Nothing says “Greek Salad” more than cucumbers, tomatoes, feta cheese, olives, and red onions. And all of those bad boys are in here, along with two cups of wilted baby arugula, white beans, and pasta, all of which absorb the flavors in the herb vinaigrette. THE HERB VINAIGRETTE! We need to talk about this for a minute. It’s made from fresh mint, fresh oregano, and fresh parsley, combined with red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, a touch of honey, salt, and pepper. It’s easy to shake together quickly in a mason jar and use on this- and other- salad recipes. The honey cuts down on some of the acidity of the vinegar, which I always find a little bit too jarring in Greek salads. Don’t worry- if you don’t have fresh herbs you can easily substitute them with dry.
As with any pasta salad, it’s important that the pasta be cool when you mix everything together since if it’s too hot, it will absorb too much of the dressing and everything will dry out too much. This can be a bit tricky, as pasta tends to stick together while it cools. To prevent this, toss the hot drained pasta with 2 tablespoons of the dressing. And while you’re there, toss the arugula in with the pasta- the heat from it will wilt the arugula down, so you don’t have to worry about steaming it separately.
My favorite thing about this recipe is that you can make it ahead of time. In fact, the flavors marry together the longer it sits, so making it a day or two in advance might be well worth your while. And it makes GREAT leftovers. Plus, it’s inexpensive to make, especially if you are growing fresh herbs yourself, and takes only about 30 minutes total.
One word of caution: it’s important that the ingredients are as dry as possible before mixing together, so the pasta salad doesn’t get watered down as it sits. The tomatoes can be particularly watery, so I chopped them, set them in a mesh sieve over a bowl, and sprinkled them with salt to draw the liquid out. I let them sit there while I prepped everything else, then patted them dry with a paper towel. I also scooped the seeds out of the cucumbers, which is where most of the water is stored.
Other Pasta Salad Recipes:
Caprese Pasta Salad 20-Minute Creamy Lemony Vegetable Pasta Salad Green Goddess Pasta Salad Pesto Pasta Salad Italian Tortellini Salad Mediterranean Chickpea and Orzo Salad 20-Minute Creamy Lemony Vegetable Pasta Salad
And be sure to check out these other 20 easy pasta salad recipe ideas. Printable recipe below!
