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    Home » Recipes » Vegan Main Dishes

    Lunch Box Pasta Salad

    Published: Jan 25, 2014 · Updated: Apr 7, 2021 · This post may contain affiliate links.

    This simple pasta salad makes a nice change of pace from sandwich fare. Featuring kid-friendly veggies, you can dress it in a way you think would be most appealing. Vary the vegetables according to your child’s preference. You can make this for dinner, then use leftovers for the lunch box (moisten with additional dressing as needed), or just make it for lunch-packing from the get go, for which it yields a generous number of servings. If you're looking for more lunch ideas, you might enjoy our post, Healthy School Lunch Recipes and Tips.

    Makes: 6 lunch box-size servings
    •  1 ½ to 2 cups uncooked small pasta shapes
      (preferably whole grain,or use gluten-free if need be); see Note
    • 1 medium crown broccoli, cut into small florets (about 2 heaping cups)
    • ½  to ¾ cup frozen corn kernels
    • 1 large or 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
    • ½ cup pitted black olives or green pimiento olives, halved
    • ⅓ to ½ cup natural dressing of your choice, as needed (see Note)
    • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

    Cook the pasta in plenty of rapidly simmering water. Just as the pasta becomes al dente, add the broccoli, carrot, and corn to the simmering water and allow to cook for another minute or two, just until the broccoli turns bright green.

    Drain and rinse under cold running water until the mixture cools. Drain well and combine in a mixing bowl with the olives and dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

    If you make this the night before, taste and add more dressing if needed before packing into containers to make sure it stays moist.

    Lunch box pasta 2

    Notes:

    Any sort of simple vinaigrette is good with this, as is the Easy Tartar Sauce or the Vegan Ranch Dressing. Use whatever kind of dressing (homemade or store-bought) your child enjoys most, as that’s what’s going to make it go down easy, and you can vary it each time.

    Use 1 ½ cups for really tiny shapes like mini shells, elbows, or ditalini; 2 cups for slightly larger shapes like rotelle (wagon wheels), regular elbows or medium shells.

    Variations: 

    To jazz this up for adults, use a bolder dressing; add fresh herbs and/or sun-dried tomatoes.

    And of course, you can always use other veggies as suggested in the headnote. Others that would be good in this are green peas, bell pepper, and cauliflower.

    • Here are more pasta salad recipes.

    More recipes you may enjoy

    • Chipotle Black Bean Burgers (Vegan)
    • Vegan Walnut Taco Meat
    • Vegan Vodka Pasta
    • Farro Bowl

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Amerlita says

      January 26, 2014 at 11:54 pm

      I love this vegies recipe

    2. Nava says

      January 27, 2014 at 7:53 am

      Thanks, Amerlita!

    3. Lucy says

      March 06, 2014 at 11:46 pm

      Can you tell me what the brand of that container is please.

    4. Nava says

      March 07, 2014 at 10:22 am

      Lucy, this container is part of a Laptop Lunch kit. Here's more about these products; I see that you're in Australia and am not sure this particular brand is available there, but if you go on Amazon.au, you can probably find similar BPA-free bento-style lunch boxes: http://www.vegkitchen.com/recipes/school-lunch-in-a-bento-box-fun-colorful-and-earth-friendly/

    5. Ugo Colombo says

      April 11, 2014 at 11:49 am

      Thanks for sharing. It seems like not just easy lunch idea, but totally healthy too. Good post.

    6. Nava says

      April 11, 2014 at 11:51 am

      I hope you'll enjoy this, Ugo. There are lots of ways to vary it, too, according to what veggies you have in the fridge!

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    Hi, I'm Nicole! I'm the creator behind VegKitchen, and the author of the popular cookbook, Weeknight One Pot Vegan Cooking. Learn more about me here.

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