This greek pasta salad tastes like summer! Packed with extra protein, this pasta salad makes a great summer backyard barbecue dish. Featuring greek flavors of feta, parsley, cucumbers, olive oil, lemon, and more, this is a perfect side dish to share at pot lucks, picnics, staff parties, a birthday celebration, or just for your weekly meal prep!
Ingredients for this Greek summer pasta salad
This greek pasta salad features light flavors like lemon, peppers, olive oil, olives, parsley and more. It’s a perfect summer potluck or picnic dish and pairs well with your grilled favorites like steak or chicken. This no mayonnaise pasta salad recipe is light and fresh!
For the greek pasta salad base:
- Extra protein pasta — I highly recommend using Banza chickpea pasta because it is gluten-free and packed with extra protein. It serves as a great base for this greek summer salad recipe. You can also use regular pasta or another brand that has higher protein.
- Feta — this wouldn’t be a mediterranean salad recipe without feta! I love using a block of feta and crumbling it myself because it’s often less expensive than the pre-crumbled options.
- Diced vegetables — you can use the vegetables you have on hand, but I recommend red and green peppers, cucumbers, red onions, and grape or cherry tomatoes as starters.
- Olives — Kalamata olives are rich and buttery, and they add great mediterranean flavor to this greek pasta salad.
- Parsley — I use the italian parsley for this dish. It pairs extremely well with the other fresh ingredients.
- Pepperoni — You can use regular pepperoni or turkey pepperoni as both taste great in this recipe and add extra protein. Diced salami would also work well.
For the dressing:
The dressing for this gluten free greek pasta salad comes from a combination of fresh squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper. Once added to the pasta salad base, it brings such a fresh brightness to this summer salad side dish!
How to make Greek pasta salad (with extra protein)
This greek pasta salad is extremely easy to make, but it does take time to clean and dice the veggies and cook the pasta. I like to put a good song on while I work or catch up on a favorite show. The key to saving time with this salad is multitasking. For example, while the water is boiling and the pasta is cooking, work on dicing the vegetables.
- Start by boiling the water for the pasta.
- While the water is heating up, start dicing the vegetables and adding them to a large bowl.
- Once the water is boiling, add the pasta and set a timer for a cook time according to the back of the pasta box. I like to keep the pasta on the firmer, al dente side, so I often select a time on the lower end of the cook time range.
- Continue prepping the vegetables and dressing as the pasta cooks. Once the pasta is done, rinse it with cold water and let it cool while you prep any remaining vegetables or the dressing. I would recommend letting the pasta cool completely so it doesn’t cook the other ingredients or melt the cheese.
- Once the pasta is cooled, add it to your vegetable mixture bowl and toss with the dressing. Toss carefully so the pasta doesn’t get chopped up. Also, try to scoop down to the bottom of the bowl and drizzle the dressing on top to make sure everything is evenly coated.
- I like the add the feta last and do another round of mixing, once again, making sure that the dressing on the bottom gets redistributed on top.
Other side dishes you’ll love
Greek Pasta Salad (extra protein)
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
This greek pasta salad tastes like summer! Packed with extra protein, this pasta salad makes a great summer backyard barbecue dish. Featuring greek flavors of feta, parsley, cucumbers, olive oil, lemon, and more, this is a perfect side dish to share at pot lucks, picnics, staff parties, a birthday celebration, or just for your weekly meal prep!
Ingredients
- 1 (8 oz.) box of pasta (Banza rotini recommended but select your favorite brand and style)
- 1 (8 oz.) block feta, crumbled
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 1 cucumber, diced
- 1 container (10 oz.) grape or cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 red onion, diced (approximately 1/2 C.)
- 1/2 C. kalamata olives, sliced
- 1/4 C. chopped Italian parsley
- 1 (5 oz.)package pepperoni
For the dressing:
- 1/2 C. lemon juice (about 1 and 1/2 lemons)
- 1/2 C. olive oil
- 1 tsp. chopped garlic
- 1–2 Tbsp. chopped Italian parsley
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
Instructions
- Cook the pasta and let cool completely.
- Prepare all of the vegetables, pepperoni, and olives. Add to a large bowl while the pasta cooks.
- Mix the dressing.
- Once the pasta cools, add the pasta to the large dish with the vegetables, pepperoni, and olives.
- Coat with the dressing, mixing well for several minutes. Mix carefully to not break the pasta and also to get the liquid from the bottom distributed on the top.
- Add the feta and repeat the mixing process.
- Before serving, mix well again, making sure the liquid gets redistributed on top of the salad.
Notes
- This salad gets even better as it marinates in the refrigerator. Make sure to mix the salad well before serving again. The liquid tends to sink to the bottom.
- Prep Time: 30
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
