A great pasta salad is a beautiful thing. It anchors a picnic, a potluck, or a buffet with aplomb. It’s portable, it’s flexible, and easily and often vegetarian (like this one!), so a great offering for anyone who is not eating meat.

And it’s such a nice way to play around with the vegetables of the season, giving you the chance to keep changing things up all throughout the year. Spring and summer are peak moments to scoop up all of the great produce at the farmers market, grab a box of pasta, and quickly turn all of it into a crowd-pleasing and easy side or main dish. I tend to pack in the vegetables — resulting in a healthy vegetarian pasta salad recipe that is quite beautiful to boot.

In this pasta salad recipe, I used sugar snap peas, asparagus, arugula, spinach, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, and scallions. You can skip one or two of the veggies, or sub in what you find at the market (or in your fridge). During the warmer months, I try to keep some sort of vegetarian pasta salad in the fridge at all times so people can grab a bowl of it for lunch or whenever they are feeling peckish. Who wouldn’t be happy to see a big tub of pasta salad up for grabs in the refrigerator?

This Simple Vegetarian Spring Pasta Salad is portable and flexible. It’s also a nice way to play around with the vegetables of the season.

Vegetarian Pasta Salad Ingredients

• Spiral pasta – Of course, you can use whatever chunky pasta shape you like!
• Sugar snap peas – Or use snow peas.
• Asparagus – Trim the bottoms and peel the lower part of the skin is thick before slicing them.
• Arugula – Younger smaller arugula is less peppery and intense and more tender than more mature arugula.
• Spinach – I like using baby spinach, which doesn’t need washing or chopping.
• Bell pepper – Any color!
• Cherry tomatoes – Also any color!
• Scallions – You could use onions instead, but I like the color scallions add.
• Olive oil – Lightens up the dressing
• Mayonnaise – Adds creaminess to the dressing.
• Rice vinegar – Adds a delicate tartness.
• Dijon mustard – For a bit of a kick.
• Shallots – Or onions, again.
• Basil – Fresh only, please!
• Parmesan – If you wanted to use shaved Parmesan instead of grated that would provide more of a nutty pop of flavor.

How to Make Vegetarian Pasta Salad

1. Cook the pasta, peas, and asparagus: Heat a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions, but 1 minute before the pasta is tender, add the sugar snap peas and the asparagus. Cook for one minute, then drain the pasta and the vegetables and rinse under cold water. Drain well.
2. Toss with remaining produce: Place the pasta, sugar snap peas, and asparagus in a bowl with the arugula, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, and scallions.
3. Make the dressing and toss: In a small bowl or container, combine the olive oil, mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, shallots, basil, salt, and pepper. Pour the dressing over the pasta salad and toss well to combine. Add the Parmesan and toss again. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed.

Cooking Tips

The asparagus and the sugar snap peas get a bit more tender and keep their bright green color after a quick simmer, and the best part is that you can add them right into the pasta pot at the end of the cooking time, and save a step and an extra pot.

If you chop the leafy greens, they will blend into the salad more, but sometimes I like to leave them whole and have the whole thing be kind of a cross between a pasta salad and a regular salad. This is not everyone’s idea of a good time, but I love it.

Get more pasta salad cooking tips!

Make Ahead and Storage

You can make this ahead of time, up to 1 day. In a perfect world, it’s best to leave the arugula, spinach, and basil out and add them right before serving. Adding the greens at the last minute keeps them from getting wilted and darkening. Also, hold off on the tomatoes: ideally, tomatoes never see the inside of a refrigerator, and since you’ll have to refrigerate the salad to keep it fresh (duh), tossing in the tomatoes at the very end will keep them from getting slightly mealy.

If you have made it ahead, let it sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes to take the chill off before serving so the flavors all come shining on through. Also, if you refrigerated the salad, the pasta will have absorbed the dressing a bit; add an extra drizzle of olive oil and give it a toss to get it nice and glisteny again.

But also…you can eat this salad up to 4 days after making it, no worries. Things will just be a little wiltier, but still delicious.

What to Serve With Vegetarian Pasta Salad

Best Chicken Salad

Grilled Chicken Thighs

Persillade Garlic Bread

More Pasta Salad Recipes

• Tortellini Pasta Salad
• Pasta Salad with Tomatoes, Feta, and Herbed Mayonnaise
• Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
• Pasta Salad with Salmon and Creamy Cilantro Dressing
• Pasta Salad with Chicken, Green Olives, and Ramp Vinaigrette