Easy Pasta Salad

Simple and delicious veggie-filled pasta salad! Add this recipe to your weekly meal prep for a quick lunch or dinner during the week.

Easy Pasta Salad

Pasta salads are one of my all-time favorite meal preps. They’re easy to make, super customizable, and get better the longer they sit in the fridge!

They’re a delicious way to pack in more vegetables to your day, while also packing in whole-grains, fiber, and even protein.

You can load up your pasta salad with pretty much anything you have on hand! I went for a Mediterranean spin with this recipe, and love the flavors it provided.

This dish is filled with fresh veggies like spinach, peppers, onion and chickpeas. Serve it as a main course or a side dish with your favorite protein.

How to prepare the perfect pasta salad

Pasta salads are truly so easy to make, and can be adjusted to your liking. They can be eaten cold or at room temperature, making them the perfect easy meal prep!

Here’s what you’ll need to prepare this easy pasta salad:

1. Choose your pasta: I prefer using regular pasta or whole wheat, since they hold up much better after being refrigerated. Most gluten-free pastas tend to harden in the fridge, so I suggest serving it at room temp or warmed up if you use a GF pasta
2. Add 2-3 veggies: I love adding some greens into my pasta salad, and veggies that hold their texture well after a few days, like bell peppers and onions
3. Choose your flavorful add-ins: olives, chickpeas and feta cheese add the perfect flavor combination to this dish. You can add any beans you like, and swap a vegan cheese to make this recipe plant-based
4. Add your dressing: the homemade dressing is so easy to make, and brings all of the flavors together. To keep things even simpler, you can use your favorite bottled dressing for this recipe

This recipe will stay fresh in the fridge for up to 5 days. It’s the ideal make-ahead recipe since it gets better the longer is marinates in the dressing.

It’s flavorful, easy to make, and packed with nutrients. You guys are going to love it!

If you’re looking for more recipes to meal prep, check out some of these reader favorites:

Black Bean and Veggie Burritos

Spinach & White Bean Burgers

Quinoa Veggie Burgers

Peanut Butter Banana Overnight Oats

Easy Pasta Salad

5 from 4 votes

Course: Main, Pasta

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Total time

30

minutes

NOTES: this pasta salad can be eaten cold or at room temperature, especially if using regular or whole wheat pasta. Most gluten-free pastas harden after refrigerating, so I recommend letting it reach room temp, or warming it before serving!

Ingredients

• 8-10 oz of uncooked pasta, I used whole wheat penne

• 5 oz bag of spinach

• 2 red bell peppers

• 1 small red onion

• 8 oz crumbled feta cheese

• 1/3 cup olives, chopped

• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

• Dressing

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar

• 1 shallot, diced

• Juice from 1 lemon, about 2-3 tbsp

• 1 tbsp dijon mustard

• 1 tsp honey

• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

• 1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions

• Prepare the pasta as instructed on the package. Drain and set aside
• Prepare your vegetables by chopping up the spinach, bell peppers, olives and onion, and draining the chickpeas.
• In a small bowl, combine all of the dressing ingredients together and mix well until fully combined.
• Transfer the pasta into a large mixing bowl, and toss with 1/2 of the dressing.
• Add in the veggies, chickpeas, olives and feta cheese then toss together with the remaining dressing.
• Serve cold or at room temperature. The longer it sits in the dressing, the better!
• Leftovers will stay fresh in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @somethingnutritious on Instagram- I’d love to see your creations!