Roasted Vegetable Pasta Salad with Greek Dressing
This zesty, tangy pasta salad features roasted summer veggies and a simple Greek-style dressing. It's great as a side salad at a cookout or as a main topped with crispy chickpeas.
Servings: 5 servings
Calories: 530kcal
Ingredients
For the pasta salad
- 8 ounces dry medium pasta such as fusilli, penne; see note #1
- ½ medium sweet yellow onion or yellow onion
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1 medium red bell pepper
- ½ large eggplant or 1 small
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon dry oregano
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup raw pecans see note #2
- 1 cup crumbled feta
- ½ cup roughly chopped green olives or Kalamata olives
For the Greek Dressing
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- 1 small garlic clove grated or minced
- ½ teaspoon to 1 teaspoon dry oregano
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon honey adjust to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon salt adjust to taste
Instructions
- Cook pasta in well-salted water until al dente. Drain and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 425F. Prep the vegetables: Slice half of an onion into thin strips, slice the zucchini into half moons, and slice the red pepper into 1-inch pieces. Slice the eggplant into thin circles, then slice those into quarters or roughly similar sized pieces.
- Toss the vegetables with olive oil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Spread the veggies out into a single layer on a full sheet pan. I like to use parchment paper to keep the veggies from sticking. Roast at 425F for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through.
- After 25 minutes, the veggies should be softened and blackening in places. Sprinkle the raw pecans across the veggies and return to the oven for 5 more minutes.
- Meanwhile, combine all dressing ingredients in a jar or bullet blender, starting with just ½ teaspoon oregano and adding more to taste.
- Toss just half of the dressing with the pasta, hot roasted veggies and pecans, half of the feta, and all of the chopped olives. Cover and chill for 4 hours. Just before serving, toss with the remaining dressing and feta. Enjoy!
Notes
- Pasta: I use the gemelli pasta shape from the bulk pasta packs at Costco, which isn't the most common shape at grocery stores. Any medium pasta shape works, like fusilli (corkscrew), penne, cavatappi.
- Pecans: If using roasted pecans, just skip the roasting step, but still cook the vegetables for 30 minutes.
- I recommend adding half of the dressing before chilling and half just before serving. This allows the warm pasta to absorb some of the dressing without drying it out.
- Why add feta in two parts? Because the veggies are hot, the first half of feta melts and almost melds with the dressing. The second half of feta serves a different purpose, acting as its own ingredient in the salad.
- I like to add Air Fryer Chickpeas to make this a main dish. If you don't have an air fryer, simply roast the chickpeas with oil, salt, Aleppo or red pepper flakes (optional), and pepper at 425F for 25-30 minutes, until crispy.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 530kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 20g | Cholesterol: 27mg | Sodium: 861mg | Potassium: 481mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 1032IU | Vitamin C: 40mg | Calcium: 204mg | Iron: 2mg
