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35 of Our Very Best Pasta Salad Recipes (and Other Cooling Noodle Dishes)

By The Epicurious Editors

We've all had disappointing pasta salads, but when you start with the right recipe, there's nothing better than a big bowl of summer noodles. Whether you're looking for a make-ahead pasta salad recipe served at room temp or truly cool noodle dishes to help you beat the heat, we have options for you, including romesco-tossed pasta, noodle bowls bursting with in-season veg, refreshing sōmen, springy sesame noodles, soba salads, chilled ramen, and more.

Easy Pasta Salad

This easy pasta salad recipe practically makes itself: Toss the veg with vinegar and oil, and the juices are pulled out into a concentrated summery dressing.

Pasta Salad With Corn and Tomatoes

Toss sautéed fresh corn kernels with chopped plum tomatoes, penne pasta, Parmesan, and a garlic-basil dressing—and remember, when working with such great ingredients, you really don't need to do much.

Summertime Sōmen Noodles

It doesn't get cooler than this: Serve these classic Japanese noodles in a pool of ice water. Dip the noodles in a sauce made with dashi, rice vinegar, and soy sauce, or fill a bowl with noodles and scatter the sauce on top.

Grilled Ratatouille Pasta Salad

Grill eggplant and zucchini, then toss with hot pasta, fresh tomatoes, herbs, and mozzarella for an almost instant ratatouille-inspired pasta dinner.

Cold Sesame Noodles With Broccoli and Kale

If you love sesame seeds, you'll love this noodle dish, which tossed with loads of them, plus high-heat roasted broccoli, torn Tuscan kale, and refreshing mint. 

Romesco Pasta Salad With Basil and Parmesan

The reason this salad holds up so well at room temperature is because you dress it twice. It absorbs the first round of dressing completely, the second addition keeps it glossy, and a fistful of walnuts and breadcrumbs means there's always something to bite into.

Pasta Salad with Spring Vegetables and Tomatoes

Ginger-roasted cherry tomatoes, skillet-charred snap peas and scallions, and plenty of fresh basil and mint make this light take on pasta salad eminently craveable.

Chilled Ramen With Soy Milk and Chili Oil

This summer dish is a wow . Chilled noodles meet crunchy vegetables that are tossed in a fragrant Sichuan chili paste; it's all served in a cool and flavorful miso, ginger, and soymilk broth.

Lemony Pasta With Cauliflower, Chickpeas, and Arugula

A vegetarian pasta dinner that's full of so much fresh arugula, it almost feels like eating a salad. In a good way.

Liu Shaokun's Spicy Buckwheat Noodles With Chicken

This spicy noodle dish tossed with poached chicken, chili oil, soy sauce, and scallions, came from Chengdu chef Liu Shaokun.

Green Tea Noodles with Gochujang Dipping Sauce

In this recipe from chef Edward Lee , the refreshing, slightly nutty flavor of green tea noodles pairs with crisp spears of cucumber and a shower of Thai basil leaves, with a spicy dipping sauce for each bite.

Orzo With Beets, Olives, Feta, and Soft-Boiled Eggs

In this gorgeous pasta salad, orzo is tossed with feta, olives, and matchstick golden beets for an easy dinner that's best served at room temperature.

Spicy Tahini and Avocado Soba

Soba + tahini + avocado? Enough said. This full- meal noodle salad satisfies every craving.

Israeli Couscous Tabbouleh

Couscous is pasta, so it should be treated the same. Our couscous hack: rinse immediately after cooking—this will halt the cooking and prevent the couscous from sticking together.

One-Pot Spring Pasta With Smoked Salmon

This one-pot pasta dinner easily goes cold: just sub out the noodles for any short pasta, then chill after adding the vegetables and sauce ingredients. Toss with extra sour cream and dress with salmon just before serving.

Heirloom Tomato Herb Pasta Salad

Introducing the chill-free pasta salad, the mixed summer side you can slap together at the absolute last minute. Chop whatever herbs you have on hand with heirloom tomatoes and créme fraîche. Serve room temp: no chilling required.

