A few weeks ago my friend Jenni sent me a link to this recipe for Tzatziki Pasta Salad with the comment that, “it isn’t too Budget Bytes friendly (too many splurgy ingredients), but it’s really good!” I looked over the recipe and quickly decided that A) I needed to make it because it DID look really good, and B) I needed to budgetize it! My version, which I’m just calling Creamy Lemon Dill Greek Pasta Salad, is a little less splurgy, but still awesomely delicious! So good, in fact, that I almost ate a few forkfuls for breakfast this morning! 😜
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Budget Swaps for Creamy Lemon Dill Pasta Salad
To make this pasta salad more budget friendly, I first had to identify the budget breaking ingredients, and there are a lot of them: Kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, feta, red onion, Greek yogurt, artichoke hearts, and fresh dill.
To minimize the budget-killing effect of these ingredients I had to either cut back or substitute where I could, while maintaining the “feel” of the recipe. Here’s what I did:
- I reduced the amount of feta in the salad to just 2oz. because feta is pretty potent, so I knew I could get away with using less.
- I used dried dill in place of fresh, and fresh tomatoes in place of sun dried (funny how one ingredient can be less expensive dried than fresh, but vice versa for a different ingredient).
- While I would have loved to have just reduced the amount of kalamata olives, I couldn’t find a good deal on them on this particular day, so they went on the cut list.
- Since I cut the olives, I kept the artichoke hearts. Nixing both would have deviated a little too far from that Greek salad feel I was going for.
- I kept the red onion, but vowed to make use of the leftovers either in another recipe or by pickling them.
- And lastly, I kept the Greek yogurt because that’s the cornerstone of the flavor profile, but made sure to buy one of the little cups that were on sale.
The resulting Creamy Lemon Dill Greek Pasta Salad might be a little more expensive than most pasta salads, but at $1.73 per large servings (1.5 cups each, give or take some) it’s still a bargain and is enough to make a nice light lunch.
Oh, one more thing! I know dried dill is not that common of an ingredient, so if you can’t get it or don’t want to buy it just for this recipe, oregano also goes great with these flavors. It will make a dressing very similar to the marinade for my Greek Marinated Chicken.
Creamy Lemon Dill Greek Pasta Salad
Servings 6 (about 1.5 cups each)Ingredients
CREAMY LEMON DILL DRESSING
- 1 5oz. container plain Greek yogurt ($1.00)
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise ($0.28)
- 1 clove garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 1 fresh lemon ( $0.67)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.01)
- 1/4 tsp dried dill ($0.05)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
PASTA SALAD
- 1 lb. penne ($1.29)
- 1 cup grape tomatoes ($1.25)
- 1 cucumber (about 2 cups chopped) ($1.69)
- 1 15oz. can quartered artichoke hearts ($2.59)
- 1/4 red onion ($0.34)
- 2 oz. feta ($1.12)
Instructions
- Prepare the dressing first so the flavors have time to blend. Use a zester or small-holed cheese grater to remove the zest from the lemon. In a small bowl, stir together the Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, garlic, 1 Tbsp of the lemon juice, 1/2 tsp of the lemon zest, salt, dill, and some freshly cracked pepper (about 10-15 cranks of a pepper mill). Refrigerate the dressing until ready to use.
- Cook the pasta, in lightly salted water, according to the package directions. Drain the pasta and rinse briefly with cool water to bring the temperature down. Let the pasta drain until it’s slightly dry and tacky on the surface.
- While the pasta is cooking, slice the cucumber, then cut the slices into quarter rounds. Slice the grape tomatoes in half. Finely dice the red onion. Drain the artichoke hearts, then roughly chop them. Crumble the feta cheese.
- Once the pasta is cooled and drained, Place it in a large bowl and combine with the cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, artichoke hearts, feta, and creamy lemon dill dressing. Stir to coat. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to eat.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Lemon DIll Pasta Salad – Step by Step Photos
Begin by removing the zest from one lemon. You’ll need about 1/2 tsp of the zest for the dressing, but you can keep the rest to use as a garnish.
