ramyaramesh3007Try this easy pasta salad with baby spinach, roasted chickpeas, and juicy pomegranate pearls tossed together in an unique curry leaf pesto dressing. You won’t regret it.
Forget plain pasta salads with basic dressings and try this spruced up pesto pasta salad with a mix of raw and cooked vegetables dressed in a herby, zesty pesto sauce. We’ve also added in a secret ingredient to make it more nutritious!
I love using this particular pasta shape (called cellentani) for pasta salads as they are able to soak up the flavour of the dressing really well. For the toppings – you can try my 5-minute Vegan Feta Cheese here as well, in addition to roasted chickpeas to up your protein intake.
For the raw vegetables, I went with baby spinach and pomegranate pearls. They worked so well in the salad!
For the dressing, the ingredients are very similar to my regular vegan pesto – basil leaves, pine nuts, nutritional yeast, lemon juice and garlic powder. This time round I also added toasted curry leaves. I drew inspiration from my mum’s signature green chutney (indian dip) that she makes for us to eat with rice for healthy skin and hair. Curry leaves are super aromatic when toasted and it blends right in with the taste of pesto!
Ingredients You Need
- basil leaves – any kind works!
- curry leaves – toast them before blending for ultimate flavour.
- walnuts – you can also use pine nuts, cashews or macadamia.
- nutritional yeast – a substitute for parmesan and gives the best cheesy flavour!
- lemon juice – for acidity
- spices and condiments – ground cumin, salt and black pepper (+garlic powder / hing optional)
- pasta – fusilli or cellentani works well in this recipe
- protein – chickpeas, tofu or any other type of beans would work as well
- toppings – baby spinach / arugula
- fruits – pomegranate pearls
Gluten free substitutions: Use a gluten free pasta like brown rice pasta. Ensure if you use hing, it’s gluten free as it normally contains wheat flour.
Allium free substitutions: Use hing instead of garlic powder.
Curry Leaf Pesto Pasta Salad
Ingredients
Curry Leaf Pesto
- 30 g basil leaves
- 20 g toasted curry leaves
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder or sub with pinch of hing
Toppings
- 2 cups dry pasta
- 1 can chickpeas
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp chili powder
- salt and black pepper
- 1/2 cup pomegranate pearls
- 2-3 cups baby spinach
Instructions
- Boil pasta according to package instructions. Drain and rinse the pasta with cold water. Save the pasta water.
- Toast the curry leaves on pan until crispy. Toss in all the ingredients needed for the curry leaf pesto dressing into a blender.
- Blend until you get a smooth paste. If the paste is too thick, add some pasta water and blend again.
- Drain excess water from chickpeas in a can and rinse them. Toast them with spices like turmeric, chili powder, salt and black pepper for 5-10 minutes until crispy.
- Assemble the pasta salad – add your baby spinach into a bowl, followed by pasta, chickpeas, and pomegranate. Pour over pesto dressing, give it a good mix.
- Top with more chickpeas and pomegranate. Enjoy!