Minestrone Salad

This minestrone mix is a soup and salad in one. Use pesto to bring some brightness to the pasta, potatoes, and beans in this delightful barbecue side.

Orzo, Green Bean, and Fennel Salad with Dill Pesto

In this Mediterranean dill and fennel-filled salad, orzo provides the base for all of the refreshing flavors.

Summer Squash and Basil Pasta

Sautéed squash eventually gets jammy and saucy if cooked long enough, making it ideal for coating big pieces of pasta. We like this dish just as much cold the next day, but hold the basil until you're ready to serve.

Cold Udon with Grapefruit Ponzu

Cold noodles tossed in a bright citrus and chile sauce are the ideal canvas for jammy roasted tomatoes in this light summer dish.

Lemon-Pistachio Israeli Couscous

When you're making couscous dishes and need a hit of citrus, a spicy DIY preserved lemon will do the trick if you don't have preserved lemons on hand.

Cold Soba Noodles With Miso and Smoked Tofu

The dressing in the soba salad—a combination of soy sauce, mirin, and miso—brings a little bit of everything, while smoked tofu provides the hearty topping in a salad that makes a great lunch or a cool-off dinner.

Noodle Salad With Chicken and Chile-Scallion Oil

Pasta salad isn't just cold overcooked noodles and watery vegetables. This wheat noodle salad brings on the heat with a scallion-chili oil, with plenty of crunch from radishes.

Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Green Olivada

For a funky, umami kick, Olivada is your pocket pasta salad condiment. Make your own using olives, anchovies, garlic, and olive oil

Pasta Salad with Melon, Pancetta, and Ricotta Salata

A fruit and pasta salad combo sounds like a train wreck, right? With pancetta, the melon and orecchiette are like a natural pairing.

Spinach and Orzo Salad

Delicately shaped orzo shows off the spinach and crisp shallot in this easy pasta salad recipe. Pack in the flavor with pitted Kalamata olives, feta, red onion, and fresh mint.

Thai Chicken and Shrimp Noodle Salad

Lots of fresh herbs and plenty of lime juice make this summery noodle salad super refreshing.

Summer Succotash Pasta Salad

All the flavors you love in a classic summer succotash, translated into deliciously portable pasta salad.

Yellowtail Poke with Glass Noodles and Pear

The green pear adds crunch and sweet-tart notes to this raw yellowtail preparation. A Granny Smith apple, Asian pear, or pineapple would do the same.

Vermicelli Noodles With Lemongrass Pork Meatballs

Refreshingly cold noodles, Vietnamese-spiced pork meatballs, and an array of toppings like fried shallots and crushed peanuts ensure this make-ahead dinner is everyone's favorite.

Rice Vermicelli with Chicken and Nuoc Cham

The mix of spicy, sweet, sour, and salty flavors here makes for a superlative summer dinner.

Cold Soba Noodles with Jammy Eggs and Peas

Gather all the green things: shelled peas, pea shoots, and tatsoi or watercress, and pair with the bright flavors of kimchi juice, fresh ginger, and rice vinegar in this cold noodle salad.

Weeknight Steak and Rice Noodle Salad

Feel free to swap out the steak here with a chicken cutlet or thin-cut pork chop.

Chilled Soba with Tofu and Sugar Snap Peas

Creamy silken tofu makes this soba salad especially satisfying.

Salad Pasta

Okay, okay, this last one on our list of pasta salad recipes is actually not pasta salad. It’s salad pasta. A whole salad’s worth of greens, folded into pasta to make a complete dinner in one bowl. The chickpea pasta adds protein and the garlicky anchovy sauce complements it especially well.

Kendra Vaculin

Noah Kaufman

Anna Stockwell

6 Gourmet Salad Recipes by Michelin-Star Chefs

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Our Michelin Chefs Cook series always brings you the best videos of top chefs working their craft. Whether it’s a killer steak , better-for-you takeout foods , or warming soups and stews , there are always new tricks that you can learn from our Michelin-starred chef recipe collections. 

