Easy Pasta Salad

Easy Pasta Salad is made with fresh vegetables and a bright and fresh pasta salad dressing that is creamy and always steals the show in no time. It comes together in 15 minutes, because you can use leftover pasta which really is handy any time. You and me know this is really the best pasta recipe ever.

Reasons to make this Easy Pasta Salad

Cold pasta salad recipes like this Italian Pasta Salad or the Greek Pasta Salad are extremely convenient. You can throw in any pasta that you like or want. I keep it really simple and use leftover pasta which makes everything so easy to prepare at home.

What is especially great is how budget friendly this recipe is. You just use pantry staples that are widely available and easy to find. Everything is so easy, just mix and enjoy.

It is a great make ahead option, and as it sits in the fridge, it tastes even better.

Having a delicious pasta salad dressing is all what’s left to make this a hit. Let me tell you friends this is it. It’s bright, creamy and tastes so delicious. This dressing is also great for other salads.

What you need for this Easy Pasta Salad recipe

Besides already cooked pasta and tomatoes you should get the following ingredients for pasta salad ready:

Olives: I use black olives which add so much savory and amazing flavor to the salad. You can use of course any olives that you like. Green olives are great as well, but I do love black olives more for a much intense flavor.

Green bell pepper: I like the freshness and crunch from these peppers. Red bell peppers are delicious, but they don’t have as much crunch as I was looking for.

Red onions: These onions are milder and a bit sweeter than regular onions. I like the flavor a lot in contrast to the other ingredients.

Vegan feta is seriously one of my favorite cheeses. It is so delicious and provides a lot of creaminess and a nice saltiness to any dish.

For the dressing: Let me tell you this is truly so amazing: I use olive oil, vinegar, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Also I use non dairy yogurt, you can use any yogurt you like that is plain (fruity is not tasty here 😃), but mayo or sour cream are also really delicious. Finally I mix in some oregano, fresh parsley and sugar for a bit sweetness and that is everything what makes this salad so wonderful.

How to make Easy Pasta Salad

Make the dressing:

Combine yogurt, oil, vinegar, garlic, parsley, oregano, sugar, red pepper flakes and a pinch salt and pepper.

Chop the salad ingredients

Clean and dice the bell peppers, onions and tomatoes. I recommend you remove the inner, more liquid part from the tomatoes first, otherwise the salad gets soggy. 

Also cut the feta into small cubes and half the olives.

In a large bowl mix pasta with other ingredients. 

Mix with the dressing 

Finally, give the prepared dressing to the salad combine everything well.

Leftovers of the Easy Pasta Salad can be used for around 5 days. Freezing is not recommend.

Tips and tricks

If you plan ahead or want to make a bigger batch, I would only use half of the dressing and add the remaining shortly before serving. You can have a lot of more amazing flavor from the dressing this way.

This is a really flexible recipe because you can throw in anything that you like: more veggies or cheese.

You can use mayo, sour cream or a combination of both to make this delicious sauce and skip yoghurt.

Also you can add other herbs like dill or basil, yummy.

Other recipes to try

• Cowboy Stew
• Butter Chicken
• Mujadara
• Sweet and Sour Cauliflower
• Vegetarian White Chili

Let me know what you think of this Easy Pasta Salad and share your remakes on Instagram or Facebook.

Enjoy, Florian.