Greek Pasta Salad in a Jar {Portion Fix/21 Day Fix}

Springtime and pasta salad go hand in hand. Jarred salads are easy to make and customize. They are ready to pull out for a picnic or as a side dish for a plate of grilled foods! I like the “Greek” flavors and so Greek Pasta Salad in a Jar was invented.

Putting salads in a jar is just a neat way to measure out an exact amount of ingredients and storing them. I use a 1-pint wide-mouth canning jar. The wide mouth makes it easier to load your ingredients and easier to dump out. You have to dump them into a bowl or onto a plate to mix them and eat them.

Here is another fun jarred salad from my blogger friend Nancylynn over at Confessions of a Fit Foodie.

How do you start making these Greek Pasta Salads in a Jar?

To start with we need to make the dressing because it is the 1st thing you put in the jar. There are some good oil and vinegar Greek dressings out there but I like a creamy dressing over an oily one. I like the lemon tartness in this dressing. For a milder flavored dressing, you could just use my Mayo Ranch dressing instead. You are still getting some lemon flavor from the olive relish.

 

I like to assemble all the ingredients into a jar too, give it all a good shake and set it aside while I put the rest of my ingredients together.

Next, the pasta…

I get my pasta boiled drained. After I drain them I lightly spray olive oil spray on the pasta and toss. That will keep them from trying to ‘dry out”.  I used whole wheat penne for mine. But any solid shape would work. Bowtie or elbows or spirals would work also, anything with a solid shape. As I prep each Greek Pasta Salad in a Jar I use my containers to keep up with how much of each is in there. 1 yellow container of penne or 1/2 cup cooked is the perfect serving size for my jar. Make sure they are completely cool before you assemble the salads so that they don’t “steam” any of the fresh veggies.

On to the veggies!

Next, I prep any veggies that need it. Depending on what I have or what YOU might like the next few ingredients are optional and adjustable. I like tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers in mine.  1 to 1 1/2 cup of veggies to the 1/2 cup of pasta is about the right ratio for me. You could always use more or less and adjust your container counts.

The last thing I prep is my “relish”. I didn’t know what else to call it. I decided the word relish best described it. A mixture of fresh lemon, kalamata olives and minced onion that are bursts of flavor in this salad. The secret to having olive and salad dressing on the same salad is by splitting that orange container into 6 teaspoons. 1 teaspoon of minced olives and 5 teaspoons of dressing will equal 1 orange container.

I like mixing my onion and lemon because the lemon actually “cooks” the onion a little and takes the raw onion taste down a notch. I only use 1 slice of lemon diced up and a little lemon zest to 1 teaspoon minced onions and 2 olives minced.

The cheese I use is a good crumbled Feta. I add it very last to the jar. I use about 2 1/2  Tablespoons per jar or 1/2 Blue container for the Fix. If feta is too strong flavored for you then you could use shredded parmesan cheese instead.

Layering the Greek Pasta Salad in the Jar

This picture collage is going to show the order I put the ingredients into my jar. Measure each of your ingredients as you add them to the jar to determine your container counts

I started with 6 teaspoons of the dressing and then the cherry tomatoes, they hold the rest of the ingredients out of the dressing.

Cucumbers, peppers, pasta, olive relish, and feta. Put the lid on good and tight and make sure to store upright to keep the dressing on the bottom of the jar.

When I am getting ready to eat it, I flip the jar over on its lid for a few minutes. That gives the dressing time to drip down and cling to the salad instead of trying to scrape it all out of the bottom of the jar.

Can you add a protein to this salad?

Yes, you can. I often add cooked chicken or shrimp to it.  When I do it that way I don’t try to cram it into the jar because I don’t want to “smash” my veggies or pasta. I just add it in after I have dumped the salad out into the bowl. Give everything a big stir to coat the entire salad with the dressing.

What are the container counts for Greek Pasta Salad in a Jar?

The only recipe in this post is for the dressing. The “salad” is so customizable that the counts for it can change by what you include in yours.  Less pasta, more veggies or fewer veggies, more pasta can change the counts.

The counts for this exact jar that I made are: 1 Orange of dressing and olives, 1 1/2 Green of veggies, 1   Yellow of pasta, and 1/2 Blue of cheese.

If you didn’t want to “jar” this salad you could just dump it all in a bowl.  You would just count how many containers you add to the bowl and divide by the number of servings. I would probably do 5Y of the pasta and make it serve 5, based on the fact that the dressing recipe makes 5 servings.