Cold Pasta Salad Recipes?

jnv7594

Do you have any good ones? I love cold pasta salad in the spring and summer and am looking for some new ideas. Anything with feta cheese gets double points, lol.

PKM0515

I don't follow a recipe, but I make what I call a Greek pasta salad. Penne or shells (whatever you like really) mixed with grape tomatoes, Kalamata olives, red onion, green pepper and/or pepperoni (darn auto-correct will not let me type the name of the spicy green peppers - hope you know what I mean; I don't mean pepperoni although that might be good if I weren't a vegetarian), and feta cheese. I toss it with olive oil, red wine vinegar or lemon juice, salt, pepper, and oregano. You can throw in some chickpeas for extra protein, if you like.

PKM0515

I also like tri-color pasta with sliced grape tomatoes, sliced black olives, green pepper, artichoke hearts, and cold (cooked) broccoli. Toss with Italian dressing or vinaigrette.

dearmrsowl

My mom makes an amazing Italian pasta salad.
For the salad itself you need:
500g penne
200g cherry tomatoes
1 cup of sun tried tomatoes (in oil)
olives
pine nuts
50g Parmesan cheese
250g arugula / rocket salad

The dressing:
1 part olive oil
2 parts oil from the sun dried tomatoes
1 part balsamic vinegar
1 yellow onion
1 clove of garlic
salt and pepper

It makes an amazing summer salad and it's so hard not to it too much of it because it contains quite a lot of fat but it's all healthy fats and just so tasty.

PKM0515

Mom's salad (above) sounds delicious! I love arugula.

khaleesikhaleesi

I LOVE the pasta salad creations (they come in a box, and I think that's what they're called, haha). I like to add feta and mash up a hardboiled egg in them, or add some tuna. It's a super easy and inexpensive meal, and I let it sit in the fridge and get cold before I eat it. You can add whatever to it, and they have different seasonings!

jnv7594

Thanks for the ideas everyone.

paulaviki

My go to is always olives, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper and feta or mozzarella with either pesto or balsamic vinegar. It's great for pasta but I also make it with giant cous cous.

jnv7594

paulaviki wrote: »

My go to is always olives, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper and feta or mozzarella with either pesto or balsamic vinegar. It's great for pasta but I also make it with giant cous cous.

I was thinking of doing something similar, but without the olives. Just not a fan. But I thought tomatoes, cucumber, feta, and maybe some beans would be good.

jamie_reynolds

tomato, purple onion (or any onion), green pepper (or any bell pepper), radish, carrot, zucchini and/or squash, green peas, feta, italian dressing...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

BarbieAS

I do a "greek" one similar to the above (red onion, green pepper, kalamata olives, feta cheese, tomatoes if they're in season, and then a red wine dressing that's equal parts vinegar and oil, with a generous sprinkle each of salt, pepper, and garlic powder and an extra generous sprinkle of oregano).

I also like cubed salami and mozzarella (usually regular but the fresh pearls are a good change of pace) with green pepper or broccoli (I don't like them together but no reason not to add both if you want) and red onion and then any kind of oil and vinegar dressing (the greek one above works fine; I usually would use balsamic vinegar instead though and maybe add some basil or other seasoning). In the spring I do asparagus, arugula, and crumbled goat cheese with a mix of olive oil, white balsamic, and lemon juice - you could add cold cubed chicken to this for some protein and a complete meal. Or a caprese pasta salad with fresh mozz, tomatoes, and fresh basil and (again) oil and vinegar. (I REALLY like olive oil and vinegar, can you tell? Haha.)