Easy Pasta Salad

Easy Pasta Salad is one those recipes that you need to keep close, so you can whip it out when you hear party!—because it’s amazingly delicious!

Pasta salad season is here baby! So I want to make sure all my peeps are ready for Summer! This simple, tasty, recipe you need to enjoy at all of your upcoming picnics, potlucks, and barbecues. Because what says spring and summer like cold pasta salad…particularly Easy Pasta Salad?!

VARIATIONS & ADDITIONS

It’s such a blank canvas kind of recipe that you can interchange any of the ingredients you don’t like or add any additional ingredients.

You can throw in a can of drained, olives just for the heck of it!

Now let me blow your mind. Just think how amazing it would taste with grilled chicken added to the mix! I knew I would blow your mind!

SIMPLE TIPS AND TRICKS

You can add a little honey calm the acidity of the dressing.
I love whisk the dressing ingredients in a bowl, or you can process them in a mini food processor, or blend them in a blender.
Feeling a little adventurous? Add your favorite diced fresh veggies, Italian meats or cheeses, or even sliced grilled chicken that we talked about!

Ingredients

3 cups uncooked pasta
2 heaping cups halved cherry tomatoes
1 ½ cups cooked garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups arugula
1 cup cucumbers, sliced into thin half moons
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 red onion, chopped
¼ cup toasted pine nuts

Dressing

¼ cup olive oil, more for drizzling
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 to 4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon salt

directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Prepare the pasta according to the package directions, or until slightly past al dente.
Meanwhile, make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, and salt. (Note: the dressing will taste strong flavor at first, but once the ingredients marry and coats all of the pasta salad ingredients will calm down).
Drain the pasta, toss it with a little olive oil (so that it doesn’t stick together) and let it cool to room temp. Pour into a large bowl with the tomatoes, garbanzo beans, arugula, cucumbers, feta cheese, red onions, and pine nuts. Pour the dressing and toss to coat. Season to taste with more lemon, salt, pepper, and drizzle of olive oil, if desired, and serve.

Did you try our Easy Pasta Salad ? What did you think? We would love to hear from you or please tag us on Instagram!

LET’S GET YOUR SALAD ON! YUMMY RECIPES BELOW!

The PERFECT Salad recipe! If there is one salad recipe you need in your recipe box this is it! It’s made with fresh spring salad, cheese, flavorful bacon, sweet grapes, blue cheese crumbles and it’s all tossed with a fresh, sweet balsamic vinaigrette.

Want to try something special? You need to make Japanese Potato Salad for your next potluck dinner. The potatoes are mashed, combined with crunchy carrots, cucumbers, green onions, corn and tossed with a zesty mustard-vinegar-mayo dressing. A really great potato salad that has become our go-to!