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Lemony asparagus and lima bean pasta salad with creamy roasted bell pepper and almond sauce.
Oh, look, another asparagus recipe. What a surprise! I know….But what can I do when the season is so short? Right? This cold pasta salad with lima beans and grilled asparagus makes a great spring or summer meal. Believe me, this combination is an absolute must in asparagus season: the creamy, lemony, roasted bell pepper and almond based sauce with the delicate lima beans and crunchy, refreshing asparagus are what I call perfection! This vegan pasta salad is also super quick and easy to make, delicious cold or warm, so it’s a fabulous dish to serve on picnics, barbecues or just as a quick weeknight dinner.
Though this salad makes a wonderful quick lunch or dinner, it’s best as a barbecue food. So just a quick tip: Mix together your pasta with the beans and the sauce, chill in the fridge until serving, then just throw the asparagus on the grill for a few minutes until they start to have those super pretty grill marks. Finally mix the warm asparagus with the cold salad, and voila, you have the very best side dish for BBQ. It goes really well with grilled veggies, tofu, faux meats and sausages, flatbreads, and burgers.
Oh, and if you want to eat more asparagus, check out these recipes:
One-Pot Asparagus and Spinach Gnocchi
Green Spring Salad with Asparagus
Creamy Asparagus and Pea Soup with Coconut
Asparagus and Millet Salad
Green Quinoa Bowl with Asparagus and Zucchini
Mini Herbed Tofu Burgers with Green Asparagus Salad
If you try this recipe, let me know! I would highly appreciate if you could leave a comment and rate it. Also don’t forget to take a picture and tag it on Instagram (use the hashtag #greenevi) or post it on Facebook! I love seeing what you come up with! ♥︎
PrintAsparagus & Lima Bean Pasta Salad
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 2-4 1x
Ingredients
- 200 g/0.5 pound of pasta of your choice (I used GF penne)
- 200 g/0.5 pound of green asparagus
- 1 can of lima beans
- 1/2 cup of almond flour
- 1 roasted bell pepper from a jar
- 4 cherry tomatoes (optional)
- 1 tbsp white miso
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 1/2 yellow onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 lemon, zest+juice
- fresh dill to serve
- salt, pepper
Instructions
- Prepare pasta according to package instructions.
- Meanwhile pasta is cooking, place almond flour, bell pepper, tomatoes, miso, tahini, diced onion, garlic, lemon juice and zest (keep a little for decorating) to a blender and blend until completely smooth. Add a few tablespoons of water if the sauce is too thick.
- In a grill pan grill asparagus for 2-4 minutes or until they have grill marks.* Cut into smaller pieces.
- Add drained pasta, lima beans, pasta sauce and grilled asparagus pieces to a large bowl. Toss to coat everywhere.
- Serve immediately or after chilling, garnished with extra lemon zest, dill and black pepper if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
*You can also use a regular pan for the asparagus. Or keep it even simpler by steaming asparagus or using it raw. Both way delicious.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Side, Main
- Cuisine: Vegan
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine says
My pasta cravings have been going mad these past few weeks….need more and more!
green evi says
Totally same with me! Okay….not just the past few weeks but in my whole life 😀
Amy | The Whole Food Rainbow says
YUM! That looks so amazing, and so good to see lima beans too. We can never have enough asparagus dishes don’t worry, and this one has such great appeal I love it 🙂
green evi says
Thank you so much, Amy!
I am really a bit too crazy about asparagus nowadays 😀
Demeter | Beaming Baker says
Oh, girl… keep these asparagus recipes coming! I need someone to show me how wonderfully tasty asparagus can be. We have a bit of a patchy history. Lol. But as long as you’re whipping up these gorgeous dishes–and snapping these pics, I can start coming around to asparagus. 😉 Btw, the little curls of lemon are such a beautiful touch! Looking forward to more (and bringing some of this to a barbecue). Have a great week, my dear! Pinning, of course. 🙂
green evi says
Oh, tell me more about that! Is it just green asparagus or also white/purple? I love them all, but I have had some not so delicious white asparagus dishes in my life….I am not really pleased with the way they prepare it in Germany 😀
With the green ones I never had this problem. I love them raw, cooked, roasted, grilled, whatever!
Demeter | Beaming Baker says
All of them! Lol. I have a special fear of asparagus due to my mom’s… um, “experiments” with it when I was a kid. Those were some dishes… let me tell you. Lol. The funny thing is, my mom can cook anything and make it taste AMAZING. But asparagus… who knows? I wonder if the way she prepared them is similar to that of the white asparagus dishes in Germany? Haha. Okay… you’ve convinced me to at least walk a bit closer to the asparagus in the produce section. Baby steps, ya know? LOL.
green evi says
Hahaha, I can so much understand you (you know my tofu stories :D)!!!
