Summer Veggie Pesto Pasta

A delicious pasta salad featuring fresh garden vegetables and tossed in an oil-free almond-hemp heart basil pesto dressing.

We move a lot for work. This makes summertime backyard gardens near impossible to establish, especially if we rent our home for one or two years. As a result, I attempt container gardening whenever practical. Gardens can become especially difficult to build or maintain when we move during the summer months.

This year, we moved in January, seven months after our previous summer move. Despite the short notice, there is an incredible silver lining to this unexpected winter move. It gave us plenty of time to build a raised garden bed and plant our favorite summer vegetables and herbs – basil, rosemary, thyme, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, kale, potatoes, carrots, and zucchini.

And I cannot tell you how excited I am that our garden is a bountiful success!! Our plants are thriving and producing such incredible gifts in our little raised garden bed. We have so many flavorful grape tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, and basil. I just had to make and share this Summer Veggie Pesto Pasta Salad with you.

If you’ve read many of my recipes before, you know I like to eat the rainbow and advocate using as many fresh vegetables and fruits as possible. This pasta salad is chock-full of the rainbow! It consists of the following colors and textures:

• PURPLE – purple onion and Kalamata olives
• RED – grape tomatoes and roasted red peppers
• ORANGE – carrots
• LIGHT GREEN – cucumber
• DARK GREEN – zucchini and fresh basil

And the pesto in this Summer Veggie Pesto Pasta salad is packed with colossal flavor! While it has the obligatory fresh Italian basil and the texture of traditional pesto, it is far from traditional or ordinary. Instead of pine nuts, I use heart-healthy hemp hearts and slivered almonds; and instead of oil, I use water.

A hidden gem in this pesto is sun-dried tomatoes and freshly squeezed lemon juice – both add tremendous depth and amp up the umami flavors. Nutritional yeast is exchanged for the conventional parmesan cheese. And finally, I add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes to add a little character and pizzazz. All of these ingredients work in concert to add complex flavor and vibrant colors. Your taste buds are sure to sing!

So let’s chat a little bit about the pasta. Since this serves as a full meal, I use Aldi’s Simply Nature Chickpea Penne because it’s made from garbanzo beans. And while you can use your favorite pasta or any other pasta you have on hand, I highly recommend using a bean pasta since it contains so much quality plant protein and fiber.

To illustrate, one cup of the Simply Nature chickpea penne provides 19 grams of protein, 11 grams of dietary fiber, and less than 5 mg of sodium. And as a bonus, chickpea penne pasta is naturally gluten-free and non-gmo.

I hope you enjoy this Summer Veggie Pesto Pasta Salad as much as we do. Please let me know if you try it in the comments below. Bon Appetite!

Pesto Ingredients

• 1 cup loose fresh basil 
• ¼ cup hemp hearts 
• ¼ cup slivered almonds
• ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes (8)
• ¼ cup water
• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice 
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
• ¼ tsp pepper
• salt to taste (optional)

Pasta Salad Ingredients

• 12 ounces pasta*
• 3 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup zucchini, cubed
• 1 cup carrots, julienned
• ½ cup roasted peppers
• 1 cup cucumber, cubed
• ½ cup purple onion, thinly sliced
• ½ cup Kalamata olives, quartered
• 1 cup pesto recipe (above)

Instructions

1. Process all of the pesto ingredients in a food processor until minced well.  But be careful not to process the pesto too much.  You don’t want it to be too smooth.

1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions, then drain and rinse with cool water.

1. Add the pasta back into the pot, along with the remaining pasta salad ingredients.  Gently toss to combine.

1. Store any remaining pasta salad in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Notes

* I used chickpea pasta; but you can use any kind of pasta in this salad.

The pesto in this Summer Veggie Pesto Pasta Salad was very loosely adapted from the New York Times pesto recipe. Instead of using pine nuts, I use heart healthy hemp hearts and slivered almonds; and instead of oil, I use water. I also add sun-dried tomatoes and more lemon to add depth and amp up the umami flavors. It also adds complex colors. Nutritional yeast was used in place of the parmesan cheese. And finally, I have to add just a pinch of red pepper flakes to add a little character.

My husband loves sprinkling Follow Your Heart vegan parmesan shreds on top. Enjoy!!

To save or print this Summer Veggie Pesto Pasta recipe, please click on the Download link below: