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If you know love me, you know I love a good pasta dish. When the weather starts warming up it becomes pasta salad season and I am here for it! This Shrimp Pasta Salad is protein-packed, healthy, and so satisfying. It’s the perfect salad to make up for lunches for the week, a summer BBQ, or dinner, and you can customize it to what you like.
Why You’ll Love Shrimp Pasta Salad
- Quick: This Shrimp Pasta Salad will take less than 30 minutes to make up
- Healthy: This salad is full of healthy, hearty ingredients that are good for you
- Versatile: The best part about a pasta salad is you can add or remove whatever you like to it and it can be a great way to use up things in your fridge
Ingredients
Shrimp – Shrimp is high in vitamins and minerals, and a great source of protein. It also contains omega-3 fatty acids which is good for your heart and brain health
Maria Koutsogiannia
Maria is the creator of FoodByMaria and your go-to Greek food expert for cozy, flavor-packed recipes. Inspired by her Mediterranean roots, she brings traditional Greek flavors, feel-good ingredients, and a whole lot of joy to everyday cooking.
Goat Cheese – Goat cheese is so creamy and delicious. It’s made with goat’s milk and is easier to digest and lower in calories than regular cheese
How to Make Shrimp Pasta Salad
- Cook the pasta according to package directions, making sure to cook to al dente since the pasta will continue to soften once it’s mixed with the dressing. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and set aside.
- To a small bowl or in a jar, add the dressing ingredients and whisk together or shake it. Set aside.
- Add defrosted shrimp to a bowl with 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper and 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Stir and set aside. Turn a medium-sized frying pan to medium-high heat. Once warm, turn to medium heat and add shrimp and cook 2-3 minutes per side until cooked through. Remove the shrimp and set aside. Deglaze the pan with juice of half a lemon and scrape the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan. Then add the pasta to the pan and cook for a few 2-3 minutes to coat with the lemon juice. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl toss gently together all of the salad ingredients and pasta with the dressing. Add the shrimp and gently toss. Serve immediately or store in the fridge for up to 3 days until ready to enjoy.
Tips and Tricks
- Meal Prep: Meal prep this Shrimp Pasta Salad for lunches for the week
- Beans: Swap the cannellini beans with butter beans, navy beans, or whatever beans you prefer
- Protein: Swap the shrimp for chicken or leave out the meat/seafood completely if you prefer
Best served with
How to Store Leftovers
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. The longer the dressing marinades on the noodles, the more it bursts with flavor.
Common Questions
It entirely depends on the veggies you put in the pasta. The noodles themselves don’t get soggy, however, something like a cucumber or onions may decrease in crunchiness the longer it sits in the dressing. For salads like that, you can leave the dressing on the side.
You want a noodle that will absorb the most sauce. A penne or fussilli are great options.
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Ingredients
For the shrimp
- 1 lb defrosted shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp garlic powder
For the salad
For the dressing
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ½ tsp chili paste or chili flakes
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- juice of one lemon
- ½ tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed
- 1 tbsp liquid honey
Instructions
Start Cooking- Cook the pasta according to package directions, making sure to cook to al dente since the pasta will continue to soften once it’s mixed with the dressing. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and set aside.
- To a small bowl or in a jar, add the dressing ingredients and whisk together or shake it. Set aside.
- Add defrosted shrimp to a bowl with 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper and 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Stir and set aside. Turn a medium-sized frying pan to medium-high heat. Once warm, turn to medium heat and add shrimp and cook 2-3 minutes per side until cooked through. Remove the shrimp and set aside.Deglaze the pan with juice of half a lemon and scrape the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan. Then add the pasta to the pan and cook for a few 2-3 minutes to coat with the lemon juice. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl toss gently together all of the salad ingredients and pasta with the dressing. Add the shrimp and gently toss. Serve immediately or store in the fridge for up to 3 days until ready to enjoy.
Notes
- If you can’t find cannellini beans, butter beans or navy beans would be delicious substitutes.
- This recipe would be delicious as a meal prep salad!
- If you don’t enjoy shrimp, substitute with 2-3 cups chopped cooked chicken.
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My Husband and I both thought this was delicious! It’s simple to make and has a ton of flavor. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much Suzanne!!!
PHENOMENAL, as usual with any of Maria’s recipes! I modified slightly with not including a couple of ingredients, and it was still 10/10! Can’t wait to make it again 🙂
This makes me so happy, thank you hunnie!!
This is my first recipe I’ve made from your site and YUM!!! So flavorful and bright! I used a chickpea rotini for the additional protein/fiber. Gotta go and look for the next recipe I’m making!
YES QUEEN!!! So happy for you! I am so glad you loved the recipe.
Multiple times while eating my portion of this dish I exclaimed “oh my god” or “mmm jfc.” This was absolutely delicious. We added the minced shallot to the dressing so it softened a little since we’re not raw onion texture people and it was SO good. Recommending this to every person I know.
This makes me so happy, thank you sweetie!
Hi Maria, I can’t eat shrimp.
What would be a good protein substitute ??
Chicken!
This one is one of my favs! I made it for my family and EVERYONE LOVED it! Very rare for my family! 100/10 meal. A PERFECT summer pasta salad too! So light but filling!
Thank you so much for the love sweetie!!!
This looks delicious. Making it this week! Where did you get your big beautiful serving bowl? I love that it’s wide but shallow.
This is from Farmhouse Pottery!!!
This is a perfect pasta salad. I love beans with pasta, and the other ingredients are all wonderful.
http://www.chefmimiblog.com
Thank you soo much!!!!!