Easy Vegetarian Pasta Salad Recipe

With little or almost no cooking involved, this one pot, versatile, vegetarian pasta salad recipe is a boon when you are in a hurry to fix a healthy meal for your family.

Prep Time10

Cook Time5

Total Time15

Method: Mixing

Course: Salads

Servings: 4

Ingredients

3 cups cooked pasta
1 cup steamed carrots
1 cup sliced cucumbers
½ cup mixed beans (any type of beans)
½ cup sliced olives
½ cup cubed paneer (feta cheese or tofu can be used too)

Ingredients For Dressing:

½ tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
½ tablespoon lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
½ teaspoon curry powder
¼ teaspoon herbal salt
1 tablespoon finely chopped coriander

Instructions

Toss together all the ingredients for the salad in a large bowl. Meanwhile in a small whisk together the ingredients for the dressing and pour it in the salad and mix well. Taste and season it more if required.

Notes

While storing cooked pasta, make sure that you toss it in a teaspoon of oil (or more depending upon the quantity of pasta) and then store it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator so that it won't be sticky when you want to use it for later.
Diced avocado, corn kernels, colored peppers are some of the other vegetables that will be good in this pasta salad recipe.
You can use raw carrots itself but I felt that biting chunks of carrots during lunch at school might be a little time consuming for kids. So I lightly steamed it to make it easier. Do not over-cook it and make it mushy. The texture won't feel right.
I'm using a combination of beans and paneer for the protein portion of the meal. Use any type of beans in hand or you can omit it too. You can also just use paneer/tofu/cheese alone. As mentioned above there are no hard and fast rules about what you can or cannot use. Just be creative and you will have a wonderful meal each and every time you make this vegetarian pasta salad.

Nutrition