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Vegan Pasta Salad with Roasted Tomato Sauce - roasting the tomatoes with veggies, garlic and herbs gives a wonderful depth of flavour to this rich vegan pasta sauce | Recipe on thecookandhim.com

Pasta Salad

Prep: 15 mins | Cook: 30 mins | Total: 45 mins | Quantity: 4 portions

Ingredients

  • 6 large (approx 950g) tomatoes
  • 2 medium carrots
  • 1 red onion
  • 1 red pepper
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • few sprigs of fresh thyme
  • good drizzle of olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 3 cups (300g) tricolor fusilli pasta (or pasta shapes of your choice!)
  • 2 tblsp balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tblsp tomato puree
  • 2 veg stock cubes
  • 6 sun dried tomatoes – roughly diced
  • 3 tblsp pine nuts

Optional

  • a few fresh cherry tomatoes and basil sprigs

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 200 Fan / 220 C / 425 F / Gas 7 and line a large baking tray with a piece of parchment or a silicon mat
  2. Quarter the tomatoes and spread them out on the tray
  3. Scrub or peel the carrots and chop into bite sized chunks.  Add to the tray
  4. Peel the onion and cut into quarters and add to the tray
  5. Remove the stalk and seeds from the pepper and cut into large(ish) chunks.  Add these to the tray
  6. Peel the garlic and add to the tray
  7. Scatter over the fresh thyme sprigs, a good pinch each of salt and pepper and a good drizzle of olive oil.  Give everything a quick mix together using your hands
  8. Put the tray in the oven and roast the veg for 25-30 minutes until the carrots are soft
  9. While they're cooking, fill a kettle and bring to the boil
  10. Put the pasta into a large saucepan with a very good pinch of salt and completely cover with the boiling water.  Place over a low/medium heat and boil for 10 minutes
  11. Once cooked, drain and swill under cold water to prevent further cooking
  12. Put the pine nuts into a small frying pan and dry fry for 1-2 minutes, tossing frequently till lightly golden. Keep your eye on these, they go from golden and lovely to burnt and acrid in a heartbeat!  Once golden, set aside
  13. When the vegetables are roasted remove from the oven and use your preferred method to blend - either in a blender, food processor or put into a bowl or saucepan if using a stick blender.  Just be careful transferring the hot vegetables
  14. Add the balsamic vinegar, tomato puree and stock cubes when blending and check the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as necessary
  15. Once blended stir in the pasta and pine nuts then leave everything to cool completely (see note)
  16. Serve with a few halved fresh cherry tomatoes and some basil sprigs - you can also shred some extra basil and stir through your cold pasta salad

Notes

  • I've said to cook the pasta for 10 minutes instead of the usual 12-13 minutes for normal pasta as you'll be adding the cooked pasta to a hot sauce and leaving to cool.  This will cook the pasta a little further so you want it underdone before adding to the sauce

Recipe by The Cook & Him at https://thecookandhim.com/recipes/vegan-pasta-salad-with-roasted-tomato-sauce/