Cold Pasta Salad with Garlic Yoghurt Dressing
Fresh, creamy and flavourful, this Cold Pasta Salad with Garlic Yoghurt Dressing is fast and ridiculously easy to make with just some basic pantry ingredients.
Vegetarian/Vegan | GF | Nut-free | No rice
Comforting, versatile, and endlessly adaptable), it’s perfect for lunch, picnics, or as a side dish at your barbecue.
Summer isn’t my best season. The humid heat takes my breath away—quite literally. It also makes me slow and lethargic. Which means I typically want to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. Preferably without heating it up even more than the sun already does.
That’s why this cold pasta salad comes in. It’s so easy to make, I can do it on borrowed spoons and one single functioning brain cell. Without heating up the kitchen. Not bad, even if I say so myself.
Why You’ll Love This Cold Pasta Salad
This vegetarian pasta salad is:
- Made with minimal equipment
- Ready in jut 20 minutes
- Endlessly versatile and adaptable
- Uses common pantry staples
But best of all, it requires very little cooking and doesn’t heat up your kitchen when it’s already hot outside.
Spoonie Tips for Effortless Pasta Salad
For those days when it’s so hot outside even your last brain cell has melted, here are my favourite cheat codes.
- Cook the pasta in a wide-mouth thermos. (Really. It works.)
- Don’t bother with fresh herbs. Dried are perfectly fine.
- Tins and jars are life-savers.
- Use your favourite shop-bought dressing.
- Or do as I do: just add (vegan) yoghurt, mayonnaise, and garlic to your salad and mix well. (See photo below)
- Just because you can halve the cherry tomatoes, doesn’t mean you have to.
And never forget: standing is optional. Seated prep is not a wheelchair-users-only privilege.
Easy Pasta Salad Ingredients
This recipe uses mainly non-perishable ingredients you probably already have in your pantry: gluten-free pasta, tinned and jarred goods, dried herbs, black pepper.
The only fresh ingredients are the cherry tomatoes and spring onions, but… if you don’t have those and a trip to the shops is just too much, you can absolutely leave them out. This recipe is forgiving.
Prefer to cook your beans from scratch? Read my guide on how to cook beans in the Instant Pot.
Substitution note
I typically use my homemade garlic yoghurt dressing, but you don’t have to. Any shop-bought dressing (or even plain yoghurt, sour cream, or mayonnaise) will work.
How To Make Cold Pasta Salad
Vegan Pasta Salad with Garlic Yoghurt Dressing
Equipment
- 1 Large saucepan
- 1 Colander
- 1 Chopping board
- 1 Sharp knife
- 1 Large mixing bowl
- 1 Large spoon or salad servers
Ingredients
- 1½ cups gluten-free pasta
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- ½ tin sweetcorn drained
- ½ tin chickpeas or kidney beans drained
- ½ cup silverskin onions and/or gherkins
- 3 spring onions sliced
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp parsley fresh, chopped, or 1 tbsp dried
- 2 tbsp chives fresh, chopped, or 1 tbsp dried
- 125 ml Vegan Garlic Yoghurt Dressing or to taste
Instructions
- Cook the gluten-free pasta according to the packet instructions. Drain, rinse under cold water, and allow to cool.
- Combine the pasta, cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn, chickpeas or kidney beans, silverskin onions, spring onions, parsley, and chives in a large bowl.
- Season with black pepper.
- Add the Garlic Yoghurt Dressing to taste and toss until evenly coated.
- Serve immediately or chill until ready to serve
Notes
Easy Pasta Salad Variations
- Use different beans: cannellini beans, borlotti beans, edamame, or black beans, for example.
- Ditch the beans in favour of spicy tofu
- Add (vegan) mini-mozzarella
- If you eat meat: use chicken or bacon instead of beans
- If you eat fish: add in a tin of tuna
- Use different vegetables. (Bell pepper and red onion work really well.)
Looking for another cold salad recipe? Try my vegan potato salad, made from fridge leftovers.
Serving Suggestions
I usually enjoy this vegetarian pasta salad on its own as an easy lunch or dinner, but that’s not the only way to eat it. You can also serve it:
- As a side dish at a barbecue or picnic
- Alongside grilled vegetables
- Packed into a lunchbox for an easy make-ahead meal
How To Store?
Refrigerator: Store covered in the fridge for 1 or 2 days. (Add a few spoonfuls of water or vinegar to prevent the pasta from turning into little bricks.)
Freezing: Not suitable for freezing.
For general advice on storing leftovers safely, see the Food Standards Agency’s guidance.
Allergy Information
Free from: Dairy, Gluten, Eggs, Nuts, Soy, Sesame
Important: Always check labels for cross-contamination risks
Disclaimer
I’m not a dietitian; this recipe and any nutritional or allergy-related notes are based on personal experience and should not replace professional advice.
If you like this recipe, you might also enjoy these recipes for low effort meals
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, but gluten-free pasta dries out quickly, so you will need to add extra liquid (water, oil, or vinegar) and you’ll need to use it within two days.
If you are not gluten-intolerant, you can use any pasta you like. Gives you a lot more choice, and your pasta won’t dry out during storage, meaning it keeps up to four days in the fridge—even without adding extra liquid.
Absolutely. While I typically use my homemade Garlic Yoghurt Dressing, this pasta salad also works well with shop-bought dressings, vinaigrettes, mayonnaise, sour cream, or plain yoghurt.
Rinsing cools the pasta quickly and stops it cooking further.
Want more simple, comforting recipes that work on low-energy days?
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