Easy Veggie Pasta Salad (with Easy Homemade Italian Dressing)
You can't have a good barbecue without a good old pasta salad. This Easy Veggie Pasta Salad will be your go-to side dish this whole summer. Made with gluten-free pasta, juicy cherry tomatoes, crunchy carrots and bell peppers, broccoli and black olives. Drizzled and tossed with a delicious Homemade Italian Dressing.
Ingredients
For Salad:
- 3 cups cooked GF pasta
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup black olives
- 1 large carrot
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1.5 cup broccoli florets
- 1 tbsp thinly sliced Italian parsley (for garnish)
For Dressing:
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp pink salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 2 garlic cloves (minced)
Instructions
-
Start by prepping all your veggies; slice cherry tomatoes in half, slice black olives in half, peel and thinly julienne carrots, thinly dice bell pepper, remove broccoli florets from stem and measure out 1.5 cups, and mince garlic for salad dressing.
-
Place a medium saucepan on stovetop and fill up with water about half way. Bring water to a boil on high heat. Once water starts boiling drop broccoli florets in and boil for 2-3 minutes. While broccoli is boiling fill a large mixing bowl with ice and water. Use a skimmer spoon to remove broccoli from boiling water and imminently drop into iced water. Leave broccoli in iced water for a couple of minutes then strain.
-
In a large mixing bowl layer all prepped ingredients; cooked pasta, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, black olives, carrots, and red bell pepper. Place salad in fridge for a few minutes and allow to chill.
-
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the salad dressing; red wine vinegar, olive oil, Italian seasoning, pink salt, black pepper, and minced garlic. Remove salad from fridge and drizzle with salad dressing. Give salad a good toss making sure it's well coated with dressing.
-
Garnish with fresh Italian parsley and serve. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Tips and Substitutions:
- Use any kind of preferred pasta- My go-to pasta for this recipe is GF Fusilli pasta. You can use any other preferred pasta and it doesn't have to be gluten-free if you're not GF. Other kinds of pastas you can use for this salad are elbow, penne or bow tie.
- Follow package instructions to cook pasta- Cook pasta according to package instructions and measure out 3 cups of cooked pasta for this salad.
- Use parboil method if you don't want to microwave broccoli- If you don't want to cook broccoli in microwave, use parboil method. Boil some water in a saucepan and throw broccoli in. Parboil for about 2 minutes then drain broccoli. Add olive oil, salt and pepper after parboiling.
- Don't add salad dressing until ready to serve- Salad dressing can make salad soggy after some time. Drizzle salad dressing when ready to serve. Another option is to serve dressing on the side and allow everyone to add dressing to their portion of salad as desired. This also works if you are making this salad for meal prep.
- Add some protein- You can add some shredded chicken or rotisserie chicken to salad for some added protein.