Vegan Caprese Salad Recipe (with Pasta!)
A delicious, summery Vegan Caprese Salad made with juicy tomatoes, creamy vegan mozzarella, fresh basil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar tossed into fresh pasta. This dish is ready in 15 minutes or less!
Servings: 1 -2 servings
Ingredients
- 1 serving cooked pasta
- handful cherry tomatoes roughly 1 cup
- handful fresh basil roughly 1/4 loose cup chiffonaded
- vegan mozzarella to taste I used miyokos mozzarella
- salt and pepper to taste
- extra virgin olive oil drizzle
- optional
- balsamic vinaigrette to taste
- 2-3 fresh garlic cloves
Instructions
- To prepare in pasta salad form, toss cooked pasta, halved cherry tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and enough olive oil to lightly coat pasta in a large mixing bowl. Toss to coat then season with salt and pepper to tase. Add balsamic vinaigrette if desired and enjoy.
- If you'd like to serve warm, sauté minced garlic cloves in a splash of olive oil until fragrant. Add tomatoes and allow to cook until slightly softened. You can smash them with the back of your spatula to release some of the tomato juices or leave whole. Add pasta, basil, mozzarella and stir to combine. Finally, add salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
Secrets to Success
- This Caprese Pasta Salad recipe is fairly loose, so you'll see some ingredients are described with "handfuls" and "to taste". It really is up to personal preference and it's hard to mess up! I would recommend gauging portion size by the number of people enjoying it. For example, use 1 serving of pasta per person, and for each person, use a handful of cherry tomatoes as described in the recipe.
- While you could make this recipe oil-free, I'd highly recommend using a drizzle of good olive oil. It will not only help to keep the cooked pasta from sticking together but also serves as the "dressing" if you will, given there is no other sauce in the recipe. Consider the warm option (see recipe below) if you'd prefer oil-free, and use crushed tomatoes to create a sauce. The pasta salad method will definitely end up a little dry without olive oil. Alternatively, you could potentially use balsamic vinaigrette as a sort of sauce to pull together the pasta salad.
- For presentation purposes, I rolled my vegan mozzarella into little balls, however the shaping of your cheese is optional.