Jamie Oliver’s Easy Pasta Salad Has a Clever Time-Saving Trick

For midweek lunches, I love to prepare a dish at the beginning of the week that’ll last me a few days, and pasta salad is one of my favorite warm weather options. I’ll throw one together that’s packed with vegetables and protein so it’s a meal all on its own, ready to be scooped into a bowl or packed up into a container, depending on the day’s plans. 

Jamie Oliver’s recipe for Quick and Easy Pasta Salad caught my eye for this week’s one-bowl lunch special. It checks all of the boxes for me— a whole cucumber, over a pound of tomatoes, and a bag of spinach make their way into the bowl, so my vegetables are covered.

As for the protein, a generous amount of feta gets sprinkled on top. But maybe best of all, it truly lives up to its “quick and easy” name. There’s zero chopping required, and the whole thing comes together in the amount of time it takes to cook the pasta. 

Why I Love Jamie Oliver’s Pasta Salad

How, might you ask, do a cucumber and a bunch of tomatoes jump into the salad bowl without meeting a knife? Well, instead of slicing and dicing, you’ll use a grater. Shredding the vegetables results in lots of extra juices that you’ll drain away, to ensure the salad doesn’t become too watered down.

It’s easy to hold the bowl over your sink, using one hand to squeeze out the liquid and hold the veggies back while you tilt the liquid down the drain. You can also pour the juice into a glass for a nutrient-packed little shot, which is what I did.

As I was mixing the salad together and tasting for seasoning, I deviated from Jamie’s recipe just a little bit. He includes just a single tablespoon of olive oil, but it needs at least one more tablespoon to round out all the flavors. Jamie doesn’t tell you how much salt to add, but I felt it needed about a teaspoon (I used Diamond kosher). Don’t be shy with it, since there’s really zero seasoning in this recipe and the only other salt comes from the feta.

How to Jazz Up This Pasta Salad

I did feel that this salad could use a little more pizazz. It’s served on a bed of undressed baby spinach, which makes for a slightly bland mouthful. Next time I’d just toss the baby spinach in with the other ingredients before serving, or else drizzle the leaves with a little bit of oil, salt, and pepper before layering the pasta on top.

I might also grate in some onion with the cucumber and tomatoes, or microplane a clove of garlic, something to punch up the flavor, as well. And in hindsight, a teaspoon of vinegar wasn’t nearly enough. More oil! More vinegar! More flavor! 

Making this salad has inspired me to think about how I can get away without pulling out my knife and chopping board for other meals. Grating, crumbling, and tearing are all such tactilely pleasing ways to break up your ingredients, and there’s less clean-up, too. Thanks, Jamie, for introducing a different mode of cooking into my routine!