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This easy Greek Pasta Salad is loaded with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, and feta cheese. It’s all your favorite Mediterranean flavors in one delicious side dish!
Greek Pasta Salad is a party and potluck favorite. It has all the colorful vegetables and feta cheese of standard Greek Salad, and the added noodles make it great for sharing.
Everything can be prepped in advance, too, so you can easily put this Greek Pasta Salad together at the last minute (or travel with the components separately and assemble it at your destination).
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Red onions: Substitute sweet onions if desired. 1 cup of onions may sound like a lot, but you temper the harsh raw flavor after a few minutes of marinade time in the vinaigrette.
- Grape tomatoes: 1 ½ cups diced tomatoes may be substituted for the grape tomatoes. Seed your tomatoes if desired.
- Kalamata olives: Substitute black olives or your favorite green olives if desired. I prefer to leave them whole, but you can cut them in half or slice them.
Step-by-step instructions
- To make the dressing, in a small bowl whisk together olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste (I like ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper).
- In a medium bowl, add the diced cucumber, sliced red onion, and vinaigrette and marinate at least 5 minutes or up to 30 minutes.
- In a large pot, bring 4 quarts of water and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain well, rinse with cold water, and drain again. To the bowl with the dressing, and the cooled pasta, tomatoes, and Kalamata olives. Toss to combine and sprinkle with feta cheese.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes enough for at least 8 generous servings.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: The red wine vinaigrette can be made up to 3 days in advance. Store covered in the refrigerator. The pasta can be cooked, drained, rinsed, and cooled up to 1 day in advance. The vegetables can be prepped the day before and stored separately in the refrigerator.
- More mix-ins: Get creative with diced green bell peppers, cubed avocado, whole pepperoncini, a can of chickpeas, capers, or your favorite fresh herbs.
- Make the vinaigrette your own: Try adding 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, a teaspoon of honey, a minced clove of garlic, or a pinch of red pepper flakes.
Recipe FAQs
If you use thin-skinned cucumbers in this salad, peeling them is optional.
You can mellow the harsh flavor of raw onions (what I call “angry onions”) with a soak in vinaigrette. Here, the red vinaigrette infuses the onions with flavors and tempers its natural harshness.
Greek Salad
For the ultimate Greek Salad, tone down the raw onion flavor with a simple vinaigrette. Then complete this classic with lots of colorful vegetables and plenty of feta cheese.
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Greek Pasta Salad
Ingredients
For the red wine vinaigrette:
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the pasta salad:
- 1 cucumber peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and diced
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced (1 cup or 4 ounces, see note 1)
- 1 pound rotini or other small pasta
- 1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes halved (10 ounces, see note 2)
- 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives (see note 3)
- 4 ounces feta cheese cubed or crumbled
Instructions
- To make the dressing, in a large bowl whisk together olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste (I like ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper).
- To the bowl with the dressing, add the diced cucumber and sliced red onion and marinate at least 5 minutes or up to 30 minutes.
- In a large pot, bring 4 quarts of water and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain well, rinse with cold water, and drain again.
- To the bowl with the dressing, and the cooled pasta, tomatoes, and Kalamata olives. Toss to combine and sprinkle with feta cheese.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Red onions: Substitute sweet onions if desired. 1 cup of onions may sound like a lot, but you temper the harsh raw flavor after a few minutes of marinade time in the vinaigrette.
- Grape tomatoes: 1 ½ cups diced tomatoes may be substituted for the grape tomatoes. Seed your tomatoes if desired.
- Kalamata olives: Substitute black olives or your favorite green olives if desired. I prefer to leave them whole, but you can cut them in half or slice them.
- Yield: This recipe makes enough for at least 8 generous servings.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: The red wine vinaigrette can be made up to 3 days in advance. Store covered in the refrigerator. The pasta can be cooked, drained, rinsed, and cooled up to 1 day in advance. The vegetables can be prepped the day before and stored separately in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
I used the mini cucumbers just wash and dry skin is very tender so no peeling the green skin makes for a beautiful salad. I’m making it for Christmas dinner just because I want to. The green from the cucumber and red tomatoes make for a beautiful Christmas side dish.
And WHO says pasta salads are just for summer BBQ’s??? Life is short eat pasta salad any time you want to.
I couldn’t agree more Linda! I hope you enjoy your Christmas dinner. Thanks! – Meggan
Accidentally hit 3 stars,
This is without a doubt 5 star recipe.
The salad dressing is amazing as well. I added the optional honey to the dressing and was delicious.
Delicious and easy to make. Definitely a keeper.
My family loved this pasta salad with your homemade vinegrette.
So good! I just love Greek ANYTHING.
Pasta salads are delicious! Thanks for sharing this recipe, can’t wait to try it.
This stunning formula for Greek pasta serving of mixed greens is the highest quality level of simple to-make potluck plates of mixed greens. It is useful for all so I truly much obliged for sharing this so i am giving five star.