Mayo-Free Vegan Pasta Salad
on Dec 18, 2017, Updated Jul 08, 2025
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A fresh, flavorful and completely mayo-free pasta salad that 100% vegan and perfect for summer gatherings and meal prep.
If you’re looking for a pasta salad that checks all the boxes – bright, colorful, full of texture and flavor, totally plant-based, and absolutely not gloppy – this is it. This vegan pasta salad skips the mayo and instead leans on a punchy vinaigrette and loads of veggies. It’s the kind of dish that you can make ahead and pull from the fridge all week long, and it’s a total people pleaser, whether or not your guests are vegan. Great for cookouts, picnics, or any how-is-it-this-hot? Tuesday night.
What's In This Post?
Make-Ahead Vegan Pasta Salad
This pasta salad will hold at room temperature for a few hours before serving. If you are going to make this ahead of time (and go ahead — up to 2 days), leave the tomatoes out of the salad until you toss them right before serving.
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Also, try not to serve this straight from the fridge — let it be at room temperature for at least 20 minutes to take the chill out before serving. If you refrigerate it, it might need an extra drizzle of olive oil and a toss to get it nice and glistening again, since the pasta will have absorbed the dressing a bit.
Variations
- Add some chopped fresh herbs such as basil, oregano, and thyme.
- Add some briny little hits, such as olives and capers.
What to Serve With Mayo-Free Vegan Pasta Salad
Wondering what that festive-looking dish is on the lower right of the photo? Brussels Sprouts, Apple, and Pomegranate Slaw Salad. And that preppy-pretty pasta salad with salmon on top? That’s Pasta Salad with Fresh Salmon.
A pretty little trio, no? This was what I made when I had some friends over, and didn’t want, under any circumstances, to be futzing around in the kitchen while they were drinking wine and talking.
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Easy Vegan Pasta Salad (No Mayo!)
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried small shells (or other pasta salad-friendly shaped pasta)
- 4 cups roughly chopped arugula
- 2 bell peppers (red, yellow, or orange; finely diced)
- 2 pints cherry tomatoes (cut in half, or quarters if larger)
- ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ½ cup chopped shallots
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Heat a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain again.
- Place the pasta in a bowl with the arugula, peppers, and tomatoes.
- In a small bowl or container combine the olive oil, balsamic vinegar red wine vinegar, mustard, shallots, salt, and pepper. Pour the dressing over the pasta salad and toss well to combine. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed.
No such thing as too many pasta salads, this one is on heavy rotation here.