Try this refreshing Greek Style Pasta Salad for you next barbecue side dish! Quick cooking spiral pasta mixed with a lemon vinaigrette, cherry tomatoes, fresh cucumbers, black olives, red onions and feta cheese! Ready in under 30 minutes!
We are having a HOT summer! And honestly, in the heat, I can’t think of anything better to serve than fresh and easy salads alongside some easy barbecue dishes. If you love the Greek Style Salad with Marinaded Feta, this pasta salad is for you! It’s fresh and hearty at the same time. Serve it up with the Grilled Shrimp with Chimichurri Salsa for a wonderful summer dinner!
What is This Pasta Salad Like
- Difficulty – This is a pretty easy salad to make. I used a Homemade Lemon Vinaigrette, but you could use Italian dressing to make life easy. It can be made in advance.
- Taste – A delicious fresh salad that is perfect for summer. Tender pieces of pasta with crisp fresh vegetables in a tangy vinaigrette.
- Serving – This pasta salad easily served four people and could easily be stretched to six people as a side dish. In the recipe card you can easily adjust the serving size.
Ingredients
- Pasta – I used quick cooking fine spiral pasta for this salad.
- Tomatoes – Cherry tomatoes are the perfect size for this recipe. Make sure they are firm and not overripe!
- Cucumber – I used one large cucumber cut into small pieces, but you could add a little more or less according to taste.
- Onion – Red onion adds a sharp and tangy flavour to the salad.
- Olives – I used black pitted olives.
- Cheese – Feta cheese adds a bit of creaminess as well as a salty touch.
- Vinaigrette – I made a Lemon Vinaigrette for this salad. It’s made using lemon juice, olive oil. vinegar, sugar, honey, salt, black pepper, oregano and fresh parsley.
NOTE, The full recipe and instructions can be found at the end of the post in the recipe card.
Instructions
- Make the vinaigrette – In a small bowl combine all the dressing ingredients and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Cook pasta – Cook and drain pasta according to package instructions.
- Toss salad ingredients – In a large salad bowl, combine the pasta, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion and crumbled feta. Stir well to combine.
- Finish and chill salad – Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss. Cover and refrigerate for about one hour.
- Serve – Serve the salad chilled.
Recipe Tips
- Cooking pasta – Pasta salads are best with al dente pasta. This means the pasta will still have a bit of a bite to it and not be falling apart soft. I cooked this pasta al dente in 8 minutes. But remember, all pasta brands are different.
- Make it in advance – This salad can be made the day before serving. Just keep it covered in the refrigerator.
Substitutions
- Spiral pasta – for the pasta element I used spiral pasta because the flavours stick to it easily. If you prefer you could use penne no problem at all for this salad.
- Feta cheese – I used crumbled feta cheese for this pasta salad. If you prefer a different flavour, you could use cheddar, mozzarella, Gouda, Swiss or Havarti.
- Grape/cherry tomatoes – I love these tomatoes because they are a great size and give a wonderful flavour to summer salads. However, if you are not a fan, you could leave them out and substitute chopped bell peppers.
- Vinaigrette – This salad has a fresh taste with the Lemon Vinaigrette. Alternatively you could make it creamier using a Creamy Greek Yogurt Dressing, Ranch dressing or any of your favourite salad dressings.
- Additions – To make this more of a meal, you could add chopped grilled chicken.
What To Serve with This Salad
Like many summer salads, they go great with barbecues, to bring to potlucks, to have as a light lunch or to serve with dinner. I served this recently with Chicken Cutlet Sandwiches and it went down great. And they would go really well with the Grilled Barbecue Chicken Skewers or the Cheesy Barbecue Chicken Sliders to keep the kids happy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pasta salads with creamy dressings and cheese need to be refrigerated. However, if the pasta salad doesn’t contain a creamy dressing, cheese or any other dairy, you can keep it at room temperature for hours without having to refrigerate it.
The great things about pasta salads is they are best made in advance. Many you can make the day before serving and others, like this one, can easily be made up to eight hours before serving.
Most short pasta will work in pasta salads. And you can play around with different flavours of pastas as well. I like to use spiral pasta because the flavours stick really well to this shape pasta.
Greek Salad with Marinaded Feta
Tomato and Feta Bites
Bacon Pasta Salad
Greek Style Pasta Salad
Ingredients
For the salad
- 8 oz spiral pasta
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes quartered
- 1 large cucumber peeled and cut into small pieces
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup black olives halved
- 1/2 cup feta cheese crumbled
For the dressing
- juice of one lemon
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley finely chopped
Instructions
Make the dressing:
- In a small bowl combine all the dressing ingredients and whisk to combine. Set aside.
For the salad:
- Cook and drain pasta according to package instructions.
- In a large salad bowl, combine the pasta, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion and crumbled feta. Stir well to combine.
- Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss. Cover and refrigerate for about one hour.
- Serve the salad chilled.
*A note on times provided: appliances vary, any prep and/or cook times provided are estimates only.
