Banana Blossom Salad With Pasta

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• This is the answer for when I get my tuna salad craving, this is my go-to vegan tuna salad.
• This is a no-fry banana blossom recipe! Most vegan recipes using banana blossom are fried.
• Easy and quick to make, great for when you’re stuck on what to eat
• Filling and tasty, it can be enjoyed on its own or can be eaten as a side
• Season friendly - can be enjoyed all year round
• Dietary friendly - vegan, can be made gluten-free (I make it GF)

What is banana blossom?

The banana blossom, also known as a banana flower or banana heart, is the flower of a banana tree and is completely edible. 

These teardrop-shaped blooms are a deep purple/maroon color that grows at the end of a cluster of bananas. 

They have a host of health benefits and are neutral/mild in flavor, similar to an artichoke, which is great as they take on other flavors well.

Banana blossom can be purchased in fresh, frozen, or canned form. The easiest variety to find is the canned version.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Pasta - select your preferred penne or fusilli pasta. I use gluten-free pasta and I always undercook the pasta by one minute, as to what the instructions advise. This helps to keep the pasta al dante. If you have left-over pasta, I highly recommend making my plant based mac and cheese without oil.

Banana blossom - finding canned banana blossom is becoming increasingly easier as the vegan diet gains popularity.

I am finding a couple of brands in the health food section of my local supermarket, otherwise, a local Asian grocer is a guarantee, or you can purchase banana blossom online.

Drain the banana blossom from the brine, rinse, and chop them into small bite-sized chunks.

Tomatoes - select fresh cherry tomatoes, I love the medley packs, which give a lot of color to this vegan pasta salad.

Tamari sauce is a gluten free soy sauce alternative and is salty in nature, this can be found at your local supermarket in the gluten free section or you can purchase tamari sauce online here. You can use regular soy sauce instead.

Fysh sauce is the vegan answer to a fish sauce alternative. This helps to give this salad a little umami “fish” flavoring, helping the banana blossom taste like “tuna”’. I normally find this in the vegan section of my local supermarket, you can buy vegan “fish” sauce online.

Vegan Mayonnaise - use as little or as much as you like. I like to make my own, I linked the recipe for in the recipe card below.

Nutritional Yeast helps to give a more umami flavor to this vegan banana flower salad.

How to Make Banana Blossom Salad With Pasta

Prepare the pasta. Cook pasta as per instructions, set aside allowing it to cool down to room temperature. To quickly cool pasta, rinse it under cold water and drain it well before adding it to the rest of the ingredients. 

Chop up all ingredients. Drain all canned or pickled ingredients and then chop all ingredients into small bite-sized pieces.

Measure out all other ingredients for the dressing. 

Toss your salad. In a large mixing bowl, gently mix all the ingredients until well combined. Serve this vegan tuna salad cold.

Variations

Adjust the amounts of the ingredients to suit your taste, i.e., if you’d like a little more of something or a little less, go for it.  N.B., always start with less and build up.

Want extra protein? add in some mashed chickpeas.

Swap vegan mayonnaise for an avocado dressing such as this avocado cilantro lime dressing.

Pasta - for a more fun pasta shape, try using Farfalle (bow tie), Cavatappi (hollow spirals), shell pasta, elbow pasta, Gemelli (rope twist).

Need more flavor boost? Add some garlic or onion powder. Start with a small amount and work it up.

Other Vegan Salads To Try

Want more side salad options try this brown rice chickpea salad.

Or try this Mediterranean pasta salad or this orzo pasta salad.

Recipe