Prepare the dressing first, so the flavors have time to infuse into the yogurt. In a small bowl, stir together one 5oz. container of Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 clove of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp of the lemon zest, 1 Tbsp of the lemon’s juice, 1/4 tsp dried dill, 1/4 tsp salt, and some freshly cracked pepper. If you can’t find a single-serving container of Greek yogurt that is exactly 5oz, no worries. That part is flexible. It seems like every brand is a different size, but anywhere between 5-7oz. will be okay.
Refrigerate the dressing until you’re ready to use it.
Cook one pound of penne pasta in lightly salted water, according to the package directions. Once cooked, drain in a colander and rinse briefly with cool water to bring the temperature down. Let the pasta drain until it’s slightly tacky or sticky on the surface. This will allow it to grip the dressing better than really wet pasta.
While the pasta is cooking, prepare the rest of the salad ingredients. Slice about 1 cup of grape tomatoes in half, cut one cucumber into quarter rounds (about 2 cups), dice 1/4 red onion, drain and roughly chop one 15oz. can of quartered artichoke hearts, and crumble 2oz. of feta.
Combine the drained pasta, the vegetables, and feta in a large bowl.
Pour the creamy lemon dill dressing on top, then stir to coat.
And you’re done! You can garnish with any extra lemon zest or a light sprinkle of dried dill.
Fast, easy, delicious, and a little more budget friendly. ;)
…and I DID end up having a bowl of this Creamy Lemon Dill Greek Pasta Salad for breakfast as I wrote this post. LOL. What can I say? The photos got to me. :)
I’m eating this right now, so delicious!! This site has taught me how to cook in these last few years. I’m always so excited when something I make tastes good 😃
I don’t know why it took me so long to make this, but I’m so glad I finally did! It was delicious. I happened to have a bunch of fresh dill on hand, so I used that instead. I didn’t have a lemon, so I just used lemon juice (no zest) and I didn’t have the artichoke hearts either – but it was still so good!
I used the dressing on my own mix of pasta and veggies. Really good. I skipped the mayo, so ok, didnt follow it exactly. But still, wasnt led astray with pure yogurt.
The dressing is excellent on fish! Like 100x better than tartar sauce. Sometimes I just make the lemon dill sauce to serve with crunchy fish fillets, though we do really like this pasta salad :)
This is a tasty recipe! My partner hates tomatoes, so I swapped them for Kalamata olives that I had leftover from making the Greek chicken sheet pan dinner recipe the other night. I also added a can of drained chick peas to bulk it up a bit so the salad would be a full meal. There’s lots of room for customization here!
This was delicious! I used fresh dill, and (as always with pasta salads) I put in all of the things to make it tasty – I had a fresh bell pepper that needed using and some ham, so threw that in along with the olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and artichoke hearts that I had. I would like to try it again with roasted peppers (piquante maybe?). Lots of ways to play with this recipe, so I will have fun in the future.
This is delicious, and so much lighter- and fresher-tasting than most creamy pasta salads using primarily mayonnaise in the dressing. I had some fresh dill so I used that instead of dried, and I had about a quarter of a jar of kalamata olives that were approaching geriatric status in the fridge so they got halved and tossed in.
Currently eating this and had to comment because it’s SO GOOD. The dressing seemed thick at first but it ended up perfect exactly as written! I love these “refrigerator salads” for road trip meals.
OMG! That is all I can say, I have made the dressing so many times, but never got around to making the pasta salad, my husband kept using it for his vegetables, so , today finally made the salad.. splurged a little, and added shrimp cut up into bite sized pieces and left out the feta and artichokes( husband doesn’t like them) Anyway Thank-you for a great alternative to bought bottled dressings
I should admit up-front that I went off-recipe, but thank you so much for sharing this! I may not have followed the instructions exactly, but I followed the spirit of the recipe and I loved the end result!
The biggest difference was I used pre-made tzatziki sauce instead of making it from scratch. Also, I used whole wheat penne because I thought it would add nice flavor (not to mention lots of fiber). And finally, I didn’t have any regular onions on hand, so I used green onions.
The resulting salad was delicious! I’ve been using tzatziki sauce in place of salad dressing for a while now since I found it at the local grocery store and I can’t believe it never crossed my mind to use it in a pasta salad. This was delightful and made for a tasty refreshing lunch, and I’ll definitely make it again!
Ok this is amazing. I could (and did) eat this dressing plain… I doubled the amount of dried dill called for and used sun dried tomatoes and highly recommend them, I think I’d use them over the artichokes if I had to pick one.
