Gluten-Free Pasta Salad
Gluten-free fusilli tossed with tomatoes, cucumber, olives and feta in a lemon and olive oil dressing.
Don't Make These Mistakes
Rinse the pasta briefly, then dress it while slightly warm.
Add the tomatoes and cucumber at the last moment.
If the salad tightens in the fridge, add oil and lemon.
Making Gluten-Free Pasta Salad
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Boil the pasta in salted water for 12 minutes until just tender. Drain and rinse briefly under cold water.
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Whisk the oil, lemon juice, oregano and salt in a large bowl.
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Toss the still-warm pasta in the dressing.
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Fold in the tomatoes, cucumber, olives, onion and feta just before serving.
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What's Going On Here
Pasta salad is cold pasta with whatever is crisp and bright in the fridge, held together with a dressing. Gluten-free pasta behaves differently when cold, though, and that is the part to plan for.
Wheat pasta stays pleasantly firm when chilled; gluten-free pasta can go hard and brittle. Cook it until just tender, then rinse briefly under cold water to stop it cooking and wash off surface starch. Dress it while it is still slightly warm, since warm pasta absorbs the dressing and stays soft.
The dressing is olive oil, lemon juice and oregano. It should taste sharper than you want the finished salad to be, because the pasta and feta soften it. Add the tomatoes and cucumber just before serving to keep them crisp. If you make it ahead and the pasta has tightened, a splash of oil and lemon loosens it again. Salty feta and olives mean the dressing needs little extra salt, so taste before adding more.
Leftovers, Reheating and Keeping
Keeps for 2 days in the fridge. Loosen with oil and lemon before serving.
Swaps and Variations
- Fresh herbs work in place of the dried oregano at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.
Good With
- Grilled chicken
- Green salad
- Flatbread
- Barbecued fish
Gluten-Free Pasta Salad Nutrition Facts
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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