This Summer Pasta Salad with Zucchini and Corn is tossed in a flavorful Cilantro Pesto and made with rice noodles– keeping it light, vegan and gluten-free- so deliciously addicting! Video.
Life goes on. It always does. ~Dave Stone
Every summer without fail, right around the 4th of July, I start craving this summer pasta salad. Grilled zucchini, corn, and peppers are tossed with rice noodles and a flavorful vegan Cilantro Pesto that’s doctored with lime juice and jalapeño.
You can always serve crumbled queso on the side. And if you like smoky flavors, a pinch of ground chipotle or smoked paprika is a nice addition. And like most pasta dishes you’ll find here, this corn and zucchini pasta salad is mostly all about the veggies – a healthy pasta salad recipe perfect for outdoor gatherings and potlucks or make it ahead for midweek lunches.
Summer Pasta Salad Video
Summer Pasta Salad Ingredients
When making this Summer Pasta Salad, feel free to add any grillable veggie you like or have on hand. I’ll often pick up what is available at our local farmers’ market; zucchini, corn, and peppers but other veggies like eggplant, asparagus or grilled green beans would work too.
To make this more of a meal- try adding grilled halloumi, or grilled shrimp or grilled tofu!
While the veggies are grilling make the flavorful Cilantro Pesto Sauce.
This version of Cilantro Pesto has pepitas, lime and jalapeño……so tasty!
In this recipe, I use rice noodles, which keep this summer pasta salad light and totally gluten-free. Feel free to swap these out for what you have on hand.
Once the veggies are grilled, toss with the noodles and the cilantro pesto.
Feel free to make this Summer Pasta Salad ahead, and serve at gatherings and potlucks, or make it part of your meal prep for midweek meals.
You can easily add grilled shrimp, chicken or fish to this, to turn it into more of a main course.
Keep it vegan by adding black beans or this Mexican-style Baked Tofu.
Fresh cherry tomatoes give it a delicious summer freshness….so add those at the end.
So easy, and full of summer flavor! I hope you love this Summer Pasta Salad as much as I do!
More recipes you may enjoy
- Cooling Recipes for Hot Summer Days
- 35 Easy Delicious Potluck Ideas
- Our best 35 Grilling Recipes for Summer
- Caprese Pasta Salad
- Farmers Market Pasta Salad
- Creamy Pesto Pasta Salad
- Greek Pasta Salad
- Zucchini Pasta
On the home front. This is the first 4th of July in a long time, we didn’t have Dave’s BBQ Chicken. We are in the process of saying goodbye to Brian’s step-dad, Dave, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 9 months ago.
As his body dwindles away, his eyes have become bright and clear with a beautiful and arresting presence. He’s going into this last phase of his life with eyes wide open. I can’t fathom the courage it must take to face your own end.
It’s heart-wrenching to witness, yet at the same time, incredibly poignant and beautiful. Today, as we commiserated about the inevitable finality of it all, he simply said, “Life goes on. It always does.”
Take care and have a nice weekend.
xoxo
Print
Summer Pasta Salad with Zucchini, Corn and Cilantro Pesto
- Prep Time: 35
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Category: pasta salad, vegan , summer recipes, gluten-free
- Method: grilled
- Cuisine: mexican
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Summer Pasta Salad w/ Grilled Zucchini, Corn and Cilantro Pesto is made with gluten-free rice noodles and loaded up with healthy summer veggies, then tossed in the most flavorful Cilantro Pesto…. deliciously addicting! Vegan and Gluten-free!
Ingredients
- 6 ounces rice noodles
- 2 medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise
- 1 red bell pepper, cut in half, seeded
- 1/2 an onion, cut into 1/2 inch wedges
- 1–2 ears of fresh corn ( or use frozen, roasted corn ), shucked
- oil, salt and pepper for veggies
- Garnish with cherry tomatoes, lime wedges, pepitas, cilantro leaves
Vegan Cilantro Pesto:
- 1 large bunch cilantro (thin stems ok)
- 2 fat garlic cloves
- 1–2 tablespoons chopped jalapeno ( optional)
- 1/2 cup olive oil – make sure it is not overly bitter
- 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds (raw)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional- only if you like the smoky flavor)
- 1 tablespoon lime zest
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Instructions
- Preheat the grill to medium-high, and boil water for the rice noodles.
- Prep the veggies – brush or spray with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Pour boiling water over the rice noodles, ( I put them in a baking dish) let stand for 3 minutes until tender, then drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
- Place the veggies on the grill, lower heat to medium, cover, checking the veggies every few minutes or so….turning.
- Make the Cilantro Pesto. Place all the cilantro, garlic and jalapeño in food processor and pulse repeatedly until finely chopped. Add the olive oil, pumpkin seeds, coriander, smoked paprika, salt and pepper and pulse until combined but not too smooth. You should have a fairly loose (runny) pesto -perfect for tossing the salad. Taste, adjust lime to taste. If bitter, add a little sugar.
- Once the veggies are done, cut into bite-sized pieces. Give the pasta a final cool water rinse, loosening it up. Drain and place in a bowl. Add the Cilantro Pesto and the veggies and an additional ½ teaspoon salt, and possibly more to taste. Adjust lime, salt and heat according to your taste preference. I’ll sometimes add a pinch of chipotle pepper, or chili flakes, or even more finely chopped jalapeño to bump up the heat.
- Place on a serving platter or in a bowl, top with halved cherry tomatoes, sprinkle with more pepitas and cilantro leaves and serve with lime wedges.
Notes
Feel free to add crumbled cheese- queso fresco is nice.
