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This refreshing and filling garden vegetable pasta uses a colorful assortment of delicious summer veggies. If you have a thriving summer garden, (or great deals on summer produce!) this recipe is a perfect way to put those yummy and nutritious veggies to use. Zucchinis, cherry tomatoes, onion, basil and fresh green olives perfectly complement a hearty rotini (or pasta of your choice!).
Why You’ll Love This Summer Garden Vegetable Pasta
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This garden veggie pasta is absolutely perfect for those hot summer days. It’s refreshing, light, but satiating all in one! Once the pasta is cooked, all you need to do is a quick mix of the ingredients and voila! You can eat it warm or serve it cold (and the leftovers taste even better!) and it’s always a hit at potlucks, BBQs, or picnics!
Plus, there’s something so flavorful about adding fresh green olives. We absolutely love these olives from our friends at California Ripe Olives! They compliment this summertime pasta so well and blend perfectly with the rotini pasta and the other ingredients. You won’t find a fresher olive out there!
Serving Suggestions
This simple but satisfying summer veggie pasta can be served warm or cool. It is a go-to summer side or main for meal-prep, potlucks, picnics, BBQs/cookouts, and family dinners, alongside:
- BBQ favorites: Like vegan burgers (9 mouthwatering vegan burger recipes to try here), plant-based hotdogs, kabobs (like these vegan kabobs with marinated tempeh), or grilled tofu steaks
- Sides: Try healthy baked falafels or BBQ cauliflower wings
- Grilled vegetables: including corn on the cob, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, etc.
- Bread: such as vegan bruschetta/crostini, vegan focaccia bread, tomato bread, or this easy vegan garlic bread.
More Favorite Pasta Recipes
Vegan Lunches
Artichoke Pasta Salad
Vegan Dinners
Amazing Avocado Pesto Pasta
Salads
Spinach Pasta Salad
Vegan Dinners
Green Pea Pasta
If you tried this garden vegetable pasta recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks!
Photos by Alfonso Revilla
If you’re loving my recipes and would like a more comprehensive resource, check out my cookbooks!
Summertime Pasta
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Ingredients
- 1 pound of pasta (your choice)
- ¼ cup of olive oil
- 1 small yellow or red onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced
- 2 cups of cherry tomatoes
- 1 ½ cups of sliced green olives
- 1 ½ tbsp of olive brine
- 1 tbsp of fresh minced basil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a medium pot over medium-high heat, cook the pasta according to the package instructions.
- In a separate pan, heat the oil. Add in the onion and garlic and saute for 1 minute, then add zucchini and saute for another 2 to 3 minutes, until the veggies become tender.
- Stir in the tomatoes and cover the pan for 1 minute, stir and then cover for another minute.
- Stir in the olives, olive brine, pasta, and basil, and serve. Can be eaten cold or warm.
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Notes
- Easily make this ahead of time for your party or potluck.
- Use whatever fresh summer veggies you have on hand.
- I recommend sticking with rotini pasta to soak up all the dressing flavors.
I made this recipe exactly as listed.
The flavors were really good together; however everything kept sliding off the pasta. : (
Does anyone know how to alleviate that problem??
Hi! I wonder if keeping a bit of the pasta water would help the ingredients cling to the pasta a bit more 🙂 Let us know how it turns out for you if you give it another go!
Mild, buttery green olives? Or salty, vinegary green olives?
Hi! Mild, ‘buttery’ green olives are what we on the PBOAB team use but I’m sure salty, vinegary green olives would work just as well! Let us know what you think 🙂
Loved this pasta recipe, especially adding the olive brine. Made all the difference in flavor for me.
The olive brine definitely adds such a nice touch to this recipe. So glad you tried it!
Such delicious pasta! I love all the vegetables.
Gotta love a veggie-packed pasta dish! So glad you enjoyed it!
Yummy summer pasta salad that can be a meal on its own or a side dish. We are making this for our bbq this weekend.
Love that! Hope you enjoyed it!
Refreshing and easy to make! Perfect for those blistering hot summer days!
It’s definitely refresh you and leave you feeling super nourished!
I love is a combination of zucchini and tomatoes in this recipe. Everything was so delicious.
Right?! Such a nice combo of flavor!
This pasta salad was perfect for lunch. The sauteed zucchini and tomatoes had just the right flavor. Yummie!
Nothing like a nice blend of summer veggies!
We enjoyed this garden pasta recipe! It is such a visually appealing dish and quite tasty. I am sure this will be on our summer dinner menu often this season.
Love that! It’s definitely a great addition to your summer menu!