Greek Pasta Salad

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Packed with fresh tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers — not to mention Kalamata olives and feta cheese — this pasta salad has all the flavor of your favorite Greek salad! The lemony garlic dressing is also flavorful enough to rival olives and feta, but it doesn’t overwhelm the finer ingredients like cucumber and tomato.

Video: Prepare Greek Pasta Salad

1:20

Choose any pasta you like! Even gluten free!

Feel free to use your favorite pasta shape here. I liked rotini best, but penne or farfalle could be excellent too.

I’m on a gluten-free diet, so when testing this recipe I tried lentil-based pasta, regular gluten-free pasta, and chickpea pasta. We loved how the lentil-based pasta held together after a few hours in the fridge and added a savory flavor to the salad. This one was our favourite.

You can prep all the ingredients for this Greek pasta salad the night before and keep them in separate containers or bowls, including the salad dressing. Apart from the pasta, nothing else needs to be cooked – which is very pleasant on hot summer days.

If you prepare the noodles ahead of time, rinse the noodles to cool them and remove some of the starch. Then toss with a little olive oil, place in a container with a lid and seal tightly. You can make this the day before and keep it in the fridge until you assemble the salad.

There may be some dressing left, but it keeps well in a sealed jar in the fridge. I’ve used this versatile dressing on salads, fish and to enhance the flavor of grilled vegetables.

Soaking the onions

I love the taste of red onions, but sometimes their powerful bite can overwhelm a dish. A chef friend of mine taught me a simple technique for taming raw onions. A 10-minute soak in cold, lightly salted water keeps the onions crisp and light in flavor but softens them enough to play in harmony with other ingredients.

Other pasta salads to try!

Pesto Pasta Salad
Pasta salad with shrimp, bacon and avocado
Pasta and Bean Picnic Salad
Caprese pasta salad
Pasta and Bean Picnic Salad

Greek pasta salad

preparation time
20 minutes

cooking time
10 mins

total time
30 minutes

portions
8 servings

For the Lemon Olive Oil Dressing:

1/3 Cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 to 3 lemons)
1 tablespoon Lemon peel
2 cloves garlicfinely chopped
2 tablespoon finely chopped Parsely
1/2 Cup Extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Fresh oreganoOptional
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

For the pasta salad:

1 lb rotini pastaor other pasta shape of your choice
1/2 small Red onionquartered and thinly sliced
1 red pepperfinely diced
1 pint cherry tomatoeshalved
1/2 Cup pitted Kalamata olives
1/2 Cup crumbles feta
1 cucumberquartered and sliced
1/4 Cup Parselyroughly chopped
Salt and pepper, taste

Cook and drain pasta:

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook the pasta al dente. Rinse immediately in cold water until the noodles are cool to the touch.
Soaking Onions:

Soak the onion slices in cold water with a pinch of salt. After 10 minutes, drain the water from the onions.
Make the dressing:

In a small lidded jar, shake together all the ingredients for the dressing. Taste and add more spices if you like.
Assemble salad ingredients:

In a large bowl, combine the cooled pasta, drained red onions, peppers, tomatoes, olives, feta, cucumber, and parsley. Gently toss with 1/4 cup of the lemon olive oil dressing and mix. Add more dressing in small increments as needed.

You can’t use all of the dressing, but it keeps well in the fridge for about a week. Season to taste with salt and pepper.