Here we have scoured the internet for some of the best gourmet salad recipes from top chefs. Salad is great comfort food that can come together in a dash, but it's easy to get into a rut. Stop making ordinary salads and toss together a show stopper that everyone will want to dig into. Mix plant-based ingredients with meat, poultry or fish and you can always lean on the classics like potato salad, corn salad and caprese but adding your own twist.

Don't neglect your side salad, with these recipes form Michelin star chefs you can elevate your side dish to something that is just as appreciated as your main course. Green salads come alive with the addition of cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, toasted almonds, bell peppers goat cheese, red onions and of course high-quality olive oil. Pomegranate molasses and figs can really add excitement to your salad.

6 salad recipes by Michelin-starred chefs

1. jean-georges vongerichten's shrimp salad.

For a light starter to any meal, try the acclaimed chef’s steamed shrimp salad with two dressings. We love this salad for its simplicity - just fresh shrimps and mixed greens come together with two different types of luxurious sauces.

• Start by peeling and deveining the shrimp then split them in two, keeping the tails attached.
• Place on a buttered dish, season and grill for about 1 and a half to 2 minutes.
• Plate up with seasonal salad greens, sliced avocado, enoki mushrooms and diced tomatoes.
• Drizzle with the first dressing (1 part soy sauce, 1 part lemon juice, 1 part truffle juice and 3 parts olive oil).
• Add chopped chives then the second dressing, a reduction of shallots, Champagne vinegar, cream and butter.

2. Gordon Ramsay’s spicy beef salad

Gordon Ramsay's salad recipe makes use of a great piece of beef and turns it into an Asian-inspired salad full of fresh cherry tomatoes, mixed greens, and herbs. The salad dressing is bright and spicy, made with fiery red chilies, fish sauce, lime juice, and mint. The entire salad is topped off with toasted peanuts.

• Start by seasoning the steak generously and sear in a hot pan with olive oil. Turn once and cook for 2 and a half minutes on each side. Allow to rest.
• Make the spicy dressing: deseed a chilli and chop, crush in a pestle and mortar with a peeled garlic clove and salt. Add two teaspoons of palm sugar, fish sauce and fresh lime. Mix until the sugar dissolves.
• Prepare the vegetables and coat in the dressing.
• Plate up with the sliced, rested steak. Top with crushed, toasted peanuts.

3. Daniel Boulud’s favourite salad recipes

Chef Daniel Boulud creates two super easy summer salads - one with a medley of tomatoes, another with peaches and Parmesan cheese. If you're used to making tomato caprese salad, try the starred-chef's version with labneh instead.

Labneh, a Middle Eastern fresh cheese, is easily made at home - simply wrap a cheesecloth over some greek yoghurt and hang over a bowl in the fridge overnight. The result will be a fresh cheese with a cream cheese-like consistency that can take on any flavour you wish in a dish.

• For the tomato salad: cut heirloom and cherry tomatoes into wedges and season. Make a dressing with tomato water, lemon juice, garlic, honey, sumac, olive oil, salt and pepper. Plate up with drained labneh, sliced avocado and shallots before garnishing with basil and a pinch of sumac.
• For the second summery salad: use a leafy green base with herbs and add flaked pecorino cheese to cooked quinoa and sliced peach. Sprinkle with toasted almonds and chopped black olives. Drizzle with a Champagne vinaigrette or balsamic dressing.

2 Caesar salads: Thomas Keller vs Massimo Bottura

4. Thomas Keller Caesar salad

If you are after a good old caesar, Thomas Keller's salad is where it’s at. In this video for the New York Times , the chef goes through each and every element of this American classic, from what olive oil to use, why you use anchovies in the dressing, to what type of salt you should be sprinkling on your salads. This is the guide to help you make the best Caesar salad of your life.

