Salad is good, salad with pasta in it is better!
Lately, I’ve been all about comfort food salads, and this vegan Caesar pasta salad has been on repeat. It’s got everything: a super easy, ridiculously good vegan Caesar dressing, your favorite pasta, crisp chopped romaine, and the real MVP are the cheesy, herby vegan croutons.
Yes, I added croutons to a pasta salad. And yes, you absolutely should too. Do It! You’ll start questioning why croutons haven’t been a standard pasta salad move all along. Total game changer.
This crazy-fast meal is super flexible, you can make it ahead of time and just toss on the dressing when you’re ready to eat, or serve it up right away. Either way, it totally delivers. Perfect for a laid-back dinner at home or your next backyard hangout. It’s the kind of dish that feels chill but tastes like you went all out.
Using your favorite crusty bread, these croutons are tasty as heck and ridiculously easy to make. Just toss them in olive oil and spices, bake until golden, and boom! You’ll want to throw them on everything. They seriously take this vegan Caesar pasta salad to the next level.
And the Dressing?!
And the Caesar dressing? Takes like two seconds and is straight-up GD delish. It’s got that briny, tangy vibe thanks to capers (no anchovies here!), and it’s just so wonderfully creamy and bold. Honestly, once you try it, you might never go back to store-bought again.
Nice fresh chopped romaine, pasta, croutons, dressing. This is one of the best pasta salads I had in my life! Just make the pasta, let it cool. Bake the croutons, and make the dressing while they are baking. Toss everything together. Prepare to be amazed!
Vegan Caesar Pasta Salad
Ingredients
Vegan Cheesy Herb Croutons
- 1 Loaf Crusty bread, I used Trader Joe's Ciabatta
- 3 Tbsp. Olive oil
- 2 Tbsp. Nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp. Garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. Basil, dried
- 1/2 tsp. Salt
Vegan Caesar Dressing
- 1/2 C. Vegan Mayo
- 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
- 1 Tbsp. Capers
- Juice of 2 Lemons, about 2 Tbsp.
- 2 Tbsp. Nutritional yeast
- 1 Clove Garlic
- 1/4 tsp. Salt
- Pinch of black pepper
For the Salad
- 1 Head Romaine, chopped
- 16 oz. Pasta
Instructions
- First, cook your pasta according to package directions. Drain and let cool.
- While the pasta is cooling, make the croutons. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Cut the loaf of bread into cubes, then put them in a large mixing bowl, drizzle with the olive oil, then pour the nutritional yeast and seasoning into the bowl. Then toss to coat all the bread cubes in the olive oil and seasoning. Add a dash more olive oil, if you need more.
- Spread them on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes until they are brown and crispy.
- While the croutons bake, make the dressing. Add all the dressing ingredients to a blender. Blend until smooth, taste and adjust seasoning.
- Once the croutons are done, in a large bowl, add the chopped romaine, pasta, croutons and then pour the dressing on and toss. Serve immediately.
This sounds delicious!!!! Can’t wait to try it.
I’m pregnant and craving caesar salad so thank you for this!
Can’t wait to (feel well enough to) make it 🙂
Just made this tonight for dinner! This a delicious recipe that’s is very easy to make. Loved it!!
Yay! So wonderful!
We just made this for dinner…wow! We can’t decide what is more delicious; the dressing or the croutons. So good!!
Big hit with my family. I didn’t tell them it was vegan until after dinner.
Delicious! Definitely the best Caesar salad I’ve had since becoming vegan!
Made this tonight and it was delicious! I only used about half of the pasta because it seemed like a lot. I will definitely make this again soon thank you
Amazing!!! This is my second time making this for dinner. My husband and I absolutely love it!! (It’s all he has been talking about since last week when I made it the first time.) I make 1 1/2 times the dressing so it’s extra saucey. Amazing recipe!! Next time I’m going to add the Gardein seven grain chicken to it. Thanks so much for the delicious recipe. ❤
First vegan dish. Absolutely delish! Best ceasar salad! Yummy! Will definitely make again.
This is an easy, delicious, very satisfying recipe and wow did it satisfy a craving!! I’m impressed.
I’ve made this a whole bunch of times now. New fave salad for sure! The croutons are to die for; I’ll never buy store-bought again! Thanks!!
I love this salad ! Every time I make it I get texts the next day for the recipe ! Mostly from my non vegan friends. Thank you !
