Greek Pasta Salad with Tzatziki Sauce

As we manage this God-awful heat wave, I’ve been craving the cold pasta salads I used to make regularly. Finding decent gluten-free pasta for such an endeavor has taken a while, and matching recipes to a household of new tastes and palates is an ongoing process. But this dish has been made twice now, and WILL be made again!

The pasta salad recipe we created from scratch. It would be a tart tasty treat on its own, but it’s made creamy with a dollop of a quick tzatziki sauce on top (sauce recipe borrowed from Alton Brown). It can be a side dish or an entree, depending on your tastes.

Greek Pasta Salad
16 oz. Tinkyada spiral rice pasta (one package)
1 cucumber, diced
1 zucchini, diced
½ of a red onion, diced
8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
4 spoonfuls sliced pepperoncinis
8-20 whole or diced olives (to taste)
olive oil to taste
red wine vinegar to taste
cracked black pepper

1. Fix the pasta according to package directions. We use the energy saver method, where we bring the water to boiling, add pasta, and boil for two minutes. Then we turn off the burner, cover the pot, and let sit about 12 minutes (package states 20 minutes, but they get way too soft for us that way).

2. Rinse pasta with cold water and drain. Combine with all other ingredients. If preferred, chill in fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Tzatziki Sauce
16 ounces plain yogurt (Greek if possible), drained if possible*
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped, then drained*
Pinch kosher salt
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
about ½ teaspoon dried dill

1) Combine the drained yogurt, drained cucumber, salt, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and dill.

That’s it! Easy peasy.

* But let’s talk a little about draining. You’ll want to do at least some draining of your yogurt and chopped cucumber… especially if you use already minced garlic packed in water, as that’s difficult to drain completely and will add more liquid.
   a) Ideally, the yogurt drains for 2 hours. But I don’t always have that kind of time. For the first batch, I used Greek yogurt and didn’t drain it at all. This made for a thin but usable sauce. For the second batch, I put the yogurt in a fine mesh colander suspended over a bowl while I did the rest of my pasta preparations (see picture below). A tea towel or several layers of cheesecloth could also be used. My draining yogurt very quickly lost about 1/8th a cup of liquid, and more drained the longer I was able to leave it.
   b) The minced cucumber can be placed in the center of a couple layers of cheesecloth or paper towel and carefully squeezed until some liquid has been removed. This just takes a few minutes, and will make a big difference.

This will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week. Yields about 1 1/2 cups, a good amount to use on the pasta above.