A super flavorful and bright pasta salad tossed with all the classic ingredients of a Greek Salad is a great change up from a more traditional pasta salad and will feed a crowd at your next cookout.

Greek Pasta Salad in a serving bowl.

Ingredients Used For Greek Pasta Salad

Feta cheese, kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, grape tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and fresh dill give the salad plenty of flavor and saltiness. You could also add some peperoncini and diced pepperoni would be delicious too.

Pasta salad is theoretically such an easy dish to make, but so many turn out oily, dry, or flavorless.

Dressing getting poured on pasta salad.

Salt The Water

Cook the pasta in lots of water, 1 gallon, and a good 1-2 tablespoons of salt to the water. Salting the water well will go a long way to preventing bland pasta salad.

Cook Pasta To Al Dente

Only cook the pasta until al dente. Take a full minute or two off of the cooking time on the box. You still want some chew in the pasta otherwise it will become soggy in the pasta salad.

Give the pasta a quick rinse with some warm water, drain and then immediately toss in a large bowl with ½ of the vinaigrette. Put the bowl in the refrigerator and let the noodles chill and soak up the flavor of the dressing. Meanwhile get all the other ingredients ready and mix them into the salad once they are ready to go.

I don’t add the remaining vinaigrette until right before serving to ensure the noodles are not dry.

Pasta salad before getting mixed together.

Secret Ingredient For Extra Flavor

I like to add some of the oil that the sun-dried tomatoes come packed in to the vinaigrette. It’s delicious oil so you might as well make use of it. Chicken breasts taste wonderful sautéed in it.

Greek Pasta Salad in a mixing bowl.

More Pasta Salad Recipes

Greek Pasta Salad Recipe

By Christin Mahrlig

Prep: 1 hour 20 minutes
Total: 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings: 12
A super flavorful pasta salad tossed with all the classic ingredients of a Greek Salad.

Equipment

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Ingredients

  • 1 pound fusilli pasta, or pasta shape of your choosing
  • 1-2 tablespoons salt
  • 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon oil from sun-dried tomatoes,, optional
  • ½ red onion,, finely diced
  • 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
  • ¾ cup kalamata olives
  • ½ large cucumber,, diced
  • 2 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil
  • 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
  • pepperoncini,, optional

Instructions 

  • Bring 1 gallon of water to boil in a large pot.
  • Make vinaigrette while water is coming to a boil. In a medium bowl combine red wine vinegar, lemon juice, garlic powder, sugar, oregano, and salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in olive oil and sun-dried tomato oil.
  • When water comes to a boil add 1-2 tablespoons of salt and pasta. Cook until al dented. Drain, rinse in warm water, and drain again.
  • Place pasta in a large bowl and toss with ½ of vinaigrette. Chill in refrigerator.
  • Once pasta has chilled for about 30 minutes, add remaining ingredients EXCEPT remaining vinaigrette. Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
  • Just before serving, add remaining dressing and toss to coat.

Nutrition

Calories: 229kcal

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag us @spicysouthernkitchen on social media!

Originally posted June 19, 2014.

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Recipe Rating




28 Comments

  1. Jess @ On Sugar Mountain says:

    This pasta salad is so bright and summery, Christin! I can whip this up and bring it to work for lunch all week long! ๐Ÿ˜€

  2. Deittra@Bon Appรฉgeechee says:

    Great Minds!! Don’t you just love when your favorite lettuce lead salads translate well to pasta salads! Perfect for this time of year! Hope you’re staying cool!

  3. Cindy @ Pick Fresh Foods says:

    I’m always looking for salad that I can take to a get-together and I love a pasta salad that doesn’t require mayo. Nothing worse than a salad with mayo sitting out. I’m always worried about getting ill. So, in my book this salad is perfect! Pinning

  4. marcie says:

    You’re right about so many pasta salads being dry and flavorless. This looks like it’s bursting with flavor from all those delicious veggies right down to the dressing! Pinning! ๐Ÿ™‚

  5. Kelly says:

    I am a big fan of Greek salads and love the sound of this pasta version! It looks amazing and perfect for summer ๐Ÿ™‚

  6. Cate @ Chez CateyLou says:

    Oh my gosh – I just posted a Greek Pasta Salad today! I love your version – the dill and the sun-dried tomatoes sound delicious!

    1. Christin Mahrlig says:

      Thank you Cate! I can’t wait to check out your recipe!

  7. Ashley says:

    Greek salad is my favorite – I love this spin on pasta salad! Perfect dish for all those summer BBQ get togethers!

  8. Aimee / WallflowerGirl.co.uk says:

    Love this! I made some gorgeous vegan feta the other day that would be perfect to eat with this… Pinning ๐Ÿ™‚

  9. Natalie @ Tastes Lovely says:

    This pasta salad looks like perfection!