Lemon Cucumber Pasta Salad
- Mikayla B.
- Jul 16, 2021
- 2 min read
It's been a hot two years since I've shared a recipe here. Life got a hard hold of me. Yet, between all the Chemical Engineering classes, internships, family events, college graduation (eek!), and other highs and lows, I've been able to cultivate more recipes and skills to share with all y'all!
I am a HUGE summer girl. Born in July, living for the sun and beach...the summer was made for me. The only drag about summer is the heat. This week, Long Island has been experiencing a huge heat wave. Today alone is 91°F outside. I don't know about you all, but when the lunchtime rumblies come around, I really don't feel like making something hot and heavy that takes forever. Don't worry- I got you covered.
May I present to you my Lemon Cucumber Pasta Salad! An easy fix to the summertime meal slump. Refreshing and light, it makes the perfect 25-minute meal! Even use this pasta salad as a side to turkey burgers or grilled chicken! I recently made this for my family (my local taste testers, if you will) and it was a home run.
Some key tips:
1. Try to cool down the pasta as much as possible. After straining the pasta of pasta water, I ran some cold water over the pasta to cool it and stop the cooking process. The salad is *okay* if the pasta is warm, but the salad is at it's best when its all one temperature.
2. Keep refrigerated after serving...it'll make great leftovers!
3. You can sub the feta cheese for goat cheese.
4. Use your favorite pasta! I am a sucker for bowtie pasta, but if you're trying to make more health-conscious swaps, whole wheat pasta would work just as great!
5. Remember to salt your pasta water like the sea! It adds a lot of flavor to the pasta, as well as enhances the ability of chemoreceptors (receptor cells) in the tongue to detect molecules that are only perceived through our sense of taste.
Lemon Cucumber Pasta Salad
Serves: ~8 servings
Total Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 16oz box pasta, your choice
- 1 cucumber, quartered
- 1 red onion, diced
- 3/4 cup feta cheese
- 1 Tbsp oregano
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder
- 2.5 Tbsp olive oil
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Juice of 1 lemon
Steps:
1. Prepare pasta according to the box
2. In a large bowl, combine red onion and cucumber.
3. After pasta cooks, add pasta, feta cheese, oregano, garlic powder, olive oil, lemon zest, and lemon juice to the large bowl. Mix.
4. Serve and enjoy!
Nutritional Facts per serving:
254 Calories
8.8 g Total Fat
2.9 g Saturated Fat
54 mg Cholesterol
173 mg Sodium
35.4 g Total Carbohydrate
0.8 g Dietary Fiber
2.1 g Total Sugars
9 g Protein
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