Some childhood foods can be totally traumatic, I still can’t even look at anything, what was served in the canteen in my elementary school….Luckily I also don’t feel any urge to ever try those, so who cares….right? And with asparagus it is especially easy for you, you only have to survive a short period 🙂
Aimee says
Well I never get sick of asparagus so keep the recipes coming! This sounds so gorgeous, especially with the tahini and miso <3
green evi says
Thanks, Aimee!
Same with me, I can eat asparagus every day 😀
Julia | Orchard Street Kitchen says
This looks fabulous, Evi! I love how you’ve added tahini for some nice creaminess. I could definitely see how this would be perfect for a barbecue. Bring on the asparagus!
green evi says
Thanks, Julia 🙂
Esther says
This sounds absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to give it a try. Better hurry before the asparagus disappears!
green evi says
Thank you, Esther!
Anu - My Ginger Garlic Kitchen says
Loving all your asparagus recipes, so keep them coming, Evi. And this bean pasta salad is my kind. And those lemon curls on top are making this platter even more desirable. So yum!
green evi says
Thanks, Anu 🙂
Cailee says
What a lovely dish Evi!! Looks so fresh and tasty! I love that you added asparagus! I really need to get my hands on some! Thanks for the recipe and I hope that you’re having a great week!
xoxo Cailee!
green evi says
Thank you so much, Cailee! Have a wonderful week, too!
Lisa @ Chocolate Meets Strawberry says
Love the look of this vegan pasta dish, Evi! I love that the almonds provide so much creaminess in the sauce! And that lemon in there would add such a lovely fresh flavour. Perfect for a picnic since you can serve it cold too 🙂
green evi says
Thank you, Lisa 🙂
Cathleen @ A Taste Of Madness says
I will never get tired of asparagus recipes! All I know what to do with them is to roast them. I seriously need to try it.
green evi says
I am so happy to hear this, Cathleen, coz I also never get tired of them 😀
But you know, I could eat roasted asparagus every day!!!
Adina says
One can never have enough asparagus in such a short season. Where do you buy the lima beans here, I can’t remember ever seeing them anywhere?
green evi says
About two months ago I needed lima beans for a photo shoot and searched for so long, because you really can’t get them anywhere. I am not sure anymore, where I got it at the end, it was in one of the bio supermarkets. Either Alnatura, or Basic Bio, Denn’s or Tjaden’s. Plus I heard, that Metro has is every now and then, but I couldn’t find it that time there.
Angie@Angie's Recipes says
Can’t get enough of asparagus right now! This pasta salad looks really satisfying and moreish with all the goodness in it.
green evi says
Thanks, Angie 🙂
Claudia | The Brick Kitchen says
I can never eat enough asparagus (no idea why it is so much better than broccoli and beans, but it just IS, right?!), so this salad sounds amazing. Love how you have used miso and tahini for those amazing salty-sesame flavours too. x
green evi says
Thanks, Claudia!
I absolutely feel the exact same. I guess it’s because we can only buy it for such a short time….
I remember I used to like walnuts the least, I preferred every other nuts over it, coz I grew up having them in abundance. Then I moved to Germany and here it’s one of the more expensive nuts, so I have them very rarely. And of course now I think walnuts are one of the best nuts 😀
Ben Maclain says
Even though I do love pasta and pasta salads, I’ve never added beans to it. I believe chickpeas will work well too. Also, love the addition of almond flour – that sounds unique to me!
green evi says
Thank you, Ben!
Chickpeas would work well too, chickpeas work well in every recipe 😀
Kati says
Ez volt a tegnapi vacsoránk, isteni finom volt.
Én nem túl puhára pároltam a spárgát, a lima babot pedig kihagytam, de így is hatalmas siker lett.
Köszönöm!
green evi says
Nagyon örülök, hogy ízlett! 🙂
A roppanós, párolt spárga biztos szuper volt!
Linda @ Veganosity says
No shame in posting a lot of asparagus recipes, it’s a short season and needs to be celebrated. This looks like the perfect spring pasta recipe, it’s just beautiful.
green evi says
Thanks, Linda 🙂
Edwina at Induction Cooking says
Yum, asparagus and pasta, two of my favorite foods. I love a good pasta salad to take to a barbecue. I’m going to save this recipe until I have some asparagus. It looks so creamy and delicious.
green evi says
Thanks, Edwina! 🙂
I can’t wait for the asparagus season!!!
Helena says
This looks delicious. I always love a pasta salad. All I need now is some asparagus to make it!
green evi says
Thanks, Helena! I can’t wait to get some fresh asparagus too 🙂
Caryn says
I found this recipe when searching for a way to use up a couple of cans of lima beans and butter beans. So glad I did!
We had it straight rather than over pasta, and I left most of the red peppers in the mix instead of in the sauce. We love it. Definitely will go into the rotation, which is very helpful, since my husband isn’t generally that enthusiastic about limas and butter beans. Terrific that we can have it cold in summer, too.
Thank you!
green evi says
Hi Caryn,
Thanks for your lovely feedback, I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