Creamy Arugula Olive Pasta Salad
This creamy arugula pasta salad is accented with piquant kalamata olives and plenty of hard boiled eggs to make it a satisfying side salad or light entree.
Ingredients
- 16 oz fusilli or other short pasta shape
- 9 large eggs, hard boiled/steamed, peeled, & chopped
- 1 cup celery hearts with leaves, washed & small diced
- ¾ cup creamy garlic parmesan salad dressing (substitute creamy dill, ranch, green goddess, or creamy house dressing)
- 4 oz arugula, washed and finely chopped 2 ½ cups, approx.
- ⅓ cup kalamata olives, pitted & chopped
- ¼ cup ham, diced (optional, omit for vegetarian/kosher option)
- 3 tbsp apple cider or white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp flaky or kosher salt (or to taste, or sub less regular salt)
- 1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground (or to taste)
Instructions
Prep Ingredients
- Wash and chop all vegetables. If you have baby arugula, you can leave it whole, or you can chop it slightly. More mature arugula should be picked over to remove any coarse stems and roughly chopped into bite sized pieces.
- If you are making homemade creamy salad dressing or dressing from a seasoning packet, mix that now and refrigerate to allow the flavors to come together.
Cook the eggs
- Boil or steam the eggs. I like to steam the washed eggs over the boiling pasta pot, as they cook in 9 to 11 minutes, which is the same as most pasta shapes suitable for this recipe.
- To steam eggs: Place the eggs in the steamer basket over the pot of pasta water as it comes up to a boil, and cook for 9 minutes for still slightly jammy eggs or up to 11 for fully done eggs. If you don't place the eggs over the pot of water to gently preheat as the water heats up, they will take longer to cook, so adjust steaming time accordingly if necessary.
- Cook pasta in rapidly boiling salted water according to package directions. Test at the minimum recommended time and do not overcook the pasta or it will get soggy in the dressing.
- Drain and shock the pasta with cold water to stop the cooking, and drain again.
- Peel the eggs, rinsing them to remove any bits of shell, roughly chop them, and set aside.
Assemble the salad
- Fold together all ingredients, tossing well until everything is well combined and evenly coated in the dressing.
- I like to add the eggs towards the end so that they stay together, but you can add them with the rest of the ingredients if you prefer.
- Chill the salad at least one hour before serving if possible so that the flavors can come together. This is even better the second day.
Nutrition
Calories: 295kcalCarbohydrates: 30gProtein: 11gFat: 14gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 6gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 147mgSodium: 523mgPotassium: 207mgFiber: 2gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 478IUVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 55mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
