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Greek Pasta Salad is an easy side, perfect to prep ahead and a hit at every party or potluck! Tender pasta, ripe juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, feta cheese and olives are tossed in a Greek dressing for the perfect make ahead side dish.
We often add grilled chicken to make it a complete meal marinated in our favorite Greek Dresssing for a full meal!
I’m a huge fan of Greek Salad, it’s easy and fresh and it’s one of those recipes where I always seem to have the ingredients on hand.
The very first time I had a Greek Salad, it was made by my friend Lisa way back in 1997 when she brought it to a barbecue at my house.
Once I’d had it that first time, we started having Greek salad every week or more! As much as I love a good Greek salad, I’m also kind of crazy for pasta salad (Dill Pickle Pasta Salad or Hawaiian Pasta Salad anyone?).
I started playing around with the my original Greek Salad recipe and made it into a pasta salad. The combination of ripe juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, red onions, feta cheese, olives and pasta tossed with a delicious greek dressing is crazy good and makes the perfect meal or side dish!
How to Make Greek Pasta Salad
- Cook your pasta al dente and rinse under cold water to stop cooking.
- While the pasta is cooking, wash and chop your fresh veggies
- Combine everything in a large bowl and toss with dressing, chill before serving! So easy right?
What Veggies go into a Greek Pasta Salad?
- cucumbers
- tomatoes
- red onions
- bell peppers
- olives
Of course you can prepare a homemade dressing for this recipe but using a store bought Greek dressing makes it really quick to make and tastes delicious! This recipe is loaded with veggies and we often use a whole wheat pasta and a light Greek dressing to make a this a healthy Greek pasta salad.
More Pasta Salad Recipes You’ll Love
- Italian Pasta Salad (easy!)
- Caesar Pasta Salad – Full meal in one dish
- Avocado Pasta Salad
- Dill Pickle Pasta Salad – Popular for potlucks!
- Summer Pasta Salad – Garden fresh
More Greek Inspired Recipes
- Greek Tortellini Salad
- Greek Tzatziki (Yogurt Cucumber Dip)
- Greek Spaghetti Squash
- Baklava Cheesecake
If your family finds the red onion has a little bit too much bite you can soak it in ice water with a pinch of salt as you’re preparing the rest of the ingredients. Shake for 10 seconds, drain and repeat if needed.
This salad will hold up in the fridge for about 5 days so it’s the perfect school or work lunch and is a great make ahead dish for a barbecue or potluc!
Easy Greek Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 16 ounces rotini or other medium pasta
- ¾ English cucumber diced
- 1 pint grape tomatoes halved
- 1 bell pepper red or orange, diced
- ½ cup sliced pitted olives
- ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
- ⅓ cup diced red onion
Dressing
- 1 cup Greek dressing
OR
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Whisk together dressing ingredients.
- Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. Rinse under cold water.
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Add dressing and toss.
- Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Pasta, Salad
Cuisine Mediterranean© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
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Quick and delicious!
This was very good! I like and appreciate easy! I did add some zatar seasoning, since it’s greek seasoning I figured it would be a good addition.
Great salad but needed extra dressing if you make from scratch. We just made extra and put it on the leftover salad for tomorrow. It will certainly be eaten. It’s that good!
Way too much pasta in relation to veggies. Otherwise, the taste is good
Thanks for trying our recipe, Ann. You can definitely add more veggies as you prefer.
I love this recipe! It is my go to when I want a pasta salad. I have added chopped up broccoli in and use medium shell pasta and it is great! I have made your suggestion on homemade dressing but never found it to be enough so always add Ken’s Greek salad dressing to it or just use Ken’s. I love the idea of adding some grilled chicken to it so might try that this week!
I have made this numerous times. I love it. ❤️❤️ I wait until I will be eating it to combine the ingredients and only what I need. That way it lasts so much longer.
I have made this dish several times and is great. Every recipe I have made from this site has been awesome!
As it.
I’ve made this a couple of times. I don’t rinse the pasta, just stir in some of the dressing to keep it from sticking together while it cools.
I add marinated artichoke hearts, I chop them a bit and add some of the marinade to the dressing. It’s amazing!
So glad you enjoyed it, Grace! Your additions sounds delicious.
I’ve never made Greek Pasta salad. I wanted something a little different. This is great. I will be sticking to this vs. an Italian style pasta salad.
do you add the dressing if you’re making it in advance or keep it separate? I’m worried the cucumbers might pickle a bit with the dressing but not sure! thanks so much!
I always add the dressing in advance when making it. It allows the pasta to soak up some of the dressing and really meld the flavors!
Made this for a picnic and everyone loved it! I made it as written, used Kalamata olives and the homemade dressing. It was enough dressing for our taste. I did use chickpea pasta to up the protein. Going into my summer rotation!
I’m confused. You say the recipe calls for a “3/4 long English cucumber diced”. Do you mean that I buy a regular size English cucumber and just use 3/4 of it or measure out 3/4” of it?
I use about ¾ of a whole cucumber, you can certainly use the whole thing if you’d like!
Great, but I doubled the homemade dressing recipe. Also added a can of garbanzo beans.
You used a recommended chopper from Amazon that I saw in your video. Could you please send me the link for this chopper? Thankyou.
Absolutely – I use this chopper.
Even my kids loved this pasta greek salad! So easy to make
What is the serving size?
1 cup?
Hi Melissa, a serving would be approximately 1 to 1 ½ cups of pasta salad.
what kind of olives are used
For this recipe we used Kalamata olives but you can use any olive you prefer!
Easy, delicious, and budget-friendly Summertime pasta salad!
I made it for the fam first, and am planning on bringing it to work for a potluck next week!
Good option when it’s too hot to cook. I added in some diced, seasoned, sautéed chicken breast to make it a one pot meal. Thanks!