Give Pasta Salad A Protein And Cheesy Flavor Boost With This Brilliant Ingredient

Pasta salad — like other members of the deli salad family — is incredibly customizable. There are many pasta salad recipes worth trying, including ones made with tuna, meat, cheese, and an assortment of veggies, or you can always do your own thing by pairing fun pasta salad seasonings with complementary add-ins for texture and flavor. One of the most underappreciated of those seasonings? Nutritional yeast. 

Nutritional yeast is an ingredient you should always have in your pantry. It's derived from an inactive fungus strain called Saccharomyces cerevisiae and is packed with protein. Since it's inactive and not the same thing as baker's yeast, it won't cause the consistency of your pasta salad to change. Instead, it will impart a cheesy, umami, and savory flavor that will elevate your pasta salad in ways that you never thought possible. Oh, and it's totally vegan. 

There are many ways to go about adding this vegan pantry staple to your pasta salad. Both the powder and the flakes can create a somewhat dusty and crunchy texture, so we don't recommend sprinkling it on top before serving (unless, of course, that's the consistency you're after). Instead, you can add it to the dressing or toss it into your salad with other watery ingredients so that the flavor disperses evenly.

We would say that nooch's flavor toes the line between being Parmesan-like and cheddar-like, without the obvious richness and meltiness of the latter. Since its flavor is very savory, you don't need to use a lot of it to get your point across. Its flavor is very complementary and works well with other ingredients, so you won't have to do too much adapting to help it fit in with your recipe of choice.

Take our Caesar chicken pasta salad, for example. You can add a tablespoon or so to the dressing, stirring well to break up the flakes and reap all of the savory, umami benefits. Or, if you want to go full-vegan, try making a vegan pasta salad sauce with the help of tofu; soft or silken tofu will break down easily into a creamy sauce, while a splash of lemon or vinegar will add brightness and counteract some of the savory flavor of the nutritional yeast and any other ingredients you add.