Pesto Pasta Salad
30 minutes is all you need to pull together a delicious Pesto Pasta Salad with Roasted Veggies. Perfect for picnics, pot-lucks and packed lunches.
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 414kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 8-oz. package pasta*
- ½ cup pasta cooking water
- ½ cup pesto*
- 1 large zucchini
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 purple onion
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon italian spices
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup marcona almonds*
Basic Dairy-free Basil Pesto (makes 1 cup)
- 3 cups fresh basil leaves
- ½ cup pine nuts
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 large cloves garlic
- 1 lemon zested and juiced
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon white pepper
- ¼ cup olive oil*
- 2-4 Tablespoons water*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425.
- Line large rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper.
- Chop Veggies into bite sized pieces and place on prepared baking sheet.
- Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Roast veggies for 15 minutes.
- Make pesto: Combine all ingredients buts water and olive oil in bowl of food processor and process until well chopped. You will need about ½ cup liquid between the olive oil and water for this recipe....use the ratios you prefer (all water---or veggie broth---is OK if you're oil free). With the processor running, slowly pour in the liquid. Stop to scrape the sides down a couple time and continue to process until smooth and creamy. Set pesto aside.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. My experience with gluten-free pasta has been to cut down on the cooking time by 1 minute. I boiled the chickpea pasta for 8 minutes and it was perfect.
- Save ½ cup pasta water and then drain. Rinse under cool water.
- Whisk ½ cup pesto into the saved pasta water to make the pasta salad sauce.
- Place drained pasta in a large bowl. Pour on the pesto sauce and mix well. Add the roasted veggies and toss well. Taste for seasoning, adding more S+P as desired and then mix again. Sprinkle on the nuts and serve. Sprinkle on some fresh herbs, nutritional yeast or crushed red pepper if desired.
- Pesto Pasta Salad can be served warm, cold or at room temperature.
- Pasta Salad will stay good in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
PASTA: I used gluten-free chickpea pasta from Thrive Market. Use what works well for you inside of your dietary needs. I used small shells. I've also used elbows and rigatoni.
NUTS: substitute sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds for nut allergies. Toasted pine nuts, walnuts or pistachios are also good choices.
PESTO: Use the recipe above for a basic dairy-free basil pesto, or make Carrot Top Pesto, Kale + Cashew Pesto or Arugula and Walnut Pesto....any pesto recipe will work well for this pasta salad.
NUTRITION INFO: You only need ½ the pesto recipe for the pasta salad so the nutrition information at the bottom of this recipe is a bit off.
Nutrition
Serving: 1g | Calories: 414kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 26g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 496mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 3g