This 20 minute Creamy Vegan Italian Pasta Salad is easy, flavorful, and perfect for get togethers. Summer meal prep level up!
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If you’ve ever just felt blah about pasta salad, this creamy vegan Italian pasta salad will change your mind.
The hack: the creamy Italian dressing made from scratch.
Tyller says, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Not your grandma’s Italian pasta salad! This is so good.”
The reason the creamy dressing makes this dish pop is that it brings depth and a ton of flavor that you sometimes miss when you have a lighter, traditional Italian dressing used on pasta salads.
This dish is not only perfect for get togethers, but they are amazing for meal prep as well. This recipe doesn’t take very long to cook and come together which means a fantastic meal without a lot of effort!
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Why You’ll Love this Vegan Pasta Salad
- Easy – This recipe only takes 20 minutes to make!
- Great for Meal Prep – this is one of those recipes that only gets better with time which is perfect for meal prep as you can make it 3-5 days in advance and use as needed
- Gluten Free and Allergen Friendly – this recipe is easily Top 9 Allergen Free which means it’s a great option to serve to everyone
Pasta Salad Vegan Ingredients
Gather your ingredients!
- Noodles – In the recipe, we are using a rotini noodle as it’s a great base for pasta salad and holds sauce well; however, feel free to use your favorite shape. Note: that smaller noodles make more than larger ones.
- Sun Dried Tomatoes – We are using sun dried tomatoes that are oil packed. This gives more flavor and tastes better in a dish like this.
- Vegetables – We’re adding red bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, banana peppers, and black olives. Feel free to great creative and add your favorite vegetables as additions or swaps to the recipe.
- Vegan Parmesan – Our preference is the Violife parmesan block that we grate ourselves or Follow Your Heart parmesan.
- Dressing – We are making a creamy Italian dressing using olive oil, red onions, garlic, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, yellow mustard, vegan sugar, salt, oregano, dried basil, black pepper, red pepper flakes, dried thyme and rosemary. This creamy sauce brings all the ingredients together well and adds a delicious texture and taste to the whole dish. It’s sweet, tangy, and bold!
See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
How to Make Creamy Italian Pasta Salad
Step 1. Cook your pasta according the package directions. When done drain and rinse until cold water, add to a large bowl and toss with the vinegar and oil.
While pasta is cooking, add dressing ingredients to a blender or cup of an immersion blender.
Step 2. Blend well until creamy and combined.
Step 3. Add dressing and remaining pasta ingredients into bowl with pasta.
Step 4. Stir well to combine. Add more salt and pepper as desired. Refrigerate overnight or at least 4-6 hours before serving for best results.
Creamy Pasta Salad Recipe Substitutions & Variations
- Noodles – If you’d prefer, feel free to use gluten free noodles or even something like zucchini or sweet potato noodles if you’d like.
- Sun Dried Tomatoes – You can you dried tomatoes without the oil if you’d like and rehydrate them first. This will alter some of the taste
- Vegan Parmesan – Nutritional yeast would be a less processed alternative for vegan parmesan
- Spices – The spices in the dressing (minus the chili flakes) are basically an Italian seasoning blend. If you prefer, you can use premade Italian seasoning
- Stretch this meal – Feel free to add more vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, red onions and more to this, or something like chickpeas, tofu or mushrooms would be a good addition if you like them to stretch this.
Vegan Pasta Salad Recipe FAQs
Yes. Use a gluten free pasta and a safe vegan parmesan for you (or sub with nutritional yeast) and this recipe will be top 9 allergen friendly.
Yes. Once made, let cool completely and you can store in an air tight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.
Yes, just make sure to use a large enough pot and bowl to hold all your ingredients.
No, we don’t recommend freezing this dish.
Other Vegan Pasta Salad Recipes to Consider:
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Creamy Vegan Pasta Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For the Pasta Salad
- 2 qt water
- 2.5 tablespoon salt, for water only
- ½ lb pasta (I used rotini)
- 2 tablespoon white vinegar (or use the juice from the banana peppers)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½-3/4 cup dressing (recipe below)
- ½ medium red bell pepper, diced small
- 2 mini cucumbers, sliced thin
- 1 large carrot, diced small
- ¾ cup oil packed sun dried tomatoes, diced
- ½ cup banana peppers, slices
- ½ cup black olives, halved
- ½ cup vegan parmesan cheese, grated
For the Dressing
- ¾ cup olive oil
- ⅓ cup red onion, roughly chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 ½ tablespoon yellow mustard
- 2 teaspoon vegan sugar (optional)
- ¾-1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon oregano
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
Instructions
- Add water and salt to a large pot and bring to a boil. Add uncooked pasta and cook according the package directions. When done drain and rinse until cold water, add to a large bowl and toss with the vinegar and oil.
- While pasta is cooking, add dressing ingredients to a blender or cup of an immersion blender and blend well.
- Add dressing and remaining pasta ingredients into bowl with pasta and stir well to combine. Add salt and pepper as desired. Refrigerate overnight or at least 4-6 hours before serving for best results.
I love the texture and tangy flavor in this salad, delicious!
Glad you enjoyed!
I’m a bit confused about the dressing. In your picture it looks thick. Mine is watery like vinaigrette. I checked the measurements and ingredients over and over. Is it suppose to be thick? What makes it so if there’s only onions and spices? Was thinking the sauce is what makes this recipe creamy but not my sauce 😀 Help!
Hi! Did you blend or just whisk? The blender or immersion blender is what makes it creamy and it’s emulsifying it.
I’ve made a few vegan pasta salads. This one is absolutely amazing. Made it to pack for work lunches this week and will be looking forward to enjoying it! Love all the vinegar and acidity, so fresh for a nice spring day! Amazing dressing. Thanks for the great recipe!
So glad that you are loving it!
I just made this. It was easy and quick to bring together. The dressing is fabulous. I didn’t have banana peppers on hand, so I had to make it without them. I look forward to making several more of your dishes. I would love some suggested substitutions/alternatives to the oil amounts. I can substitute some of the amount with water, and I’ve used unsweetened plain apple sauce successfully in other Italian dressing recipes, so I will work on it myself. I think many people would appreciate this to support calorie reduction. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the feedback. We have found that some blended avocado helps, vegetable stock, non-dairy plain yogurt all help.
Not your grandma’s Italian pasta salad! This is so good. I omitted olives because I’m not a fan but I love how veggie packed this is. The dressing was super easy to make and I love that it’s not just a store bought Italian dressing. Can’t wait to eat it throughout the week!
So glad you are enjoying it!