Fabulous – have made it twice now. Will never understand why people rate a recipe they have never tried to say it looks great. Readers want to hear about how it turned out – not that you think it sounds good.
I can’t BELIEVE how blown away I am by this. The dressing is INCREDIBLE. I’ll be eating this all day every day for the foreseeable future!!
I agree. Salad in the summer is so cooling, but needs something hearty like pasta, rice or even dollops of hummus. This is beautiful and looks delicious. Will definitely be making. Thank you!
I’m in self-isolation mode and decided to prep the dressing tonight since I have everything on hand (minus lemon, pasta, lettuce and bread – I’ll get that tomorrow)
Just wanted to say that this dressing is amazing!!! It tastes like Caesar and I haven’t even added the lemon juice yet.
Can’t wait to pull the entire recipe together!
This is the best Caesar Salad I’ve made, and eaten! I have a number of vegan recipes for Caesar dressing, but none compare to this. I didn’t add capers to the dressing (because I’m not a fan), but it was still off the charts delicious. The croutons were also amazing, as was the addition of pasta. Thank you for giving us such fantastic animal free recipes :).
Super yum! I paired it with one of your crispy chickpea “chicken” patties from your “chicken” Caesar sandwich to make it a full on Caesar meal! I will forever make my croutons this way, I couldn’t stop eating them off the pan! Thank ya for these goods!
We’ve been making this probably once a month for the last year. It’s so good! I use Scharr GF bread for my croutons and gf Barilla penne. I also add chopped cherry tomatoes & artichokes. It’s definitely a family favorite for us.
This was beyond delicious!!! I cut the recipe down for just myself and used 1C of pasta. Made extra croutons for tomorrow!! I used a half a loaf of Italian bread from the bakery section of the grocery store. Wow, thanks for this recipe, I’ll definitely take to parties this summer!
Second time in a week making this! So easy so good. My husband and I both loved it. It will definitely be a staple for us during the spring and summer.
This was spectacularly delicious. \I am vegetarian and my family is not, so I used regular mayonnaise, but the rest of the ingredients as given. We all loved it. I am sending the link to my daughter so she and her husband can make this too, seeing as we can’t have them over for dinner during the lockdown. Thanks for a great recipe!
This was great! We adjusted to our personal preferences, so we each made a bowl with pasta and lettuce the size we wanted, tossed with the amount of dressing we wanted, then added croutons. And we have enough to eat for dinner tonight too 😋 Ceasar salad was a favorite for us both before being vegan, and this was a real treat for us!
We also thinned out the dressing with soy milk and added a bit more pepper and a bit of thyme, and finely diced the capers. It is great as is, and definitely one of the better vegan salad dressing recipes we have tried! I just always like to see how people modify! I loved the addition of pasta to make This more of a meal too. I never would have thought to combine Ceasar salad and Pasta salad , but it is great! Excellent recipe!
Yum! So good. Thank you. I didn’t have Dijon so just used yellow mustard. Can’t wait to try it with Dijon.
Amazing!! Can‘t wait to make it to my non Vegan Friends! Thanks for the recipe!!!
We make this recipe a LOT in our house. It’s worth making those croutons over buying them, oh man.
Makes this ALL the time! It’s fantastic! I add extra capers for more of an anchovy taste and extra lemon. Find it hard not to just drink the dressing! No one ever even knows it’s vegan. My friends ask me to make it all the time and the croutons are so delicious, they will impress nearly anyone! I sometimes make them with pumpernickel and it is amazing!
Oh my word, this was life changing! Lol. So good. We went back for seconds and ate every last bit! I’ll definitely be making this over and over.
Are you kidding me?! I absolutely despise nooch!!! Yet despite that, because this is your recipe, and because ALL of the recipes that I’ve tried of yours so far have been AHH-mazing, I went ahead and added it to the dressing. I thought that if anyone had a great Cesar Dressing recipe, it would be YOU..and you know what? I was right!!! I used it on a White Corona Bean, baby Kale and Romaine Cesar and just WOW! Maybe next time I’ll make the full recipe here! I know one thing, I won’t be disappointed! I’m so incredibly grateful for you! Thank you for making my tastebuds dance again!
I simply had to review this recipe. After going vegan, one thing I missed terribly was Caesar salad. Not only does this taste EXACTLY like the real thing but it’s super easy to make. I’ve made this several times since discovering it and each time my family inhales it. So good. Thanks for this ingenious recipe.