Greek pasta salad is colorful and light, packed with crisp veggies, olive and feta cheese. A crowd pleasing side dish perfect for summer gatherings.
The best thing is you could make this Greek pasta salad with just the instant pot(not sponsored) My point is you don”t need too many pots or even a real stove to cook pasta how cool is that.. do you hear college kid living in dorm or a bachelor too lazy to cook 🙂
Let us take the guessing game away from perfectly cooked pasta and instant pot does it for me perfectly every time just the way I want it. I would like to add “How well cooked pasta you need is your personal choice” I like mine well cooked else I wont be able to swallow it.
Other pasta salads I loved this summer :
Lobster Mac and Cheese
Kale Cellentani Salad
Crab Peas Fettuccine
Greek Pasta salad is one of the bestsellers in cafeteria during summers. People flock to the deli to buy this salad before they sell out. Why not make your own and avoid the disappointment of not having any or ending up with a not so satisfying soggy ones.
Be adventurous and add grilled chicken cubes or grilled shrimp. Adding strawberry chopped also makes it a great salad.
Here is my first attempt to make an ASMR video with Summer sounds if you would like to see what happens in my kitchen.
GREEK PASTA SALAD
Ingredients
- Penne pasta – 3 cups
- Persian cucumber – 4
- Red onion – 1
- Cherry tomato – 12- 15
- Olive – 6 -8 (Kalamata)
- Feta cheese – 4 oz
- Lime juice – of 1 lime
For the vinaigrette :
- Red wine vinegar- 6 tbsp
- Olive oil – 2 tbsp
- Mustard paste – 1 tbsp
- Pepper powder – 1 tsp
- Salt to taste
Method
- In the instant pot add the pasta and add 4-5 cups of water (double the height of pasta in instant pot so it will have enough water to cook and expand with out drying)
NOTE: Do not pour water like you cook pasta on stove top it will spew through the venting nozzle and make a mess.
- PRESS the MANUAL/ PRESSURE COOKER mode -> 5 minutes (see tricks below), TURN the vent nozzle to sealing mode. After cooking when it reaches LOW 10 minutes turn the nozzle to venting mode and let all the steam out. Carefully open the lid and drain almost all the water in the pasta and add the prepared vinaigrette immediately.
- To prepare vinaigrette : Mix all the ingredients given in the vinaigrette list in a bottle with lid.shake vigorously.
- Set the pasta aside to cool down completely . In the meantime prep the veggies.
- Chop the onion first and add lime juice and salt over it. Mix well and let the onion sit while the cucumber is diced, tomato is halved and parsley is chopped. Now mi everything very gently
- Finally cube the feta cheese or simply press and crumble it with your hands and sprinkle on the veggies.
- Toss the veggie mixture into the pasta. Mix gently with salad servving spoons.
- Greek pasta salad can be served immediately or refrigerate until it is served.
A VIDEO recipe with step by step process is ready above.
Greek pasta salad – tricks to get it right.
- Add the vinaigrette to really warm pasta this helps to absorb flavors and liquids better. This will keep the pasta from turning dry.
- Add lime juice to onion instead of vinaigrette because heat may turn the lime juice bitter. Lime juice helps to break down the sharp pungent taste of onion.
- If you plan to serve the pasta salad after a few hours then keep the pasta with vinaigrette ready separately and add the veggies just before serving, this way the tomato and cucumber will not turn the salad soggy.
- Cook pasta in the right amount of water so it doesn’t overflow from the pot and less water means the pasta is not cooked evenly.
- Reduce pasta cooking time from 5 minutes to 3 minutes if you like the pasta to be really firm after making salad.
Money saving tips :
- Buy feta cheese in a cube it is half the price of crumbled feta sold in pretty containers.
- I make my own mustard paste fresh every time by powdering yellow mustard and just enough vinegar to make a paste. (Fresh mustard paste is always the best)
Hope you will give Greek pasta salad a try and let me know if you liked it.
Meena