Looking for a delicious vegetable pasta salad with cucumbers and tomatoes that’s on the healthier side? This delicious orecchiette pasta salad with Greek yogurt dill dressing checks all those boxes. Perfect for cookouts, pot-lucks and summer barbecues!
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We love pasta at our house, especially pasta salad in the warm summer months. It makes for a fantastic side-dish to fried chicken or anything that is coming off the grill, like burgers, brats, steaks, chops and chicken. This healthy pasta salad recipe is a nice alternative to other mayo-heavy macaroni and pasta salads.
My Garden Vegetable Pasta Salad is made with a much lighter dressing, using plain Greek yogurt and light sour cream. As far as I’m concerned this dressing is fantastic! You won’t miss the heavy mayo, and the light, creamy dressing that coats the pasta and vegetables is perfect. When paired with the pasta, and fresh, crisp vegetables this healthy pasta salad will be your new summer salad favorite!
What do I need to make a healthy vegetable pasta salad recipe?
Here’s a quick-reference shopping list of the ingredients you’ll need to make this delicious pasta salad:
- Orecchiette pasta, or any other medium pasta
- Cucumber – mini seedless cucumbers work well for this recipe. If mini cucumbers are not available, get a seedless English cucumber, which doesn’t require peeling.
- Green and Yellow Bell Peppers (1 medium pepper each)
- Cherry or Grape Tomatoes
- Green Onions
What do I need to make yogurt dill dressing?
- Plain Greek yogurt – I like Fage plain Greek yogurt, as it is ultra thick and creamy. Any plain Greek yogurt will work. (Don’t use vanilla.)
- Light Sour Cream
- White distilled vinegar
- Garlic Salt
- Pepper
- Fresh Dill
For exact ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post to the recipe card. Thank you!
How do I make orecchiette pasta salad?
Step 1: Cook the pasta and Chop Vegetables
In a large pot, cook the pasta according to package directions. If you cannot find orecchiette pasta, feel free to use shell pasta or any other medium noodle. Cook the pasta to al-dente, drain and let it set to cool to room temperature, rinsing with cold water.
While the pasta is cooling, begin chopping the vegetables, and placing in a large mixing bowl. The cucumbers, yellow and green peppers, tomatoes, and green onions add excellent texture and crunch to the salad. I also included fresh dill to give the salad some additional flavor and freshness.
Cut all veggies into small bite-sized pieces. Once all of the veggies are cut, add the cooled pasta, and gently toss the ingredients together.
Step 2: Mix the dressing
Once you’re finished cutting the veggies, and the pasta is still coming to room temperature, you can now mix together the dressing. Combine the plain Greek yogurt, light sour cream, vinegar, salt and pepper. Whisk together and then pour over the pasta and veggies. Toss the salad well to coat all of the pasta and vegetables.
Looking for more homemade dressing ideas? Check out these healthier, homemade salad dressing recipes:
- Healthy Homemade Italian Dressing
- Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing
- Healthy Caesar Dressing
- Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing
- Yogurt Dill Dressing
Step 3: Chill the Salad Before Serving
Chilling the salad is not imperative, but refrigerating for about an hour before serving really helps the salad come together. The dressing will lightly marinate the ingredients and the veggies and pasta will become nice and cold, which is what every great summer salad needs to be extra amazing!
Make this salad, and share it at your next summer potluck, cookout or backyard party. People will definitely be asking you for the recipe!
What can I serve with orecchiette pasta salad?
This pasta salad with cucumbers and tomatoes is the perfect cookout side dish and goes great with burgers, grilled chicken, steaks and chops. Here are some of our favorite cookout recipes:
- Lemon Pepper Grilled Chicken
- BBQ Chicken Skewers
- Aloha Burger
- BBQ Bacon Burgers
- Air Fryer Brats
- Grilled Chicken Leg Quarters
- Italian Grilled Chicken
- Cilantro Lime Chicken Recipe
- Apple Cider Glazed Pork Chops
Looking for other summer salad recipes? Here are some of our favorites:
- Italian Tortellini Salad
- Zesty Italian Pasta Salad
- Easy Greek Tortellini Salad Recipe
- Classic Macaroni Salad
- Strawberry Cheesecake Fluff Salad
- Pistachio Fluff Recipe
- Snickers Apple Salad
- Quinoa Chickpea Salad
Here’s the easy, delicious recipe for my Garden Vegetable Pasta Salad:
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Garden Vegetable Pasta Salad
Equipment
- Mixing Bowls These stainless steel mixing bowls are an essential cooking tool for every kitchen.
