Greek Style Pasta Salad
I love a salad that you can throw together quickly and that holds well in the fridge for the following day. This salad is tasty, filling and nutritious and makes for a lovely light supper and/or lunch the following day. Also great for summer entertaining as it can be made in advance and doesn’t go limp or soggy like many other salads do.
It works as a nutritionally balanced meal too as it provides a good balance of protein (from the beans, cheese and pasta) along with energy boosting carbs from the pasta, plenty of fibre & vitamins from the veggies and heart healthy fats from the olive oil. It’s anexample of a meal which incorporates the principles of a Mediterranean diet which I’m a big advocate of. This is an example of the type of simple recipes that feature in my online nutrition & weight loss programs, more info here
I make a few different variations of this depending on what I have in the fridge but here’s one example which you can tweak according to your taste or whatever is sitting in your fridge! 🙂
Greek Style Pasta Salad (serves 4)
Ingredients
3-4 cups cooked fusilli pasta (make sure to add salt to the water when boiling)
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 cup cucumber, cut into chunks
½ cup of roasted red peppers (I use a jarred variety)
¼ cup black pitted olives
2/3 cup feta cheese, cubed
250g tin/carton Cannellini beans, rinsed & drained
Dressing
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
OR
2 tbsp. pesto (I like sundried tomato pesto)
Optional extras: a couple of handfuls of mixed leaves e.g. rocket, a handful of torn basil leaves, 1 avocado sliced
Method
In a large salad bowl combine the tomato, cucumber, peppers, cooked pasta and olives. Add beans & mix gently.
In a cup combine the olive oil, lemon juice and minced garlic, stir, then drizzle over the salad and stir well to combine. (Alternatively stir through 2 tbsp. of pesto)
Sprinkle with feta cheese and torn basil leaves if using. Keeps in the fridge for 2 days.
(Below image is a version where I added avocado, mixed leaves plus cannellini beans that I mixed with sun dried tomato pesto :))
