A fresh and easy Greek Pasta Salad just in time for summer! This crowd-pleasing side dish is tasty alongside grilled meats at all your backyard barbecues.
Easy Greek Pasta Salad
This easy Greek pasta salad is all about one thing: the chunks of feta cheese. Yes, I love the chewy pasta, the crunch of the fresh veggies, and the tangy dressing. It’s basically summer in a bowl, colorful and fresh.
But honestly? It’s all about the feta for me. Every time I see someone on the Food Network making a salad with chunks of feta cheese, I vow to stop what I’m doing and immediately follow their lead. And now, you can too.
The red wine vinaigrette that’s tossed with this cucumber pasta salad is so simple and flavorful, you can throw it together right before you need it. And it comes together in minutes with just a few pantry ingredients. Save the recipe because you’ll want it on all your other salads, too!
I love the classic combination of cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, and olives. In traditional Greek salads, chopping up a tomato is the norm. Since grocery store tomatoes can be unpredictable, I go with my favorite brand of grape tomatoes and slice them lengthwise. I also use red onion and kalamata olives, but you are welcome to substitute your favorite onions and olives.
This is one Greek pasta salad your guests will rave about! It is simply the BEST with your favorite summery grilled meats (find my favorite grilled chicken recipe here) or at any potluck or picnic you are attending.
What’s Needed for Greek Pasta Salad?
The ingredients list for this Greek pasta salad recipe is short and sweet:
- Rotini
- Olive oil
- Red wine vinegar
- Garlic
- Dried oregano
- Persian cucumbers
- Red onion
- Grape tomatoes
- Feta cheese
- Pitted Kalamata olives
How to Make Greek Pasta Salad
This feta and cucumber pasta salad couldn’t be easier to make! Here are the basic steps to making this simple pasta salad recipe:
- Cook the pasta according to package instructions, then drain and let cool.
- Whisk together the Greek dressing.
- Toss together the prepared vegetables, feta, and cooled pasta in a large bowl.
- Drizzle over the dressing and toss to combine.
How Long Will Pasta Salad Last?
To maximize the shelf life of pasta salad for safety and quality, refrigerate the pasta salad in airtight containers. Properly stored, pasta salad will last for 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator.
What’s the Best Pasta for Pasta Salad?
You can use whatever pasta you want in this Greek Pasta Salad. I love rotini because it’s fun to eat and the kids love it. I also love the way the dressing gets caught in the nooks and crannies and infuses the pasta with flavor. Since all the other ingredients are chopped, I definitely suggest going with something thicker and bite-sized (as opposed to long, skinny spaghetti noodles).
Tips for the Best Pasta Salad
Note that slightly undercooked pasta is best in this simple pasta salad so that it doesn’t absorb all of that dressing and go extra soft in serving.
I use Persian cucumbers in this easy pasta salad recipe because they taste the best (as if I just picked them from my own garden). They also have soft skins (no peeling) and minimal seeds (no seeding). Hothouse or Japanese cucumbers are another good choice if you can’t find Persians.
Be sure to buy a CHUNK of feta cheese, not the crumbled kind. It’s just not the same. The goal is uniformly cubed salty bites of feta because they look great and taste even better. It really brings the salad together!
Feta cheese is sold in a lot of varieties lately, so if you’re up for it we totally recommend trying a flavored versus traditional feta cheese. There’s not going to be a huge change but it gives an extra little something. And if you’re not feeling the feta cheese thing you can easily use parmesan or skip the cheese all together.
More PASTA SALAD IDEAS:
- Easy Southern English Pea Pasta Salad
- Easy Italian Pasta Salad
- Southwest Pasta Salad
- Tortellini Pasta Salad
- Bacon Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad
- Elote Mexican Corn Pasta Salad
- Cuban Pasta Salad
- Teriyaki Chicken Pasta Salad
- ALL OF OUR PASTA SALAD RECIPES!
More MACARONI RECIPES:
Easy Greek Pasta Salad
Easy Greek Pasta Salad
Description
Ingredients
For the Greek Dressing:
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, , minced
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
For the Pasta Salad:
- 1 pound rotini pasta, (or other small pasta)
- 8 ounces Persian cucumbers, , diced (about 3)
- 1/4 cup sliced red onion
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, , halved lengthwise
- 8 ounces feta cheese, , cubed
- 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
Instructions
- To cook the pasta, bring 4 quarts water and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil.
