This Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad is loaded with delicious grilled vegetables, homemade balsamic vinaigrette, and infused with smokey flavors of the grill. It’s a great pasta salad recipe to serve during summer.
If you need a few more pasta salad ideas, try my macaroni salad and our family favorite pasta salad.
Table of Contents
This pasta salad may seem like a simple, veggies and pasta recipe but it is SO full of delicious flavors, you won’t be able to stop eating it. Even the simplest dish can easy be made extremely flavorful by the right combination of flavors and of course, the smoky grilled flavor!
Personally, I love grilling extra Italian grilled vegetables and using the excess to make this pasta salad. But of course, you can variate the vegetables based on your taste and you can easily use leftover grilled veggies.
It’s really all about the delicious grill flavor of the vegetables that gets incorporated with the pasta that makes this side dish special. And of course, dressing it all up in a simple balsamic vinaigrette brings it all together. (You can use homemade balsamic vinaigrette if you have any on hand, or make this simplified version.)
Ingredient Notes and Tips
Vegetables – I like to use the classic grilling vegetables like zucchini, summer squash, mushrooms, onions, and bell peppers. Feel free to alter the combination or add some. Just make sure you’re using sturdy vegetables that stand up to grilling like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, corn on cob, eggplant.
Pasta – the best pasta to use in pasta salad in a corkscrew pasta. It has the best shape to hold the dressing and other ingredients. Feel free to use gluten free pasta if needed (check Recipe FAQ section for recommendations.)
White balsamic vinegar – I like white balsamic vinegar because or its milder, fruitier flavor. If you need to substitute, use regular balsamic vinegar instead.
Lemon juice – for the best flavor, always use freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Garlic – use fresh garlic for the best flavor and press it into the dressing.
Italian Seasoning – If you don’t have Italian seasoning on hand, you can substitute with herbs you most likely have in the pantry already. The most important ones are parsley, basil, and oregano. Most Italian seasoning blends include dried herbs like basil, parsley, oregano, rosemary, thyme, garlic powder, and/or sage, so you can always make your own.
See the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and instructions.
How to Make Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad
Cut all veggies and try to get them as evenly sized as you can. Place them into a mixing bowl and add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Mix well and let them marinade while you prepare the grill.
Preheat the grill, use either charcoal or gas as you prefer. Place veggies into a vegetable grill basket or skewer the onto metal skewers. (Note that if you are using wooden skewers, you will need to soak them first.) Close the grill lid and cook veggies until completely done, stirring from time to time or turning the skewers. Once cooked, set aside.
Cook pasta according to the package instructions, drain, and set aside in a mixing bowl. Add grilled veggies to pasta and let both cool until no longer hot. Add parmesan cheese once cooled (1).
In a small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the dressing (2). Pour in the dressing as you carefully mix the pasta salad (3). Make sure to mix until everything is evenly coated.
Once mixed, you can serve it right away or store for a couple of hours in the refrigerator, until cooled.
NOTE: if you want to make it ahead of time, don’t mix the dressing in until ready to serve!
Recipe FAQs
This recipe can easily be made gluten free too. To make this pasta salad gluten free, simply use a gluten free pasta. But remember, not all GF pasta is good to use in pasta salads. Something I learned from months of experimenting with gluten free pastas is that it is NOT all equal. Most GF pasta is okay when you prepare it fresh for dinner but then becomes inedible once reheated or stays in the fridge for a while. Much like is this salad, this pasta may stay in the fridge for a while before it’s finished, so it needs to hold up.
There is a brand of pasta that I found MUCH success with and it even stands up to freezing. I like to use Tinkyada gluten free pasta. Like I said, it holds up very well to re-heating, being in a pasta salad, and even freezing. So that is definitely the pasta I would recommend for a gluten free substitution
You can easily make different components of the pasta salad ahead of time. I recommend that you grill the vegetables and make the pasta salad dressing ahead of time and store in separately in the refrigerator, in its own air-tight container. While you can make the pasta ahead of time, pasta does have a tendency to dry out as it sits.
If you’re in a time crunch, you can prepare the veggies, and the pasta, mix them and store them in the air-tight container in the refrigerator. Make the dressing ahead of time also but DO NOT mix it in until you’re ready to serve the salad. Store it separately.
I like to use the classic grilling vegetables like zucchini, summer squash, mushrooms, onions, and bell peppers. Feel free to alter the combination or add some. Just make sure you’re using sturdy vegetables that stand up to grilling like broccoli, cauliflower, corn on cob, eggplant. You can also add green beans and asparagus if using a vegetable grill basket to grill the veggies. Otherwise, those are not easy to skewer.
More Pasta Salad Recipes To Try
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Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 16 oz corkscrew pasta*
- 1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese adjust to taste
Vegetables:
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1 medium summer squash
- 8 oz baby bella mushrooms
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 small red onion
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 Tbsp white balsamic vinegar**
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
- Salt
- Fresh cracked black pepper
Balsamic Dressing:
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar**
- 2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove pressed
- 1 tsp white granulated sugar
- 1 tsp coarse salt adjust to taste
- 1/4 tsp black pepper adjust to taste
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes adjust to taste
Instructions
To Grill The Vegetables:
- Cut all veggies and try to get them as evenly sized as you can. Place them into a mixing bowl and add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Mix well and let them marinade while you prepare the grill.
- Place veggies into a vegetable grill basket or skewer the onto metal skewers. (Note that if you are using wooden skewers, you will need to soak them first.)
- Close the grill lid and cook veggies until completely done, stirring from time to time or turning the skewers. Once cooked, set aside.
Pasta Salad:
- Cook pasta according to the package instructions, drain, and set aside in a mixing bowl. Add grilled veggies to pasta and let both cool until no longer hot. Add parmesan cheese once cooled.
- In a small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the dressing. Pour in the dressing as you carefully mix the pasta salad. Make sure to mix until everything is evenly coated.
- Once mixed, you can serve it right away or store for a couple of hours in the refrigerator, until cooled. NOTE: if you want to make it ahead of time, don’t mix the dressing in until ready to serve!
Notes
- *Gluten free pasta – if you need to make this recipe gluten free, simply use gluten free pasta. Make sure to use pasta that you know is sturdy and not that is prone to crumble. (See recommendation in Recipe FAQs in post.)
- **Balsamic vinegar – if you don’t have access to white balsamic vinegar, use regular balsamic vinegar. Just note that it has a little stronger flavor.
- Other veggies to add: make sure you’re using sturdy vegetables that stand up to grilling like broccoli, cauliflower, corn on cob, eggplant. You can also add green beans and asparagus if using a vegetable grill basket to grill the veggies. Otherwise, those are not easy to skewer.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published on Will Cook For Smiles in August 2017.
Erika says
If you aren’t able to grill, do you think the pasta salad would still be tasty if you roasted the veggies?
lyuba says
Hi Erika,
Of course! You can roast them in the oven or on a stove-top. It will be missing that smokey grill flavor but it will still be delicious. I love oven-roasted veggies and it will still be tasty 🙂