save time. But the fresh dressing really does add to the flavor.
Make Italian Dressing
Step 4: In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, basil, Italian seasoning, crush red pepper and pepper. Set aside.
Assemble
Step 5: Add dressing to the large bowl of ingredients. Toss ingredients with the Italian dressing. Chill for ~2 hours before serving.
Sprinkle with vegan parmesan and enjoy.
Storage
- To Store. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Pasta and vegetables start to get mushy after about 3 days.
- Reheat. After refrigerating the olive oil base dressing will solidify. Reheat in microwave for about 15 seconds.
- To Prepare in Advance. Pasta salad gets better over time; make a day in advance to let the pasta and vegetables soak in the dressing and absorb the Italian flavors.
- Freeze. We do not recommend freezing the salad. In our opinion freezing the pasta alters the texture of the vegetables and the dressing doesn’t reconstitute well after defrosting.
More Vegan Pasta Salads?
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below & if you REALLY like it, consider a comment down below. Thanks!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Italian Pasta Salad
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- 16 oz Pasta - cook according to package instructions
- 5 oz Vegan Pepperoni Slices - 5 oz bag and will like the Field Roast Brand
Salad Ingredients
- 2 Bell Peppers chopped
- 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
- 4 oz Fresh Basil chopped
- 2 cups Spinach chopped
- 10 oz Cherry Tomatoes halved
- 9 oz Cucumber medium size
- 1 teaspoon Shallots in lieu of chopped onions 1 clove minced
- 1 cup Chickpeas - optional
Italian Salad Dressing Ingredients - Makes 1 cup
- ¾ cup Extra Virgin Olive oil
- ¼ cup White Wine Vinegar
- 1.5 teaspoon Lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
- 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Onion powder
- 1 teaspoon Fresh Basil
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Italian Seasoning
- ½ teaspoon Crushed red Pepper
- ½ teaspoon Pepper
Optional Toppings
- Chopped Scallions/Chive
Vegan Parmesan (Store Bought or Homemade)
- ¼ cup Nutritional Yeast
- ½ cup Hemp Seeds
- ½ teaspoon Garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon Onion powder
- Salt - to taste
Instructions
Cook Pasta
- Add pasta to boiling water and cook al dente, according to the package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water. Set Aside.
Prepare Vegetables For Salad
- While the pasta boils and cools. Rinse and chop the cucumber, bell peppers, tomatoes, spinach and onion. Cut your vegetables in bite sized pieces. Place all of your chopped ingredients into a large bowl.
- Chop vegan pepperoni into bite size pieces and add to bowl.
Make Italian Dressing
- In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, basil, Italian seasoning, crush red pepper and pepper. Set aside.
Assemble
- Combine the ingredients in the large bowl and toss with Italian dressing. Chill for ~2 hours before serving.
- Sprinkle with vegan parmesan and enjoy.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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