• Make the anchovy paste.
• Grate the parmesan cheese onto a baking sheet to make a parmesan crisp.
• Add a garlic clove and coarse salt to the anchovy paste to perfume the bowl with garlic.
• Add a raw egg and blend until it coats the back of the spoon. Gradually add olive oil to emulsify.
• Add the torn salad leaves to the emulsified dressing and another pinch of salt. Grind black pepper over the top and squeeze lemon juice.
• Grate more fresh parmesan into the bowl and add broken pieces of the parmesan crisp. Toss all the ingredients together.
• Plate up and garnish with more grated parmesan and single brown anchovies.

5. Massimo Bottura’s Caesar salad

Called Modena to Dubai, Bottura’s salad shares a few elements in common with the Caesar salad, but is something entirely new that only Bottura can create. Ingredients like Parmesan cheese mingle with balsamic vinegar from Bottura’s hometown of Modena, as well as ingredients unique to the Middle East.

While we don't recommend it, you may (if you absolutely must) substitute the balsamic vinegar with red wine vinegar if you can't find it, and go for a good mix of baby greens and edible flowers for visual effect.

• Arrange the base leaves and herbs delicately. Grate a boiled egg yolk before adding dots of extra virgin olive oil and caesar salad sauce.
• Drizzle in balsamic vinegar and dot with lemon gel.
• Add thin slices of crunchy bread and parmesan crisps to garnish.

6. Enrico Crippa’s 21-31-41 salad recipe

This is one of Crippa’s most famous recipes, partly because it uses a whopping 40+ ingredients for a salad that is kept entirely raw. His process of picking all the ingredients, such as succulents, greens, roots, and flowers from his two gardens makes for fascinating viewing, and the resulting salad is a symphony of raw flavours. 

You won't find any feta cheese or red onions here. Rather, the entire dish is about tasting the incredible diversity in flavours and textures of greens - some familiar, some not so much. Use it as a guide to creating your own composition of fresh vegetables.

• Prepare the fresh salad leaves and herbs.
• Assemble the dish by combining the leaves, add a pinch of salt, sesame needs and nori seaweed.
• Add candied ginger water, julienned pieces of candied ginger, some drops of Barolo wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Stir together carefully.
• Add aromatic herbs and assemble. Top with hazelnuts.
• Garnish with edible flowers to add colour.

Salads provide an endless source of creativity in the kitchen. To trigger your tastebuds and try out some new flavour combinations, check out these mouth-watering salad recipes: pea and asparagus with goat’s cheese, an Italian white bean salad, a Persian eggplant and tomato salad, and a vegan cauliflower and potato salad.

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Preparation

• 1 Cook pasta as per packet instructions and set aside to cool.
• 2 Add pasta and all other salad ingredients except the feta cheese to a large serving bowl and mix well to combine.
• 3 Serve with crumbled feta on top and an extra sprinkle of Lightly Dried Parsley.

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Grilled calamari salad with yoghurt and ouzo dressing

This Greek grilled calamari salad recipe will become a staple on any entertainer’s table. Primed for alfresco feasts and large family gatherings, this grilled calamari salad really shines thanks to its punchy yoghurt and ouzo dressing.

Looking for more calamari recipes ?

Ingredients

To marinate calamari, halve hood lengthways. Place oil and oregano in a small bowl, season to taste and stir to combine. Place calamari hoods and tentacles in a large bowl with half oregano mixture, season to taste and toss gently to coat. Marinate for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, for yoghurt and ouzo dressing, combine ingredients in a small bowl, season to taste and stir to combine.

Combine tomato and olives in a bowl with remaining oregano mixture. Season to taste and toss to combine.

Preheat a lightly greased barbecue or char-grill pan to high. Thread calamari hoods in an “S” shape onto skewers. Cook skewers and tentacles, turning frequently, until charred and cooked (3-5 minutes).

Place tomato salad on a serving platter, arrange calamari on top and scatter with basil. Drizzle with yoghurt and ouzo dressing. Serve with pita bread and pickled peppers, on the side.

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