A pasta salad is one of those dishes that nearly everyone has made at some stage in their lives! Whether as the cheap version we whipped up at university, or the delicious creamy side dish enjoyed at a Summer BBQ.
I’m going to show you how this diverse dish can also be a wholesome, easy and tasty meal prep! Using store-bought pesto to add bold new flavour to your pasta salad is the ultimate trick to make this pesto pasta salad quicker than ever.
Time-saving tip
To make this meal prep in almost no time at all, I suggest you use store-bought pesto, to add flavour and some healthy fats. I love using Pesto Princess’ bulk freezer tubs. Who doesn’t love to bulk up on the food they love? Plus it’s better on the wallet in the long-term! The tubs allow you to scoop out the amount of pesto you need every time you meal prep. How convenient?
Is this meal nutritionally well-balanced?
Contrary to the pasta salads you might have made in the past, this meal prep is a balanced variant. It contains some raw veggies, to stay true to the salad aspect of this recipe. It also contains an essential dose of protein, served in the form of butter beans. And of course, the pasta is the starch star of this dish. Lastly, the pesto is the yummy fatty cherry on top.
Storage recommendation
Vegan meals tend to last much longer throughout the week than meals with dairy or meat. Regardless, I recommend refrigerating your vegan meal preps and consuming your meals within four days of preparing them. This ensures that the meal is still at its most desirable quality – both nutritionally and taste-wise!
This meal is not freezer-friendly!
Serving suggestions
This meal prep is so simple and straightforward, that I don’t have any swap suggestions. The only thing I can suggest is to go wild on the pesto if you are as big of a fan of it as I am! There’s no such thing as too much pesto.
This meal needs no heating, so you can just grab it out of your fridge and enjoy it immediately! No reheating needed.
The recipe for this meal makes three moderate meals. If you prefer to eat large meals, you can simply double the recipe. Personally, I eat a moderate-sized meal, while my partner eats a large meal.
More 20 mins meal prep recipes
Don’t forget to share your meals with me and other fellow VMPS preppers by tagging your posts with #veganmealprepsunday. I’d love to see how your meals turned out!
Pesto Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 150 g (whole) wheat pasta dry
- 1 can butter beans drained and rinsed
- 3 TBSP pesto Basil and Lemon flavour from Pesto Princess brand or similar
- 1 TBSP pasta water
- 250 g cherry tomatoes halved
- 80 g wild baby rocket salad
Instructions
- To cook the pasta, bring a big pot of water to the boil with a pinch of salt. Add the pasta once the water starts boiling. Cook the pasta until al dente, according to the instructions on the package. Once the pasta is cooked, reserve some of the pasta water and then drain the pasta in a colander without rinsing. This allows the pesto to stick to the pasta better. Add the drained pasta back to the pot in which you cooked it.
- Mix the pasta water with the pesto in a small bowl, to slightly dilute the pesto. Add the pesto to the pasta and stir to evenly distribute the pesto. Thereafter, add the butter beans and cherry tomatoes, and stir again. Lastly add the rocket and stir gently into the dish.