Enjoy this tasty pasta salad with feta cheese and a creamy homemade dressing. It's the perfect side dish for any party or picnic and good enough for an entire meal.
I made this Greek pasta salad for a large family party. It's really easy to make, and though we served it as a side dish, I know that it would be great to have for lunch or dinner. You could even add some protein, such as grilled chicken or salmon if you like.
Ingredients
- short pasta (penne, campanelle, fusilli)
- crisp cucumber (English cucumber)
- grape tomatoes
- red oniofeta cheese
- kalamata olives
- flat leaf parsley
- extra virgin olive oil
- fresh lemon juice
- Greek yogurt
- garlic
- dried oregano
- salt and black pepper to taste
What Kind of Pasta Should You Use?
I like to use a short pasta shape for a couple of reasons. One, a portion of short pasta is easier to serve when you have a large group of people. Two, short pasta, especially one like this campanelle, holds the dressing and cheese well, making sure that you get a lot of goodness in every bite.
Other good pasta options are penne, farfalle, fusilli, orecchiette, even rotini.
The Dressing
This recipe also includes a creamy Greek dressing. The creaminess comes from Greek yogurt. I only used half of the recipe to start, as this salad was made earlier in the day and refrigerated. Before dinner was served, the remaining dressing was tossed in.
This concept works well because you want the salad to soak up some of the dressing, but not too much. The pasta will soak up the dressing over time, so adding additional dressing at the end ensures that there will be enough to keep it from tasting dry.
Substitution Ideas
You can substitute items in this recipe pretty easily. It's all up to your taste.
- Kalamata Olives - Black olives
- Grape Tomatoes - Fresh plum or cherry tomatoes, cut up
- Gherkin cucumbers - English cucumber. You can use standard cucumbers. Peel them and remove the softer center, leaving only the firm flesh for the salad.
- Red Onion - Sweet onions would work fine.
- Feta Cheese - Gorgonzola cheese or a hard Ricotta Salata
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Tangy, fresh, and colorful, this Greek pasta salad was so good. I'm definitely going to make it again soon.
More Tasty Greek Recipes
Greek Pasta Salad Recipe with Feta
Ingredients
- 1 pound of short pasta such as campanelle penne, rotini or fusilli
- 2 small gherkin cucumbers or a large English cucumber diced 1 cup
- 1.5 cups of grape tomatoes cut in half
- 1/2 red onion diced 1 cup
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olive cut in half
- 2 tablespoons fresh flat leaf parsley
Dressing
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3/4 cup Greek yogurt whole milk
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta to al dente and drain.
- While the pasta is cooking chop up all the ingredients.
- Combine the pasta with the vegetables, cheese, and olives in a large bowl.
- Whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing together in a separate bowl or mason jar.
- Pour half the dressing over the pasta mix and stir.
- Refrigerate.
- When you are ready to serve add the remaining dressing and toss well.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although attempts have been made to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
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