3 Vegan Pasta Salad Recipes That Don't Suck

[Music] hey everyone it's caitlin and welcome to another video today i'm going to show you three different vegan pasta salads that are downright delicious that was really cheesy but you know i feel like pasta salad kind of gets a bad rep or maybe there are more varieties of it that we could open ourselves too instead of sticking to that you know traditional picnic pasta salad where it's dressing like a kind of oily kind of okay seasoning no i mean some pasta salads are good but i decided to challenge myself and get a little bit more creative here and do some fusion flavor twists to make our pasta salad a little bit more interesting or just amp up the flavors and take that texture level to the next level i think that made sense uh if you like pasta salad it's a great excuse to say you're eating a salad but not actually having leafy greens in it and still eating pasta which is like ideal uh so if you're interested stay tuned because i'm going to show you how to make them right now first up we're going to be making a buffalo cauliflower pasta salad combining our favorite vegan alternative to buffalo wings with a pasta salad so i thought that was fun you're going to start out by dicing half of a head of cauliflower into small florets and then here i'm topping it with some vegan buffalo wing sauce and some garlic powder we're just keeping it super simple just going to quickly mix it together with a spatula until all of the pieces are lightly and evenly coated then we're going to transfer this to a lined baking tray and just toss the pan around or you can use a spatula just to make sure the pieces are spread out pretty evenly so we're gonna pop that in the oven and in the meantime we're going to cook some pasta on the stove i think you guys know how to cook pasta so you know then we're going to make the dressing for our pasta salad by combining more buffalo wing sauce with tahini may sound strange but i promise it's delicious if you're not a fan you can use coconut yogurt or sour cream as well we're also adding a little bit of garlic powder and some water uh to help thin it out and then we're just going to whisk all of this together until the tahini emulsifies into the water and hot sauce and we get this thick creamy delectable dressing you can also prep all of your other veggies in the meantime and then once the cauliflower is done roasting it should look a little something like this we're looking for those nice crispy edges to add more depth of flavor to our pasta salad so now it is time to assemble once your pasta is cooked you're going to rinse it with cold water until it comes to room temperature then add it to a bowl along with our roasted cauliflower a can of chickpeas some sliced celery grated carrot green onions and then here i'm adding some fresh dill but you could also use another fresh herb like parsley or cilantro or leave it out if fresh herbs aren't your thing then of course we're going to top it with our creamy tahini buffalo dressing and then all that's left to do now is just toss everything together until it is evenly coated in our dressing and all the ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the bowl so it should look a little something like this once you're done mixing and then from here you know clean up your bowl a little mine looks kind of messy and then to plate it and serve it as desired i love this pasta salad i feel like it's a really unique combination of flavors and i love how the celery and carrot are still nice and crunchy then you get the heartiness from the chickpea in the pasta and then the spicy tanginess from the dressing helps to cut through more of the hardiness to make it a well-rounded and refreshing meal up next we're going to be making a taco pasta salad this is definitely more tex-mex inspired in no way is it traditional mexican food just want to clear that up and like always with the pasta salad we're going to cook our pasta i'm using shells because i thought it was fun because they look like mini tacos but you can use any shape you want and then while that's cooking we're actually going to sear our corn so here i'm just using frozen corn but you can use fresh corn as well i'm putting it in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat and i didn't add any liquid any water any oil anything to the pan i'm just mixing it around with my spatula and sort of searing it dry searing it i suppose as you can see we're starting to get more brown build up on the bottom of the pan and we're just going to continue to do this for as long as possible until we get these nice char marks on our corn it should take about seven to ten minutes at this point you can deglaze the pan with a small amount of water and then you're going to stir everything with a spatula it's going to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan and put them on the corn so this makes our corn have a little bit more of a smoky flavor and maybe less of a sweet flavor as well i really think it makes a difference and would highly recommend it for this pasta salad so now we're just going to assemble our pasta salad we're going to start with the dressing here i'm using my