There is a wonderful blog I love called Vegan Yum Yum that has wonderful, creative recipes that are satisfying and delicious.  If you have an iPhone, they have an app which I use a lot!  Well, I had this head of cabbage laying around that I had little inspiration for except that it’s super healthy and I knew we needed to eat it so, over to Vegan Yum Yum I went looking for inspiration. They didn’t let me down!

Raw, Vegan, Veggie, Pasta Salad

I found this marvelous recipe for a vegan, raw (well, except for the pasta) super flavorful pasta salad. I changed it up a little and Princessified it.  Mike had one bite and his reaction? “You can make this anytime.”  Of course, you put pasta in any form in front of him and he’s thrilled.  And add peanut butter to the dressing? Put a fork in it. He’s done!

This is a super easy, super healthy recipe that will fill you with fiber and protein and all kinds of wonderful, crunchy vegetables!

Pasta and vegetables for raw, vegan, veggie pasta salad

Some of the ingredients for the pasta salad.

Chopped vegetables for raw, vegan, veggie, pasta salad

Chopped and shredded veggies.

Raw, Vegan, Veggie, Pasta Salad

Kitchen Princess Vegan Pasta Salad – Ingredients

Serves 3 as a main dish, 4 as a side dish

• 1/2 pound of (preferably) whole grain pasta – I used DeBoles spinach pasta
• 2 or 3 carrots
• 1/4 head of a small cabbage
• 1/2  pound of fresh asparagus (the original recipe uses broccoli but I had asparagus on hand so I used that)
• 1 small cucumber, chopped
• 1/4 of a red onion, thinly sliced
• A small handful of fresh herbs like mint, basil, oregano, whatever you have
• Toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Sauce

• 1/4 cup tahini paste and/or peanut butter or almond butter
• 2 Tablespoon Tamari or soy sauce, low sodium preferably
• 3 Tablespoon water
• 1 Tablespoon Agave Nectar or sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Rice Vinegar
• 1 Teaspoon chili paste or a chopped fresh chili
• 1 Teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Pinch of salt
• Fresh ground pepper

Kitchen Princess Vegan Pasta Salad – Method

1. Cook your pasta according to package directions.  Drain and rinse with cold water.  After it’s drained sufficiently, put it in a bowl with a tablespoon or so of oil and stir it around to prevent it from sticking together.  You can prepare the pasta hours before you assemble the salad.
2. Cut the cabbage into quarters and remove the core of one of the quarters.  Peel the carrots and asparagus, if using,  You don’t have to peel the asparagus, I just do it because it looks prettier that way.
3. Now, set up your food processor and use the disc that has one slit for the cabbage and the disc that has lots of holes for the carrots.  You can slice the cabbage thin if you don’t have a food processor and grate the carrots.  I like to lightly steam the asparagus first or even throw the whole stalks into the boiling pasta water and cook for 2 minutes before the pasta goes in.  You can leave them raw if you like.
4. Now rinse the asparagus and when it’s cool, chop into 1/2 inch pieces.  Chop your cucumber up about the same size and thinly slice the red onion and cut the rings into quarters.
5. Put all the veggies into the bowl with the pasta and refrigerate until you are ready to eat.
6. To make the sauce, put all the ingredients in a little mini food processor or just whisk together in a bowl.  I included the peanut butter when I made the sauce and because it was natural peanut butter it was a little too dry to whisk so I dumped all the ingredients in the little mini processor and let it whirl.  It’s a wet dressing, not super thick but it perfectly coats all the pasta and vegetables.
7. When your’e ready to eat, pour the dressing on the salad and toss it all together.  Sprinkle the herbs on top and some toasted sesame seeds.  Dig in!

Princess Tips -

• There are some perfectly fine gluten – free pasta alternatives available.  You could also use buckwheat soba noodles.  If you want to keep it totally raw, try shredded zucchini or cucumber.
• Be creative with your ingredients.  I think chopped red or yellow pepper would be wonderful in this salad.
• Tahini can be kind of bitter and some people don’t like it so just use the peanut or almond butter if you like.