Mediterranean Vegan Pasta Salad {Gluten Free}

Easy 20 minute vibrant Mediterranean Vegan Pasta Salad makes for the perfect easy weeknight dinner. Serve hot or cold. Makes for great leftovers and perfect meal prep recipe. 

Thank you to iHerb for being a proud sponsor of this blog post, as always all opinions expressed here are my own. 

For when you need dinner on the table in 20 minutes, I’ve got you covered with this Mediterranean vegan pasta salad. This super easy and flavorful recipes comes together in no time, with minimal prep. Waiting for the pasta to cook is what takes the longest amount of time in this vegan pasta salad recipe.

What I love about this recipe is that it requires no fresh produce. All of the ingredients are shelf stable and pantry staples in my house.

I purchased almost all of the products for this vegan pasta salad from iHerb. Lately I’ve been exploring the world of online food retailers, as an easy and convenient way to stock up on kitchen and pantry staples. No lugging of any groceries required, and no time wasted going to and from the grocery store. It has just become a super convenient way to shop, and I love having access to all of my favorite products at any time. 

iHerb is an online retailer with a focus on natural products, ranging from grocery items to bath and personal care products.  iHerb carries over 30,000 natural products and ships to over 150 countries. I also love that iHerb orders are shipped from climate-controlled distribution centers to ensure the quality of their products. If there are ever any problems iHerb offers customer service 24 hours a day / 7 days a week in 10 different languages. The shopping experience is super easy and you currently get 10% off your first order with a 10% credit on every order and free shipping on purchases over $20. 

New Customers will get a discount off their first iHerb order with no minimum purchase by  clicking here.

The products all arrived within a few days, nicely packaged and ready to be used. The site is neatly organized by category or you can just do a general search for the items you are looking for. There are tons of diet specific specialty products that you will not find at your regular grocery store so this is a great place to stock up on those items.

With my iHerb grocery haul I had all my pantry items to make this vegan pasta salad.

Why this Mediterranean Vegan Pasta Salad is the best:

• ready in 20 minutes
• bold vibrant flavors
• can be served both hot and cold
• great leftovers
• perfect for meal prep
• minimal prep, easy to make recipe
• only pantry ingredients needed

Vegan Pasta Salad Ingredients:

• Quinoa Penne or pasta of choice
• pistachios
• artichoke hearts 
• sun dried tomatoes 
• kalamata olives 
• pesto 
• vegan feta
• salt, pepper, oregano, olive oil

How to Make my Mediterranean Vegan Pasta Salad:

This vegan pasta salad recipe could not be any easier to make. This is a perfect recipe for those who feel intimidated by cooking, and are lacking confidence in the kitchen.

The only cooking step here is to bring a pot of water to a boil, add salt and the pasta. As I recently learned from the cooking book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat it is very important to make sure pasta water is adequately salted. As the author states, it should be salty as the sea when you drop that pasta in. Nothing to fear here; the pasta itself will not be as salty as the water, since the water is being drained. Salting the pasta water ensures the pasta itself will have maximum flavor so don’t skip this step.

Cook the pasta to your liking. The quinoa penne cooks in 10-15 minutes depending on if you like it more al dente or softer. For a pasta salad an al dente texture is best since it will be mixed with other ingredients so you don’t want it to be too soft and break apart.

As the pasta cooks prep the other ingredients – mainly chop the pistachios and the sun dried tomatoes.

To easily chop pistachios place them in a ziplock bag and on a cutting board or other flat surface. Using a meat hammer or heavy glass pound the pistachios in the ziplock bag. This is quick way to coarsely get them chopped without having to chop each pistachio nut individually.

The sun dried tomatoes I used in this recipe are not in a jar of olive, but rather lightly dried and sold in a plastic pouch. These sun dried tomatoes were more tender and with a milder tomato flavor than your standard oil packed jar.

Once the pasta is drained mix all the ingredients together.

If you prefer you can slice the olives into rounds and chop the artichokes but I like to keep them whole.

In terms of spices and seasoning there are already so many delicious flavors in the veggies and chopped nuts that I chose to keep this simple with a salt, pepper and oregano. Oregano is an amazing Mediterranean herb that adds so much flavor into everything and is perfect in this vegan pasta salad.

As the dressing for this recipe I used a combination of olive oil and home made vegan basil pesto, but if you don’t have pesto on hand just the olive oil alone will make for a great dressing. I always strive to have at least one bottle of high quality extra virgin olive oil on hand, and just a couple tablespoons go a long way and create the most amazing flavor in a dish.

20 minutes is all you need to make this delicious healthy Mediterranean flavored vegan pasta salad. There are tons of other ingredients that you can add to it so the possibilities and variations are endless. You can find a whole Vegan Grocery Section on the iHerb site to help you with ingredient ideas.

Recipe Tips:

Optional Additional Ingredients:

• arugula, spinach, kale
• fresh cherry tomatoes
• red onions
• avocado

Ingredient Substitutions:

• In place of kalamata you can use green olives or just omit olives entirely
• In place of pesto you can use an Italian dressing (store bought or home made) or simply drizzle with olive oil as the dressing
• The vegan feta is optional in this recipe. I have made it both with and without the vegan feta and it is delicious both ways.

Do you serve this pasta salad hot or cold?

• You can serve this vegan pasta salad either way. It is delicious both hot and cold!

How long is this recipe good for?

• This vegan pasta salad can be refrigerated for up to five days.

Let me know what you think of this Mediterranean vegan pasta salad recipe in the comments below.

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