Summer Salads - Green Goddess Pasta Salad

It’s All in the Dressing

The dressing is what makes this pasta salad special. It’s not your traditional green goddess dressing, which typically has mayo and sour cream. Instead, it’s a more vibrant—both in color and flavor—vegan dressing that has loads of greens and relies on blended cashews for its creaminess and nutritional yeast for a savory, umami depth. 

Plan ahead and make the dressing up to 2 days before you plan to serve it. Keep it refrigerated and stir it well before using. You can stir in a little olive oil to thin it out a little if needed.

Customize It! 

Here are some ways you can customize this versatile pasta salad recipe to your liking: 

• Instead of the asparagus, frozen peas, and fennel, use green beans, broccoli, fresh peas, sugar snap peas, celery, or endive. The theme is green and fresh! 
• Use Parmesan instead of nutritional yeast to up the umami and creaminess of the dressing. 
• Add a can or two of drained canned white beans for more protein—perfect for when you’re serving it as a vegan main meal. 
• Toss in homemade croutons—it’ll remind you of panzanella! 
• Any short pasta will work. The fun part of using medium shells are how the peas and olives get stuck inside, making for a nice, full bite. You could use gemelli, farfalle, penne, orecchiette, rigatoni, or fusilli.

Green Goddess Pasta Salad

Prep Time                      15 mins

Cook Time         15 mins

Total Time       30 mins

Servings                       4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

For the dressing:

• 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 1/4 cups basil leaves, tightly packed
• 1 cup baby spinach leaves, tightly packed
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup raw cashews
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast or grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the pasta:

• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 pound dry medium pasta shells
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas
• 12 spears thin green asparagus, tough stems trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces 
• 1 fennel bulb, cored and very thinly sliced
• 6 ounces drained, jarred pitted green olives
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced

 

Boil the water:

Set a large pot of water (about 3 quarts) with 1 tablespoon salt over high heat and bring it to a boil.

Make the dressing:

While the water is boiling, zest the lemons and set it aside. You will add it to the pasta salad later. Juice the lemons—you’ll need about 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.

In a blender, add the lemon juice, olive oil, basil, spinach, garlic, cashews, nutritional yeast, salt, and black pepper, and blend until very smooth.

Cook the pasta and vegetables:

When the water comes to a boil, add the pasta. About 2 minutes before the pasta is cooked—follow the cook time suggested on the packaging—add the frozen peas and asparagus to the pot. Cook for the remaining 2 minutes, then drain everything into a colander set in the sink.

Rinse with cold tap water to stop the pasta, peas, and asparagus from cooking further in the residual heat. Leave the colander in the sink to drain thoroughly.

Toss the pasta salad:

In a large bowl, add the cooled pasta, peas, and asparagus, plus the fennel, olives, chives, scallions, and lemon zest. Pour in the dressing and toss until everything is evenly coated. Season to taste with more salt and black pepper.

Serve:

Enjoy the pasta salad chilled—pop it in the fridge for up to a day—or right away at room temperature.

Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days. 

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4 to 6
Amount per serving
Calories	497
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 27g	34%
Saturated Fat 4g	19%
Cholesterol 0mg	0%
Sodium 1926mg	84%
Total Carbohydrate 58g	21%
Dietary Fiber 13g	46%
Total Sugars 13g
Protein 15g
Vitamin C 100mg	501%
Calcium 158mg	12%
Iron 5mg	29%
Potassium 814mg	17%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

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