I made this today, and the flavors combined are delicious. I added way more dill because it is a favorite of mine. Thank you for an easy and delicious recipe. This will be added to my favorites.
How long can I refrigerate leftovers?
We recommend 3-5 days in your refrigerator when properly stored.
This was really good! I happened to have some kalamata olives and sun-dried tomatoes left over, so I threw those in. Omitted the artichoke because I didn’t have any and I threw in an orange bell pepper that needed to be used up. Looked gorgeous and tasted even better, thanks!
Ooh great additions and swap!
Loved this! I made it for lunches for husband and I this week, and I think it will hold up pretty well. I did make some substitutions, and they worked well for anyone else interested. In the dressing, I replaced the dill with some dried sumac, chopped parsley, and dried oregano since my husband doesn’t like dill. (I still topped my servings with a lil dill!). We also substituted bell peppers for the cucumber, because I think it holds up better over the week. I’ll probably add cucumber to mine day-of. Also added a can of rinsed garbanzo beans, but left out the red onion.
To make it more of a meal, I marinated 1.3 lbs skinless boneless chicken thighs in a marinade of some of the extra ingredients I had (~ 1/2 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 clove minced garlic, lemon zest, salt and ground pepper). Baked these off, and topped the salad servings with the diced chicken later in the day – so basically a half a thigh per serving. Along with the garbanzo beans, this made it a bit more hearty.
That’s a bunch of changes, but I thought it might give other folks ideas because the base recipe really is very customizeable!
I tried this once before and loved it. Made it again last night just for the sauce and used whatever ingredients I had in the fridge for a pasta salad. I still have about half of the dressing left; what are some other uses?
I would probably be a good spread for stuffed pitas!
I just made this recipe because I’ve found myself wanting Greek food for dinner and it’s so delicious! I skipped on the lemon zest because I did not have any tools, but I served the pasta dish over a bed of arugula and added baked chicken. New favorite lunch dish!
Not a fan of feta cheese so is there another cheese you can use.
I suppose goat cheese might work, but feta is classic for that Greek flavor.
If you want a protein but don’t like feta you could add some canned/rinsed chickpeas instead.
Thank you for this awesome recipe! I made this & the Sriracha Egg Salad for lunch today and both were amazing! I’m a vegetarian, however the rest of my family is not. In an effort to be a little more budget friendly and make something that would go well in lunches- we tried this and loved it! Thank you again!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing!! Love your blog!
I feel I should mention that fresh dill, when in season and on sale (I find it next to the lettuce) can be chopped and frozen! My grandmother used to do this all the time. Since it has very little water content it defrosts so well that you could never tell it was frozen once its mixed into a recipe.
I finely chop it and put it in a ziploc bag in the freezer and voila, fresh dill forever!
Great tip! Thanks!!
Do you think this might be good with some grilled chicken or ground lamb? Just to bulk it out enough to serve as a dinner all on its own.
I think grilled chicken would be fantastic with this.
Made this one for my boyfriends weekend long soccer tournament. Everyone else was jealous! It was super delicious!! I can’t wait to make it again. Next time I’ll probably just use those sundried tomatoes you get in the bag from trader joes. They are way cheaper than grape tomatoes here.
Maybe it’s just me, but I found this 1. served many more than six people (8-10) and 2. the ratio for pasta to sauce was off. Next time, I’m going to keep the sauce as-is, but instead make only 1/2 pound of pasta. The pasta really absorbed a lot of the sauce so I had to put a bunch more on. I think with 1/2 as much noodles, it will be perfect and keep better.
Sooooo good! Used the dressing on pasta, also with salmon and again as a veggie dip! Was great with everything!
Made this on a busy weekend with only what I had available in my kitchen and still it turned out quiet good and satisfying for 2 very hungry people. Used plain 3,5% yogurt instead of greek and regular tomatoes instead of cherry. frozen dill instead of fresh and it still kind of worked. next time, using greek yogurt for sure! :) thanks for the recipes!
This was really great. When I saw the titel I was hooked and made this, in a vegan version though.
I use soy joghurt and dried tomatoes, but skipped the feta and mayo.
We 2 loved it and ate what I had planned as 4 portions all in one lunch :D Oh well, just gotta make another batch!