- Add pasta and cook according to package instructions, about 7 to 10 minutes.
- Drain well and rinse with cold water.
- Meanwhile, to make the dressing, in a small bowl whisk oil, vinegar, garlic, oregano, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.
- In a large bowl, combine cooked pasta, cucumbers, onion, tomatoes, feta, and olives.
- Drizzle with dressing.
- Toss gently until uniformly combined and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Recommended Products
A@4U
This was quite a tasty salad. We eat a lot of salads during the summer. It’s just too hot to cook! I planned to throw a couple chicken breasts on the grill but ran out of time to thaw – so it was Meatless Monday on Thursday. I cut the pasta amount in half because it was only my husband & myself. I included the full recipe amounts for the all the add-ins plus I added a chopped yellow pepper and a couple large handfuls of mixed baby greens that were in the refrigerator. I thought some quartered artichoke hearts would go well, but I didn’t have any in the pantry. I separated the salad into 2 bowls – one to dress and refrigerate for dinner and one un-dressed to have for the weekend. The pasta was still slightly warm when dressed so it soaked up all that great dressing and was delicious. My change going forward will be to cut the olives in half and add quartered artichoke hearts. It was a little bitter biting into the whole kalamata olive. I had the leftovers for lunch today and it was amazing. The red onions and cucumbers had “pickled” slightly and mellowed in flavor. I look forward to serving the remainder of the salad alongside grilled fish or chicken over the weekend. Thank you for a great recipe.
Sweet Basil
Thank you so much for the feedback! I love all your suggestions and I’m so glad you enjoyed the salad!
Audrey
Made this Greek pasta salad for a family BBQ and it was a huge hit, everyone loved it! I will definitely make this again.
Sweet Basil
Yay! Thank you so much Audrey! It is such a great salad to take to a family get together!
ramesh chandwani
Hi, I appricaitte you recipie i tried it was Amazing. I would like to have some more summer grilling and some salad reciepe.
Sweet Basil
Thank you so much! We have a section on the blog for summer (https://ohsweetbasil.com/season/summer-recipes/), salads (https://ohsweetbasil.com/category/recipes/salad/), and grilling (https://ohsweetbasil.com/method/grilled-recipes/). Enjoy!
Kathryn
Hi,
Just wondering if I’m making this a day in advance should I add everything in the day before or leave some things out until day of? Thank you!!
Sweet Basil
A day in advance should be just fine for all the ingredients. I actually prefer it after it sits for a few hours! Enjoy!
Ashley
This salad is so, so good! It hit the spot on a cold winter day. I left out the tomatoes because I don’t really like them and used green olives instead of kalamata olives, but it still turned out great! Thanks for the amazing recipe!
Sweet Basil
Love to hear this Ashley!! I love pasta salads in the winter. Makes me feel like it’s summer time! Thank you for the feedback!
Tee
The best Greek pasta and the dressing is amazing!
Sweet Basil
Thank you so much!
Samantha M.
I made this Greek Pasta Salad over the weekend and it was a big hit! I love Greek Pasta Salad, but never made it before for some reason. This is now my go to recipe that I’ll be making often. Thanks so much!
Sweet Basil
Hurray! So glad it was a hit in your house!
Darlene
Made this Greek Salad for supper tonight. So happy to have the tomatoes, purple onions, and cukes from our garden. OM it is delicious. My husband and I could not stop eating it. I will certainly make it over and over again. Perfect to take to someones home or to a pot luck. YUMMY.
(The only thing I did was add 1/2 tsp of Dijon Mustard to the dressing so the oil and vinegar would not separate. Added extra garlic too 🙂 ).
Thank you for sharing this recipe Carrian and Cade.
Darlene
Nova Scotia
Sweet Basil
Thank you for the feedback Darlene! It is such a yummy recipe for using garden fresh veggies!
Sue
If I make the salad a few hours in advance, can the feta cheese still be added or should that wait until just before serving?
Sweet Basil
I would add it right before serving or it gets mushy.
Debi Wall
Can you tell me how much is one serving?
Sweet Basil
Hi Debi! One serving is about 1 cup.
Christine Shintani
I can’t see where I can print the Greek pasta salad recipe.
Kim
where can I find the Red Wine Vinaigrette Dressing recipe?
Sweet Basil
It’s in the recipe. 🙂