To make it a meal, top it with grilled halloumi cheese, grilled shrimp, grilled tofu or chicken.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 382
- Sugar: 4.9 g
- Sodium: 243.1 mg
- Fat: 27.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 4.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 32.2 g
- Fiber: 2.9 g
- Protein: 4.4 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
It still feels like summer in Southern California, so I tried this for dinner today. The family loved it! I had to make a few substitutions based on what I had in my fridge (green beans vs. bell pepper, regular pasta vs. rice noodles), and it turned out great. This gives me confidence to try another new recipe soon, since they are all so adaptable. We did have shrimp on top which was a nice but optional addition.
Perfect Janine- glad you gave it a go!
This is delicious exactly as written. Thank you so much. I made this for my gourmet club. The theme is Farm to table and I had the side dish starch. It was easy but time consuming to make. I definitely recommend. Great flavor
Thanks Karie!
This came out pretty well – very tasty. It took longer than expected but I will just prep some of the items ahead of time next time I make it. Thank you for these recipes, I have made several and they are really good.
thanks Kay!
Truly delicious. For those who have not made pesto before, add a little bit of the oil with the other ingredients, then while processing slowly add the rest of the oil. I used a little more than the recommended ½cup.
I added blackened chicken breast for the non vegetarians. It was a big hit for the eight of us! Thank you for the great recipe!
Awesome Nathan!
If I dont have a food processor, can i use store bought pesto
Yes, that should work, it will taste different, but should still taste good. 🙂
Hi Sylvia, I loved this recipe. I improvised with pistachios for the pesto, and it turned out delicious! I made the Asian Cucumber Salad as well. I love that salad because it’s fast, easy and crunchy. I make many of your recipes and have yet to be disappointed. My only complaint is that it seems everything I make takes 2-3 times longer for me, and I’m an experienced cook.
So glad you enjoyed this! I will pay more attention to cooking times…I am a fast chopper.;)
Hi Sylvia.
I love your recipes. I, too, find it takes me a long time to produce these lovely dishes especially if my sous chef is unavailable (which is most of the time…teeheehee.)
haha Martie- and yes I hear you. I will try to be more mindful of timing. 🙂
This is so good! I’m definitely adding it to my summer rotation
Gald you enjoyed Daphne!
Hello, Sylvia! I hope you are doing well. I don’t have a grill or a grill pan, so do you think I could try roasting the red pepper, fresh corn, and zuchinnis in the oven? (Maybe I could even turn the broiler on to char them a little). This looks so delicious that even without a grill, I wanted to try it!
I think roasting would work fine!
Love this summer pasta salad- 3rd time making! Don’t change a thing!
I don’t have a food processor. Can I use my blender to do the pesto?
I think it would work- just add the cilantro last, a bit at a time, so the blender blades can get going. 🙂
Thank you so much for your quick response; I will do that; I can’t wait to try it. 🙂
This recipe is fresh, flavorful, and easy to prepare. Actually, every recipe I have tried on the feastingathome blog has been a winner. Thank you Sylvia for making healthy eating delicious.
How many people does this recipe serve
This serves 4 as a “meal”, and 6-8 as a side salad.
Do you think I could replicate this but with a basil pesto instead of cilantro?
Totally!
This was the first recipe I tried from Feasting At Home. WOW! It was amazing. I can hardly wait to make it (and devour it!) again.
Yay! Glad you liked it Cheryl and welcome to the blog.
Made this for dinner twice last week. Super delicious! We topped ours with chicken. I actually found brown rice noodles in the international section of Kroger. They worked really well. I followed the cooking instructions on the package of noodles. Turned out great! Thank you!!
Yay!🙌
How far in advance could I make the pesto and roast the veggies, soften the rice noodles but keep them in separate containers and blend before serving? This looks amazing and I would love to make it for the 4th of July.
I think it would be fine to do the day before!
Delicious and summery! I love the cilantro pesto!
thanks so much Luann!
Made this and it is so good. The sauce is amazing. I didn’t have the pumpkin seeds so used almonds in the pesto. It was great for the texture. I think if you want it as a side, it would work great even without the noodles! This will be one of my go to summer salads!
Thanks Frank!
This turned out quite tasty. I used all the vegetables except for onions, and added chopped avocado as an additional garnish along with grape tomatoes. I wasn’t sure about cilantro pesto, but I quite liked it. I used very thin rice noodles (vermicelli), which I found a bit thin, so next time I’ll use a thicker rice noodle or perhaps some regular pasta. Thanks for the recipe!
Are the pumpkin seeds raw?
Yes!
I love cilantro and this had such an amazing flavour. The corn, zucchini and peppers were a great combination. Even my hubby, who doesn’t love cilantro couldn’t stop raving!
Have donne this pasta salad and it’s excellent and very refreshing for this Time of the year, everybody enjoy it, will do it again that for sure…..thanks à lot for this excellent recipe Sylvia , Xx
Thanks Bruno! Glad you liked it!
This was so delicious! I will make this again!!
YAY! I like this one too!
This looks great! When made ahead, how do the rice noodles hold up? Wondering if I’d be better off using semolina pasta?
Perhaps? Yes, that might be best. 😉
This is so delicious. I was a little hesitant about the cilantro pesto, I like cilantro but as a pesto I thought it might be a bit much but it was perfect. I will definitely makes this again and again and again.
I love the color that pesto brings to a pasta salad, especially when it is homemade! The combination of grilled corn, zucchini and tomatoes is also OUT OF THIS WORLD, especially when it’s summer and they are all in season! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for visiting and commenting. You guys are doing such a great job!