This light and fresh lemon pasta with peas and feta has the perfect balance of zesty lemon, sweet peas, salty feta and garlic dressing. Best of all, it comes together in just 15 minutes for an easy potluck dish or quick dinner!
Lemon Pasta Recipe
I couldn’t resist sharing one more salad before summer is over!
Earlier I shared a tuna pasta salad and a recipe for yuca en escabeche with a really zippy vinaigrette for the yuca.
So good and so easy, that’s the wonderful thing about salads.
And now I’m in love with this light and fresh lemon pasta with peas and feta!
The Pasta
For this salad I used small pasta shells, but you can use any small pasta shape you like.
Just be sure to salt the water before cooking for flavor.
The Vegetables
When I was young I hated green peas. The mushy texture and weirdly sweet taste was so unappetizing!
But then I found a brand of frozen peas I love that are crisp, sweet and delicious! I even eat them plain as a snack!
I would not recommend canned peas for this recipe. And if you don’t like peas, you can use broccoli or asparagus.
The Cheese
For the cheese I chose crumbled feta. I absolutely adore feta cheese on just about anything, but you could also use parmesan cheese with tasty results.
Feta fans should definitely check out my tiropita recipe (Greek feta hand pies)!
Or continue the light trend with watermelon and feta salad or roasted carrots with feta.
The Dressing
Because there are so few ingredients in this salad, I highly recommend you use fresh lemon juice for the dressing.
I’ve tried this with the bottled lemon juice when that was all I had on hand and I’m telling you there is a world of difference!
Besides the freshly squeezed lemon juice, the other thing to note is that there are two ways to prepare the dressing.
How to Prepare
The first way (which is how the recipe is written) is to warm minced garlic in olive oil and then combine with the other dressing ingredients.
The second way is to leave the garlic raw and mix everything together. If you love the pungent taste of garlic, then this is the method for you.
If you prefer it with a more toasty, mild flavor, let it warm in the oil first.
Either way the lemon garlic pasta sauce is delicious!
I usually let this lemon pasta salad chill before serving, especially in the summer, but you can eat it hot as well!
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