Thanks Beth
Yum! I have everything in the house to make this except the Greek yogurt (which I will get tomorrow @ Sprouts). I know what I’m having for lunch this week!
Made this last night for dinner. It was soooo good and easy to throw together. Thanks for another great recipe:)
At my store, we have an olive bar next to the salad bar. I think for this recipe something like that would be perfect. I can get a good sized chunk of feta for about $2.50 here and those single serve greek yogurt cups are always on sale for under a buck. I think this could be an affordable meal for me even splurging on the sundried tomatoes, yum!
Great inspiration! If you oven dried the halved tomatoes, they’d be much more like sun-dried in intense flavor without being any more expensive. Smitten Kitchen and Food in Jars both have the technique.
Personally, I don’t think of artichoke hearts with Greek salad, so I’d have ditched those in favor of olives, but I also happen to have a cheap source for olives (Middle Easter corner store). And I always have the giant tub of 365 brand feta in my fridge since it lasts forever and it’s cheaper than those little grocery store blocks for like $1 an ounce.
How long will this last in the fridge? Just wondering if I can add it to my meal prep Sunday list or if it’s more of a treat during the week.
It’s been in my fridge for four days now and I just had another bowl for breakfast (lol), it was still awesome! :)
Hi, Beth! I love your blog! No one in my house will eat mayonnaise, so I wondering whether you have any suggestions about what to use to mimic the sweetness. Thanks!
My mayo doesn’t have any sweetness (not like Miracle Whip), so I don’t think you’ll be lacking there, but it does have a richness that I don’t think the Greek Yogurt has. I would at the very least make sure you don’t use a non-fat Greek Yogurt. Try to get a 2% fat or higher if you can.
This looks very much like a recipe I make for salad, only with the artichokes and olives replaced by fennel. Funny :)
This was delicious! I made it last night and can hardly stop eating it. Thanks so much. Your recipes are always great!
Hi Beth, Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe. I have the same question as Rebecca. Also, I do not like mayo. Can I use more greek yogurt or any sub for that? Thanks!
You can use more Greek yogurt, but I would suggest making sure it’s not fat free Greek yogurt so that you get some more richness.
Oh wow! I can’t wait to try this. I’m going to do a little of my own substituting though. I love using my Young Living Vitality oils instead of herbs. The flavors are amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
You’re awesome. I love the idea of this recipe and I will be trying it out.
I discovered Budget Bytes about a month ago and you have reawakened my love of cooking! We recently scaled back in work so I’m shopping sales at the grocery store and pretty much use just your site to find recipes for which meat is on sale each week, along with a couple of your yummy vegetarian meals each week. Please keep up your amazing work!!
Thank you!!
Whole Foods isn’t usually considered a bargain place to shop, but you can buy herbs and spices in their bulk department way cheaper than in supermarket bottles. Small amounts only cost pennies. Some other stores have good bulk depts, too–I stock up on bulk seasonings at Central Market when I go to Austin. And while this recipe looks delicious as is, I will have to add some Kalamata olives–my supermarket has an olive bar that is quite expensive, but also includes lighly chopped Kalamatas on the salad bar which is $4 less per lb ($5.99). There are a few other bargain items there, including crumbled Feta and Blue cheese, so I sometimes just combine a few items which will go together in a recipe anyway
Do they have WINCO by you? I know they have them in Utah and AZ. They have bulk dried herbs and spices as well very good deals on bulk foods. I used to get my herbs and spices, dried beans, and pasta there very cheap.
Hey Beth, can I replace the artichoke hearts to another ingredient? Can you me an example, please :)
Thank you
You can do kalamata olives or roasted red peppers, or just leave them out. :)
Or, for those that have gardens, fresh dill and cherry tomatoes and cucumbers are easy to grow…so this is a great late summer recipe for those!
I bet mint instead of dill would be good, too.
I just bought dried dill at Big Lots for a dollar! Totally going to use it for a pasta salad, yum.
This looks delicious!! Would the recipe still work if I swapped out the pasta for chick peas?
I bet that would be delicious! :)
Yum! I love the simple substitutions and omissions to make it more friendly for the grocery budget :)
I bet green olives, with or without pimento, would be a good addition, and possibly a substitute for the artichoke hearts and kalamata. I usually have some green olives in the refrigerator. They last a lot longer than black olives.