homemade vegan mayo you can also use store-bought then i'm adding some lime juice and some chili powder blend and some salt so then you're just going to whisk everything together until it's evenly incorporated it'll look a little thick but that's okay then we're going to add in our drained and cooled pasta just like last time and this time we're going to be adding some black beans our seared corn some sliced tomatoes some vegan cheddar cheese this is technically optional but i do think it adds to the flavor a lot we're also going to add some finely diced red onion and some finely chopped cilantro stems because they taste like the leaves but they're not going to get wilty once we mix everything together so now again we're just going to stir stir stir until everything is evenly distributed everything's nice and coated and there's no more sort of a pool of dressing on the bottom of the bowl so it should look a little bit something like this and it looks good but you know i think it could look a little bit more fresh i think you guys probably agree with me but don't worry we're going to spruce it up so i recommend adding these final toppings right at the end so when you're ready to serve put it on a bowl and then we're going to deck it out with some fresh cilantro leaves as well as some chunks of ripe avocado so these pops of green are going to make the salad feel and look nice and fresh and i mean they just take the flavor profile to the next level as well so that's it for this recipe it legitimately tastes like a tex-mex taco the dressing makes it and i love all the add-ins which are things that i would traditionally put in tacos if i was making them at home so hope you guys try this one out and finally we're going to make a mediterranean-inspired pasta salad this recipe sort of a hodgepodge of a variety of mediterranean ingredients that i love so i hope you guys love it too again we're going to start out by cooking our pasta then in the meantime we're going to make our dressing by adding some lemon juice a little bit of olive oil and some dijon mustard to a bowl along with a finely diced garlic clove and some italian seasoning we're also going to add some salt and then we're going to whisk that together the lemon juice is going to mellow out the raw garlic a little bit and we're also going to add some tofu so instead of using vegan feta cheese i'm just using a super firm tofu here for a similar but not identical consistency but we're going to let the tofu sit in this marinade to really absorb those flavors you can even let this sit overnight if you want to make it ahead of time we're just gonna let it sit for about 30 minutes today which is also great and now it's time to assemble so we're going to add our pasta to a bowl along with some quartered artichoke hearts some sliced persian cucumbers and our marinated tofu and don't forget to include all of the dressings that's going to be the dressing for our pasta salad as well i'm also adding in some kalamata olives and some sun-dried tomatoes here and then again we're going to mix everything up so one of the great things about vegan food is when you marinate something you can repurpose the marinade into the actual dressing unlike if you're cooking with chicken you have to discard it and be super careful about it so that worked our advantage here and then now once the pasta salad is assembled here i'm just topping with some fresh basil and some fresh oregano leaves because again i think it makes it look a little bit more fresh and fun and then i'm also topping it with some freshly cracked black pepper and that is it for this recipe it is really yummy and satisfying i feel like it's more of a traditional pasta salad but these are all my favorite ingredients combined into one and i feel like it's a good combination of textures as well all right guys tell me in the comments below which one of these recipes was your favorite i feel like they all have different applications in terms of what i'm craving so you know some days i might crave one more than the other so maybe that's an unfair question but oh well i'm gonna ask you anyways let me know in the comments below and if you're not already subscribed to my channel and you like what you see here feel free to click that little button down below i post one to two new videos every single week and if you have any video requests let me know in the comments below also as always all these recipes are going to be linked in the description below keep saying below but you know if you want to save the photos for later on your pinterest boards or reference recipes all of the amounts are listed there in u.s measurements and grams because i've got you if you don't live in the united states so that's it for me i hope you guys are having an awesome day and continue to have one and i look forward to seeing you in the next video bye

Channel: Caitlin Shoemaker

Views: 136,826

Keywords: budget friendly, what i eat in a day, what i eat in a day vegan healthy, vegan, healthy, easy vegan, what i eat, vegan recipes, plant based, frommybowl, from my bowl, caitlin shoemaker, whole food plant based

Id: 2vnZN5GmBWo

Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 22 2020