Pesto Pasta Salad

Jul 18 2010 | by Susan Voisin | 25 Comments » |
Tags: higher-fat

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Pesto Pasta Salad

Recipe by: Susan Voisin

* 3 cups fresh basil (or 2 cups basil and one cup spinach)
* 3-4 large cloves garlic
* 1/4 cup walnuts, pine nuts, or raw cashews
* 1/2 container silken tofu (about 6 ounces)
* 2 tablespoons water
* 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
* 1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste
* 1 lb. pasta, cooked according to package directions and rinsed with cool water
* 1-2 large tomatoes, chopped
* additional nuts, to taste

In food processor, chop garlic and nuts until finely minced. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth.

Toss pasta with sauce and tomatoes, and sprinkle with nuts. Serve immediately or at room temperature.

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25 Responses to “Pesto Pasta Salad”

1. Julia Says:

   June 16th, 2011 at 7:56 am

   Great recipe, but these are my tweaks: Only 2 cups of basil, only 4 oz of the tofu, and max 3 cloves of garlic. This way, the tofu doesn’t calm down the flavor of the basil too much. Everything else was great!
2. Roxy Says:

   January 31st, 2011 at 7:28 am

   Thank you! This definitely settled my pesto craving. I did it with the subbing in the spinach only cause I didn’t have enough basil, but next time i’d like to try the full basil.
3. dining table Says:

   January 25th, 2011 at 6:49 pm

   This is really something I would love to try! It looks so delicious.
4. Lorali Says:

   November 2nd, 2010 at 7:13 pm

   It was great except way too much garlic i did 4 lg cloves and it was over powering next time Ill use 2
5. Catherine Says:

   October 31st, 2010 at 8:35 pm

   I loved this recipe. It turned out perfectly. I used grape tomatoes. I will definitely be making this again. I love pesto and this is the perfect way to have it without having a huge oil fest.
6. Carrie Says:

   October 30th, 2010 at 4:18 pm

   I just made this today and LOVE IT! The only thing I did differently was I did the basil/spinach and I had to use a cup less of the basil (1 cup is all I had).
7. dearnormajean Says:

   October 8th, 2010 at 2:12 pm

   absolutely wonderful. i didn’t have any tofu on hand so i added some soymilk and it worked out better than i expected. i also tossed in a bit of cilantro that i had on hand and used canned tomatoes because i hate fresh with a passion.
8. shakii Says:

   September 16th, 2010 at 3:06 pm

   i didnt like i had to throw away the pesto bc it tasted to leafy idk why! I made it exactly like the recepie and didnt like it at all! Should I use less basil? or add more silken tofu?
9. Jennifer Says:

   September 16th, 2010 at 9:38 am

   I’ve made pesto very similar to this before, except that I add plenty of garlic and I find that the pine nuts, once ground, help to keep the right grainy consistency
10. Claudia Says:

    September 7th, 2010 at 11:45 am

    Hi Susan,

    I used half of the pesto recipe with the spaghetti squash, but I’m afraid we really didn’t care for this. My husband commented about feeling really over-dosed on the basil. Oh well.
11. heather Says:

    August 29th, 2010 at 12:03 am

    Every week the basil in our CSA shipment goes bad because we can’t use it in time. This recipe was just what the Dr. ordered…delicious! It used the basil right up. It made a LOT of pasta salad, though! We had leftovers, and they looked a little sketchy the second day (it’s so sad how basil gets funky so quickly). We still ate it, though, I just doused it in Frank’s hot sauce. It’s actually REALLY good with Franks. I mean, it’s good both ways, but if you like things with a kick, try it out. 🙂
12. Joan B Says:

    August 27th, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    I have been doing some research on the importance of Basil in our diet. This recipe, uses a good quantity of Basil. I will surely try out this one.
13. Kelly Bower Says:

    August 26th, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    This is amazing! I love how the tofu acts as the sauce, it’s almost like parmesean. I didn’t add the yeast just because I thought it seemed unnecessary. I used cashews and 1 1/2 large tomatoes and sea salt for the salt. I plan on adding some sort of fruitiness though, maybe mangos or lemon juice like someone above did. This recipe is so easy! It’s probably the first I’ve made correctly. Thanks!
14. SusanV (admin) Says:

    August 26th, 2010 at 12:23 pm

    I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with spaghetti squash. You’ll have to play around with the amount of squash you use because I can see this being too much sauce for one average squash. Please let me know your results if you try.
15. Claudia Says:

    August 26th, 2010 at 11:56 am

    Susan,
    I am wondering how you think this might work with spaghetti squash instead of the pasta. I’ve been wanting to find a use for fresh basil that I’ve been getting in my CSA, but since I follow Dr. Fuhrman’s dietary recommendations I really don’t do pasta anymore these days.
16. Alex Says:

    August 23rd, 2010 at 7:39 pm

    This recipe look so nice for a warm summer day! I recently tried my hand at a vegan pesto, using nutritional yeast like you did. Your addition of tomatoes looks perfect! I may try this 🙂
17. Shannon Cummins Says:

    August 22nd, 2010 at 6:48 pm

    I have just recently become vegan to lower risk of heart disease and cancer. I used to make pesto all the time and it was one of our favorites. I was excited to try this recipe using basil and tomatoes from my garden. However, if this is what all the recipes are like, I don’t know how long I can stay vegan. It was just so bland and boring. I made it exactly like the recipe. Please help. What can I add to give it more flavor? I definitely miss the parmesan cheese.
18. Laura Says:

    August 20th, 2010 at 6:33 pm

    This is excellent! We used pistachios & didn’t have nutritional yeast. My little boys love it (but they do say it is “a little spicy!”)
19. Mariann Says:

    August 20th, 2010 at 3:20 pm

    This is super delicious! I didn’t have walnuts or pine nuts so I used almonds instead and it worked out great, although I’m sure with pine nuts you would get more of the traditional pesto taste. I absolutely love garlic but I found that 4 big garlic cloves was a little overpowering of the basil. Either way, I am totally making this again! Thanks :]
20. Julie O Says:

    August 18th, 2010 at 6:34 pm

    I, too, have lots of basil in the garden so this was perfect timing! I added diced orange bell pepper and 1 c. of thawed frozen peas. Both my husband and I loved it!
21. Laura Says:

    August 18th, 2010 at 9:50 am

    Thank you for this recipe! I was just wishing for a low fat pesto recipe and found this here – can’t wait to try it!
22. Sheryl B Says:

    August 11th, 2010 at 12:37 pm

    I made this according to the recipe and it was wonderful.
23. PennyW Says:

    July 29th, 2010 at 3:54 pm

    Great recipe. Easy and quick and tasty. I got basil growing like crazy in garden and this recipe will be used a lot in next few weeks. Thanks! Love your website.
24. Vkbook Says:

    July 24th, 2010 at 10:52 pm

    This is fantastic. I added some walnuts and cranberry as well to top the salad. I also added a squeeze of lemon juice.
    Thanks for the recipe
25. lou O'Meara Says:

    July 23rd, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    Would skip the yeast and avoid cashews for detox,otherwise great idea