Greek Pasta Salad

Greek pasta salad is easy enough to make for a busy summer night and special enough to share with company. If you have seen our Greek salad recipe, you will recognize many of the ingredients in this pasta salad. This salad is quick, simple, and delicious.

Greek Pasta Salad

Making Our Greek Inspired Pasta Salad

Greek pasta salad is an excellent salad to have in your back pocket. It’s simple to shop for and quick to make. Serve this as a side dish or turn it into dinner and top it with grilled chicken, some shrimp, or crispy tofu.

We use our go-to Greek salad dressing in this salad, which is essentially olive oil mixed with red wine vinegar, oregano, salt, and pepper. Then, for an extra bite, add a splash of the juice from a jar of pepperoncini peppers. Fresh lemon juice works if you don’t have pepperoncini in the fridge.

For even more briny goodness, if you buy your feta packed in brine, use it! That cloudy, salty liquid is delicious and perfect when added to this pasta salad. I use two tablespoons or so. It’s excellent.

Greek pasta salad ingredients

Like traditional Greek salad, we combine fresh tomatoes, red onion, olives, and a generous amount of feta cheese. For a bit more crunch, I love adding one chopped green bell pepper and a few sliced pepperoncini peppers.

This Greek pasta salad is perfect for bringing to your next get-together. It’s fresh, colorful, and tasty. I’ve also been enjoying it myself as a base for something else. Consider adding some chickpeas, roasted shrimp, crispy tofu, or juicy chicken for a complete meal.

Greek Pasta Salad with feta, olives, tomatoes, and red onion.

Making the salad is fast. Whisk the dressing ingredients together in the bottom of a big serving bowl, then pile in everything else. Easy.

More Easy Salads

Greek Pasta Salad

  • PREP
  • COOK
  • TOTAL

Greek pasta salad is an excellent salad to have in your back pocket. It’s simple to shop for and quick to make. Serve this as a side dish or turn it into dinner and top it with grilled chicken, some shrimp, or crispy tofu.

For a well-seasoned and developed flavor, we use brine two ways in this salad. First, we take a couple of tablespoons of juice from a jar of pepperoncini peppers, which adds some pep and spice. Second, we purchase feta packed in brine, and take advantage by adding a couple of tablespoons of the cloudy, salty liquid to the dressing. The pepperoncini and feta brine are optional, but if you have them on hand, use them.

Makes about 6 servings

You Will Need

Salad Dressing

1/4 cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup (60 ml) red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons (30 ml) brine from jar of pepperoncini peppers or use fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons (30 ml) brine from feta, optional, see tips

1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt plus more to taste

Pasta Salad

8 ounces short-cut pasta, such as bow-tie,  fusilli, or penne

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion

3 small tomatoes, chopped, 1 ¼ cups

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 ¼ cups kalamata olives, pitted and halved

8 ounces feta cheese, cut into ½-inch cubes

4 pepperoncini peppers, thinly sliced, optional

Directions

    1Place the sliced onion into a small bowl and cover with cold water. Set the bowl aside for 10 minutes so that the raw flavor on the onion calms a little. Drain, and then rinse the onions before adding them to the salad.

    2Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender, 6 to 10 minutes (check the package for recommended cook time). Drain and rinse well under cold water.

    3While the pasta cooks, in the bottom of a large bowl, make the dressing. Whisk the olive oil, red wine vinegar, pepperoncini brine, feta brine, oregano, salt, and black pepper together until well blended.

    4Add the drained and rinsed pasta to the dressing and mix well.

    5Stir in the drained and rinsed red onion, tomatoes, bell pepper, olives, feta cheese, and sliced pepperoncini peppers.

    6Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper as needed. Serve or for the best results, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 5 days.

Adam and Joanne's Tips

  • Feta brine: We buy feta cheese that’s packaged in brine. That cloudy liquid is salty, creamy, and delicious whisked into our dressing. If you don’t find feta sold in brine, that’s okay. The salad still tastes great, but if you can find it, buy it. The feta is better, and you can use the brine to season all sorts of things (this pasta salad, included).
  • Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values.

If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste

Nutrition Per Serving Serving Size 1/6 of the recipe / Calories 381 / Total Fat 21.2g / Saturated Fat 7.5g / Cholesterol 33.6mg / Sodium 661.4mg / Carbohydrate 37.4g / Dietary Fiber 4.2g / Total Sugars 5.5g / Protein 11.7g
AUTHOR:  Adam and Joanne Gallagher
Inspired Taste Newsletter Signup
0 comments… Leave a Review

Leave a Reply

Leave a Review

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rate this recipe!

 

All comments are moderated before appearing on the site. Thank you so much for waiting. First time commenting? Please review our comment guidelines. You must be at least 16 years old to post a comment. All comments are governed by our Privacy Policy & Terms.

Previous Post: Next Post: