Main Dish Delish Summer Pasta Salad
1 box pasta (rotini is best, but mini penne works too)
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 bell pepper (any color), chopped
1 large cucumber, cut into quarters, then chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped finely
1 cup vegan Italian dressing
1/4 cup Vegenaise
1 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dill weed
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
freshly cracked pepper, to taste
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
This is adapted from a rotini, tuna fish, and mini shrimp salad my mother-in-law makes. I've veganized it by modifying the dressing, eliminating the seafood and adding mashed chickpeas instead. It's a quick and easy dinner for those hot summer nights when you don't want to eat something hot!
Cook pasta according to box. While pasta is cooking, wash and chop the celery, pepper, cucumber, tomato, and onion. You want nice chunks of the veggies.
After pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse under cold water to cool the pasta. I also take the empty cooking pot and run it under cold water so that the pot can cool down and I can use it to mix the pasta salad.
After pasta is drained well, return to cooled pot. Add chopped veggies.
Next, whisk together the Italian dressing, Vegenaise, Dijon mustard, dill weed, salt, and pepper until smooth. Add to pasta and veggies.
Finally, mash your chickpeas with a potato masher until crumbly. Add chickpeas to pasta and veggies and mix well.
Enjoy!
SO HOW'D IT GO?
This was great. I added some shredded carrots and capers and it turned out very tasty! ;)b
This was really good! But beware, it makes A LOT! I used plum tomatoes instead. Everything else I kept according to the recipe. Next time I'll make 1/3 of the portion and put more onions in.
Came out great! I skipped the chickpeas because I was going to be feeding some picky eaters. But it was great without them :)
Oh my GOD. I made this last night and it was AMAZING. I ended up using a box plus 2 extra cups of pasta, 2 tomatoes instead of one, 2 bell peppers, a 19oz can of garbanzos, and Nayonaise instead of Vegenaise. I also used an additional 1/2 cup of dressing (light Italian), 1/8 cup of Nayonaise, 1/2 tsp of dill, and 1/4 tsp of salt. I left out the onion because I can't stand raw onion. I used black olives in about half of the batch, but I think I like it better without them. SO GOOD!!
I doubled the recipe because I'm expecting about 35 people for my daughter's birthday party tomorrow. It wouldn't all fit in my largest serving bowl, so I'm eating what wouldn't fit right now - still unchilled - and it is a yummy pasta salad. Hopefully the guests will like it!
First, I highly recommend using quinoa pasta so that you get even more protein! I used the shell shaped quinoa pasta, and it was great.
I used only the "mediterrainian" ingredients for this including cucumber, tomoatoes, red onions. I mixed the italian dressing, vegannaise, and dijon...left out the dill. I'm eating it for lunch as we speak! :)>>>
I looooove this salad!! I just made it for the second time tonight and didn't have all the ingredients, so I nixed the onion, added mushrooms, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts... thank you thank you thank you for posting this!! :)
This was a good recipe, I didn't use as much celery (im not a fan of it) and it was kinda plan. But me and my non-vegan step dad enjoy the dish overall.
I made this exactly as the recipe stated and we absolutely loved it! Great recipe.
I definitely liked it. ;)b This is going in my go-to recipe collection.
I forgot to add that I also added two shredded carrots to add even more color.
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