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. :)
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! :)