It’s jam packed with juicy tomatoes, cucumbers, crumbed feta cheese, and it’s all doused in an herbed vinaigrette. There’s also some bell pepper and red onion in there to add depth of flavor, which really makes this hard to stop eating. We love packing it along for picnics as well as packing it up a mountain to have a first rate lunch at the top. You can check out a picture of my other pasta salad at the top of a mountain in Glacier National Park, it’s about halfway down the page of my Piegan Mountain Scramble post. Last summer I started making a version of today’s pasta salad, but I didn’t ever make it the same way twice. With another hiking/picnic season approaching, I knew I wanted to get serious about writing it down to share. For the veggies in this salad, the main idea is to keep them bite sized. I had rather large cherry tomatoes this time, so I ended up quartering them. For the cucumber, I always slice off both ends and cut it into quarters lengthwise. Then you lay the quarters flat side down on the cutting board and thinly slice them into triangles. This is my favorite method to cut cucumbers into bite sized pieces. For the vinaigrette, you want to whisk in the olive oil slowly until it’s completely emulsified. And finally it’s time to combine it all together… … with all the prepped veggies, feta cheese, and the vinaigrette. From there you can eat it right away or refrigerate and enjoy within a day or so. If you’re using gluten free 100% brown rice pasta, then it’s always best on the same day it’s made. It’s pretty decent the second day, but as time goes on, gluten free pasta starts to get an unpleasant granular texture. If you’re using normal wheat pasta, you can eat this pasta salad anytime over 3-4 days. Although it will get soggier with time as it absorbs the dressing. 5 from 7 reviews
