Kelly JensenThis Ditalini Pasta Salad recipe is made with fresh vegetables, herbs, and a simple homemade lemon vinaigrette dressing! Great for parties, BBQs, or potlucks – this is one crowd-pleaser recipe everyone will love.
This is one side dish that will be gone before you know it: crunchy veggies, fun ditalini pasta, and a bright and fresh red wine vinaigrette dressing. Serve this as a side dish, appetizer, or just enjoy it as a light lunch in the summer. A great way to use fresh garden produce and pantry staple ingredients!
This ditalini pasta salad is amazing as a side dish, to bring to a potluck, or just for lunch. The secret to amazing pasta salads is making homemade dressing – it takes about 5 minutes but the flavor blows the bottled stuff out of the water!
I made it a day in advance, which gave the pasta salad just enough time for the flavors to marinate before serving. I make a huge batch of pasta salad every other week for our lunches, and I have a feeling this will be my new Go-To recipe for Sunday night meal prep.
This Ditalini Pasta Salad is:
- Refreshing
- Tangy
- Bursting with flavor
- Hearty
- Loaded with fresh vegetables
- Vegan , vegetarian, and dairy free
- A HUGE crowd-pleaser
- Great for BBQs, parties, or potlucks
The Best Pasta Salad Dressing
What makes this pasta salad different and so life altering from the rest? The dressing! Its a homemade red wine vinaigrette. I’ve always used bottled dressings in the past but wanted to make a homemade dressing pasta salad.
I didn’t have any vinaigrette dressing on hand so I made one from scratch. It makes ALL the difference in the world. The fresh garlic, the vinegar, the herbs, and good olive oil… I can’t believe that I hadn’t thought of making my own dressing sooner!
What’s In This Ditalini Salad Recipe?
I cook with fresh produce from my garden and from Misfits Market– they sell fantastic fruit, vegetables, & pantry staples at a discounted price. We get Misfit boxes every other week and love picking out favorite produce for delivery. Get $10 off your first box here!
- Ditalini Pasta – ditalini is a fun short tube-like shape that’s fantastic for soups and salads!
- Spinach
- Onion
- No Salt Added / Low Sodium Chickpeas: one of my favorite pantry staple ingredients! You can use canned chickpeas (I’d highly recommend a low sodium or no salt version), or you can make your own chickpeas from scratch in the Instant Pot.
- Dill
- Mint
- Olive Oil: I like to use this fruity Zoe olive oil which has a fantastic flavor and deep color- it’s really inexpensive online here, so I keep a few liters stocked up in my pantry. For the quality of oil you get, it’s an excellent value, I would highly recommend!
- Lemon
- Pink Himalayan Sea Salt: I like to use a pink Himalayan Sea Salt in my kitchen, which has more natural minerals than plain processed table salt. It’s fairly inexpensive, so I’d recommend this salt if you’re looking for an easy way to level up your spice pantry.
- Tellicherry Peppercorns: Like the salt, it’s amazing the flavor difference you can get with really good tellicherry black pepper. Amazon has a generic brand tellicherry peppercorn which is the same price is buying pre-ground, and has a million times more flavor… so I use these really great tellicherry peppercorns, which I would definitely recommend.
How to Make this Ditalini Pasta Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette
- In a large pot, boil water and cook the ditalini according to package directions. Drain and cool, and place in a large mixing bowl.
- In the bowl add the spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, chickpeas, and kalamata olives. Add the parsley, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper.
- Toss dressing and pasta together, until well combined.
- Chill pasta salad in refrigerator (overnight if possible to let the flavors set). Before serving adding a tablespoon each of red wine vinegar and olive oil, and toss.
More Fresh Vegetarian Pasta Salads You’ll Love!
Lemon Orzo Salad Recipe (Vegetarian, High Fiber, Vegan)
Zesty Italian Pasta Salad Recipe (Vegetarian, Gluten Free)
Soba Noodle Salad with Miso Dressing Recipe (Vegan, Vegetarian)
Vegan Pasta Salad with Mayo Recipe (Egg & Dairy Free)
Ramen Noodle Salad Recipe with Coleslaw
Share This Vegetarian Ditalini Pasta Salad Recipe
As always, if you make this vegan ditalini pasta salad recipe be sure to leave me a comment, rate this recipe, and tag me @theherbeevore on Instagram so I can feature you. I love seeing all your photos of my recipe recreations!
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Ditalini Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 16 ounce box ditalini pasta
- 4 cups fresh spinach chopped
- 1 13.5-ounce can No-Salt-Added Chickpeas
- 1 cup cucumbers sliced
- 1 cup tomatoes diced (I used roma, but you can use beefsteak tomatoes, or 1 cup diced cherry tomatoes)
- 1/4 cup kalamata olives sliced
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- In the bowl add the spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, chickpeas, and kalamata olives. Add the parsley, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper.
- Toss dressing and pasta together, until well combined.
- Chill pasta salad in refrigerator (overnight if possible to let the flavors set). Before serving adding a tablespoon each of red wine vinegar and olive oil, and toss.
Video
Notes
Save Money on Organic Groceries!
I get all the fresh produce for my recipes from my garden and from Misfits Market – they sell all organic produce at a super discounted price, and it’s purchased direct from the farmers. We get Misfit Market boxes every month and love picking out our favorite seasonal produce for delivery. You can get $10 off your first $30 box by clicking here! If you think organic produce is too expensive… think again, and give Misfits Market a look!Nutrition
Or tag me @theherbeevore in your photo on Instagram!
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Thanks for the clarification on the tomatoes! I ended up using cherry tomatoes. This recipe is delicious! I only had half a box of ditalini, but for my personal taste, that was enough pasta. Everything else was measured according to directions and for me, the ratio of pasta (8 oz.) to everything else was good. I might even add more of the veggies next time. I used the full amount of dressing and it was all absorbed. I could drink that stuff, lol! Glad I found this recipe. I’ll make it again. Thanks!
I’m so glad to hear that Donna – yes, that dressing goes on just about every salad we make 🙂 Thanks so much for letting me know how much you liked it! – Kelly
Hi. The directions say to mix together “spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, chickpeas, and kalamata olives.” However, I don’t see the kind of tomatoes in the ingredients. What kind of tomatoes did you use? How much? This salad looks delicious! Can’t wait to make it. Thanks for clarification on the tomatoes.
Hi Donna,
Thanks for letting me know – I added the kind of tomatoes in the recipe! I used Roma tomatoes which I love the flavor of, but you can use beefsteak tomatoes or which even ones are in season. In the winter I like to use cherry or grape tomatoes in my recipes as they are usually sweeter. About 1 cup total of diced tomatoes will do the trick! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
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Love the little pastas in this salad plus the dressing is versatile and can be used on plenty of other recipes. Yum
Thank you so much, so glad you enjoyed it!