Posted in Recipes on 18.09.2018

Pasta Salad

prep: 15 mins / cook: 30 mins / inactive: 0 mins / total: 45 mins / quantity: 4 portions Print recipe?

Served cold this vegan pasta salad is a real crowd pleaser and a lunch box favourite!

Roasting the tomatoes with veggies, garlic and herbs gives a wonderful depth of flavour to the sauce in this rich vegan pasta salad. And does anyone else cook enough pasta for an entire village when cooking pasta for the family? I swear it doubles in quantity in the pan.

But you know what that means … leftovers!! I usually go to town with the sauce too, cooking waaaay too much of it but the roasted tomato sauce that goes with this vegan pasta salad is perfect for scaling up and keeping in the freezer.

What we love about this Vegan Pasta Salad

So who doesn’t get bored of having sandwiches for lunch? I know we do, we never have the time or inclination to make anything fancier so we like to make a big batch of this on a Sunday, portion it out and we can both have it straight from the fridge. Its perfect for all you meal prep fans too, Phil (Him) likes his with high protein pasta, as he’s training in the gym most days, it keeps for around 4 days in a container in the fridge. The extra addition of garlic, carrots, onions, peppers and pine nuts helps to add wonderful layers of flavour and to bulk it out, so it goes further for less and fills you for longer. Win-Win.

How to make this Vegan Pasta Salad

Whilst the recipe might seem quite long to read, its actually really simple, toss all the veggies onto a tray and roast in the oven for around 30 mins, pop your pasta on to boil for 12 mins and allow it to cool whilst the veggies finish off. Blend all your veggies into a nice sauce and leave to cool. Toast some yummy pine nuts (watch those little so and so’s as they burn in a heartbeat!). Once its all cool mix together and viola, an amazing Vegan Pasta Salad.

We’re coming to the end of the summer tomato season here in the UK right now. I was also lucky enough to be given some home grown tomatoes from Phil’s lovely boss at work (hi Fay). There’s absolutely nothing quite like the taste (and smell) of home grown tomatoes. It’s when it makes more sense that a tomato is classified as a fruit not a vegetable as these things are SO sweet and full of flavour you can eat them straight off the vine.

Those two dishes above are actually the same vegan pasta salad in this recipe but here’s the thing. Phil doesn’t like tomatoes. Well, not tomatoes as tomatoes anyway. Mushed up in a sauce or a soup and it’s one of his favourites. Give him an actual tomato and he’ll wrinkle his nose and push it back at you ? Anyone in your house have those kind of ‘isms’??

If you do love fresh tomatoes though …

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If you make this recipe or any of the recipes from The Cook & Him we’d LOVE to see! Just snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #thecookandhim and tagging @thecookandhim in the photo itself (as this guarantees we’ll see your picture!)

And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram , Facebook or Twitter for even more recipe inspiration and chat, competitions, behind the scenes and so much more!

Pasta Salad

prep: 15 mins / cook: 30 mins / inactive: 0 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

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
Quarter the tomatoes and spread them out on the tray
Scrub or peel the carrots and chop into bite sized chunks. Add to the tray
Peel the onion and cut into quarters and add to the tray
Remove the stalk and seeds from the pepper and cut into large(ish) chunks. Add these to the tray
Peel the garlic and add to the tray
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
Put the tray in the oven and roast the veg for 25-30 minutes until the carrots are soft
While they're cooking, fill a kettle and bring to the boil
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
Once cooked, drain and swill under cold water to prevent further cooking
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
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
Add the balsamic vinegar, tomato puree and stock cubes when blending and check the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as necessary
Once blended stir in the pasta and pine nuts then leave everything to cool completely (see note)
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