This Greek Pasta Salad Recipe is fresh and everyone will love it! It’s easy to make and great for picnics, BBQs, lunches and more.
Here’s our pasta salad reference: this one Greek pasta salad! This one combines Mediterranean-style flavors with fluffy fly-noodles for an unbeatable flavorful and fresh combination. Juicy cherry tomatoes contrast with fresh cucumbers, salted olives and hearty feta cheese, with a generous handful of parsley, dill and a Greek vinaigrette. It’s extremely satisfying and works for just about any occasion: picnics, BBQs, pitch-ins, bbqs, or even for a healthy midweek lunch. Come and experience the magic!
Ingredients for Greek pasta salad
While pasta itself is Italian, the concept of the pasta salad is an American invention. One of the earliest printed mentions is a recipe for macaroni salad published in 1914, although the concept became fully popular in the 1980s. The most common style of American pasta salad is Italian: the kind with olives, mozzarella, and an Italian vinaigrette. The Greek Pasta Salad is all American once again, but with Greek flavors like tomato, cucumber, olives, feta cheese, and dill. Here are the ingredients you will need for a Greek Pasta Salad recipe:
- Bow ties (farfalle) or other short pasta (see below)
- Cucumber
- cherry tomatoes
- Red pepper
- shallot
- Fresh parsley and fresh dill
- Kalamata olives (optional, especially for children with sensitive palates)
- feta cheese
- Greek dressing (see below)
For the salad dressing
The dressing for this Greek salad is quick and easy to make using lemon juice, red wine vinegar, dried herbs and olive oil. It’s a smaller amount than many pasta salads, but the flavor really pops! You can use store-bought dressing if you’re short on time, but we recommend the homemade version whenever possible.
- Use both dried oregano and dried dill. You might be tempted to leave out the dried dill as there is some freshness in the salad too, but that’s the main flavor here!
- Substitute ½ cup store-bought Greek dressing if you’re in a hurry. Look for the highest quality salad dressing you can find: Flavor varies greatly by brand. For the taste, it is worth spending a few euros more.
Use any type of short pasta
This Greek Pasta Salad is ideal with butterfly pasta or farfalle, but you can use other pasta shapes too! We love how the farfalle blends with the ingredients and how this shape soaks up the dressing. Keep in mind: The surface of each dough mold is different. In our testing, we found that 1 pound of flies felt like less noodles than 1 pound of coils. That said, here are some pasta shapes that work well in a Greek pasta salad recipe:
- Necktie (butterflies): our favorite!
- spirals (fusili)
- penne
- Shellfish (Peel)
- Orecchiette
- Twins
- lilies
Prepare and store Greek pasta salad
This Greek pasta salad is ideal for preparing for a barbecue or barbecue party. In fact, we made it up to 2 days before a party and refrigerated until ready to serve. What you need to know about this salad:
- Greek pasta salad will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. It’s ideal for ahead or for a healthy lunch during the week.
- After chilling, be sure to refresh the flavors. Bring the salad to room temperature. Then stir in a drizzle of olive oil and some more crumbled feta cheese. You may need an extra pinch of salt.
Note the portion size
This Greek Pasta Salad makes a big batch: 10-12 side dishes or about 8 lunch size servings. It keeps in the fridge for 5 days. If you don’t plan to eat everything in 5 days, you can prepare half a serving. It’s easy to make half of it!
Serve the Greek pasta salad
This recipe goes with almost everything: especially in summer! Here are some ways to serve it:
More recipes for summer salads
Salads are queens in summer! Here are some other great pasta salad recipes and summer salads to enjoy:
This Greek Pasta Salad recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten free. For vegan, plant-based and dairy-free, omit the feta and add more salt to taste.
The description
This Greek Pasta Salad Recipe is fresh and everyone will love it! It’s easy to make and great for picnics, BBQs, lunches and more.
- 1 Butterfly Pasta Book (Butterflies)
- 1/2 English cucumber, thinly sliced into crescents (2 cups)
- 1 pint Cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 red peppers, diced
- 1 large shallot, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup chopped fresh dill
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice, plus the zest of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 garlic clove, grated (or ½ teaspoon garlic powder)
- 1 teaspoon every dried oregano and dried dill
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¾ cup Kalamata olives, halved (optional)
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Boil a large pot of well-salted water. Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. Drain the noodles and pour cold water over them until they reach room temperature.
- Meanwhile, slice the cucumber and tomatoes, dice the peppers and finely chop the shallot. Chop the fresh herbs.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, garlic, oregano, dill, and kosher salt. Then add the olive oil.
- Once the noodles are cooked, add them to the large bowl with dressing and toss with the chopped veggies. Add the olives, feta cheese, and freshly ground black pepper and stir. Taste and add more salt to taste if needed. Serve immediately. Keeps in the fridge for up to 5 days (leftovers taste great; allow to come to room temperature and add a little more olive oil or more cheese or salt if needed).
- Category: garnish
- Method: Cook
- Kitchen: American
- Diet: vegetarian
Keywords: Greek Pasta Salad, Recipe for Greek Pasta Salad
