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! 😜
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
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. :)
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.