Summertime Greek Pasta Salad

I love grilling season. Who doesn’t? Really any reason for me to spend time with friends and family around the grill, with a chilled drink in hand is a perfect day in my book. I love that the Memorial Day is the first holiday of the season where grills are set up and dusted off. And nothing goes better with those grilled fixin’s quite like an awesome, yet classic pasta salad.

If you are anything like me you have seen this salad a 100 times at family gatherings. You think you know what is in it. You think you can recreate it yourself. And when you try to, but you use ITALIAN DRESSING. Ewww.

You see with my blog, I make the mistakes for you, so you don’t have to. Then I take notes (literally) and share the final success with you. You are then set up for first time recipe trying success. So hint number one, if it’s called GREEK SALAD, it will NOT contain anything labeled ITALIAN in it! Lesson learned. Now years later, this salad is a family favorite.

Original Recipe: A Family Recipe

Greek Pasta Salad

Prep: 20 mins   |   Cook: 10 mins   |   Total: 1 1/2 hours   |   16 servings  |   267 calories
(printable recipe here)

INGREDIENTS

12 oz box tricolor Rotini pasta; cook, drain, chill
8 oz feta cheese
1 pint cherry tomatoes; halved or chunked
1 regular English cucumber; peeled & cubed
2 cans black olives: drained
half of a medium onion; thin slices & then diced
1/2-1c Greek dressing (to preference)

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine all ingredients together.
2. Allow to chill & marinate for a minimum of 1 hour, but really is best overnight.

TIPS

• You can use any type of pasta you wish, that is about 12 oz package.
• Make sure you select an English cucumber. These are the long, slender cucumbers. The squat, shorter ones tend to have more seeds in them.
• It is easiest to dice a cucumber if you keep halving and create strips before dicing.

This makes a great picnic salad mainly because it feeds a load of people without being too expensive, or overly complicated to make. Bonus, if you have any leftovers it makes for a great lunch the next day!

Love this? Tried it? Share your meal photos on my Facebook page, tag them on Instagram & Twitter with #MadeByMeggs or even comment below! I’d love to see what you enjoy! Don’t forget to check out more of what inspires me on Pinterest. xoxo Meggs

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