- Cutting Boards This 3-Pack of non-slip cutting boards are a fantastic tool for every home cook.
- Mini Whisk Fantastic for small batch recipes, this mini whisk is ideal for dressings, sauces and marinades.
Ingredients
- 1 (12 oz. pkg.) orecchiette pasta or other shell-shaped pasta
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cucumber sliced
- 1 cup yellow bell pepper diced
- 1/2 cup green bell pepper diced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved or quartered
- 2 green onions chopped
Yogurt Dill Dressing:
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup light sour cream
- 3 Tablespoons distilled white vinegar
- 2 Tablespoon fresh dill chopped, plus more for garnish
- 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
Instructions
- Fill a medium sauce pan with water, and 1 tsp salt and bring to a boil. Cook pasta to al dente, according to package directions, or about 2 minutes less than directed. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Add a few ice cubes to cool the pasta. Let pasta cool.
- In a large mixing bowl, chop and add the cucumber, peppers, tomatoes and onions. Toss together and add the cooled pasta.
For the dressing:
- In medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sour cream, vinegar, garlic salt and pepper. Whisk until smooth. Stir in the chopped dill. Pour over the vegetables and pasta, and stir until everything is evenly coated.
- Chill the salad until ready to serve. Garnish with a few extra sprigs of fresh dill before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
This salad looks wonderful! Especially when I can use fresh veggies from my garden. 🙂
Wow! That pasta salad looks delicious! I love the fresh veggies! It seems like the perfect side dish for that yummy fried chicken! #client
Nice summer salad!
We’d love to have you share this with our readers at the Summer Salads party. http://intelligentdomestications.com/2015/05/summer-salads-linky-party.html
I make a pasta salad with any and all fresh veggies I can get dressed with light italian salad dressing (I make my own). My family loves it! I am going to try your dressing it sounds delish.
Sounds delicious Marge!
I made this and it was really good. I had some left over, so my question is, how do I refresh it?…more tomatoes, sour cream, yogurt… The pasta has absorbed a lot of the sauce.
Yes, I agree. Once you refrigerate it, much of the creaminess is absorbed by the pasta. Here’s what works for me – add 2 Tbsp each of white vinegar, sour cream, and whisk together until smooth. Pour over the salad, and gently stir together. Hope this helps second time around. Enjoy ~ Erin
Looks soooo tasty. However, white pasta is the nutritional equivalent of sugar! Sad to say, it is a simple carb. So, omit the sour cream, salt and garlic salt, and substitute whole wheat pasta and this would be a really healthy dish.
That salad looks absolutely yummy, I know what I am making with dinner tomorrow night
Looks so yummy! I’m so happy spring is here! Thanks for sharing at the Inspiration Spotlight party. Pinned & shared. See you again soon!
Oh wow, does this ever look fabulous! What a great recipe – especially for summer picnics!
Thanks for sharing (and for linking up to the #SHINEbloghop).
Wishing you a lovely evening.
xoxo
Yum! What a great way to have you pasta salad and feel good about it! Thanks for sharing at Throwback Thursday!
Your salad is gorgeous! I love them when they’re filled with veggies and not glopped with heavy dressing!
Thanks for sharing with us on Throwback Thursday!
Mollie
I can’t wait to try this. Thanks for sharing at the Monday Funday Party. – Emily
That salad looks good!! (and so does the chicken!) Thanks for sharing on the What’s for Dinner Sunday Link up!
This so looks just so light and lovely! Can’t wait to try it, pinning to my Recipes board!
That looks like a yummy side for that chicken. Thanks for sharing at the Family Joy link party!
I never thought to use orechette for pasta salad, but it is perfect with the vegetables. Thanks for partying with us on #TastyTuesdays.
Wow! This looks amazing!! Perfect summertime side dish 🙂
Blessings,
Edye | http://gracefulcoffee.wordpress.com
We love pasta salad and I just recently started using the Orecchiette pasta, it is so harder, works really well in a salad with chunky vegetables.
Thank you for sharing on #OMHGFF, Pinned
Hope you have a wonderful and safe 4th of July!!
I love a good pasta salad and this one looks really yummy! Thanks so much for sharing it with us at Share The Wealth Sunday!
I love the fact that this is a healthier pasta salad. I will definitely be trying it soon. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
What a beautiful salad, Erin!! A classic, but better! Thanks for sharing with us at Throwback Thursday!
Mollie