A pasta bar is a great idea whenever you have a group of people over. One of the reasons I love the change of seasons is that I rotate some of our meal staples during different seasons. This works so well with seasonal produce! I often do this for family meals too. When the kids choose their own ingredients to make meals, they tend to eat them! It becomes the best pasta salad ever!
I love salads with fresh ingredients in them! If you are looking for a fresh and flavorful pasta salad already put together, try this Caprese Pasta Salad with fresh tomato and basil. Or, make this Dill Pickle Pasta Salad for those dill pickle lovers in your life.
Table of contents
Pasta Bar ideas
Cold pasta salads are wonderful when you are grilling out. And this one, everyone can get exactly what they want! There is quite a bit of work with the preparations. However, they can be done the day before or even a couple of days before the meal.
A pasta bar is a wonderful summer meal or side. Sometimes I'll just prepare a pasta station in the winter because it looks and tastes great to have fresh foods in the winter. It's your choice to serve this as a main meal or as a side.
Why I love serving this!
This is great to serve for Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day celebrations. Or any 'just because' or family celebrations. It is also nice having this during seasons other than summer. Anytime you have a group of people and need to serve a meal, this does not disappoint!
Everyone can choose their favorite foods or eat according to their own eating preferences/food diets. So many people are eating gluten-free or whole wheat, so provide a selection of pastas for guests allowing them to accommodate their dietary choices. If you know your guests strongly prefer a certain eating plan, provide more of those foods.
This easy pasta salad bar is fantastic because it gives vegetarians and vegans a delicious and flavorful variety to their meals. They aren't stuck with only the sides!
This is a great way to clean out the odds and ends from your fridge that you can't quite make a dish with. Serve it prepped and in nice containers and nothing will go to waste!
This can also be a frugal (cheap) since pasta is inexpensive and you can use up foods that might go to waste.
Ingredient Planning Tip
Think about what foods your guests would enjoy. Do they like Italian flavors? Are they picky eaters (often kids) and like simple foods? Do you have eating preferences that you are trying to incorporate? Let me show just a few examples/themes of some pasta and pasta bar toppings.
Italian Spagetti Salad
It doesn't get more Italian than serving Spagetti for an Italian pasta salad. Flavorful toppings like tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, feta and some delicious Italian dressing make for a salad lover's feast!
Greek/Mediteranian Style Pasta Salad
Have a Greek-type dressing (think lemon and oregano) available and lots of cucumber, olives, and feta for a delicious, flavorful salad combination. I usually use a spiral-type pasta, so the focus is less on the pasta and more on the fresh toppings.
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Kids Pasta Bowl
Many kids go through a picky eating stage. I recommend keeping toppings that are simple, recognizable by kids and colorful. Pasta with cheddar cheese and broccoli with a simple dressing (or no dressing) always went over well with my picky eater guests.
Ingredients:
Let me help you with choosing your ingredients!
These are all topping suggestions and you can choose what you would like to offer. I broke the ingredient suggestions down by type with some quantity recommendations.
Pasta
I usually offer two types of pasta when there is a crowd. Choose your favorites or select what works for your guests' food preferences. A spaghetti-type pasta is often quite popular when people DIY a pasta salad. Of course, traditional macaroni-style pasta is always good to serve.
Here are a few pasta type ideas to serve.
- Macaroni
- Spagetti
- Rotini
- A whole wheat option
- A Gluten-free option
- Small cheese tortellini
Protein
If the pasta salad is a side dish, I usually only offer hardboiled eggs, and a cheese or two. If it's a main meal, shrimp, cut-up chicken, or steak are great options.
- Grilled Shrimp
- Chicken (cut up grilled or rotisserie works great)
- Sliced or quartered hardboiled eggs
- Pepperoni bites
- chunked or shredded cheese (cheddar, mozzarella)
- Flavorful cheeses like feta or grated parmesan.
Fresh Vegetables
You can have so much fun with appetizing-looking colors! Use what you have, what is in season or what you are growing in your garden! To make eating easy, try to cut or cube your veggies so they are of similar size.
- Tomatoes - cherry tomatoes or cut up full-sized tomatoes
- Carrots - sliced or shredded
- Onions - red onions add a pretty flavor
- Peppers - cut up
- Radishes
- Asparagus - steamed to crisp-tender, cooled and cut into pieces
- Corn
Canned or Preserved Veggies and beans
Bean are a nice vegan and vegetarian protein option.
- Black Beans
- Chickpeas
- Corn - canned
- Olives - sliced or whole kalamata olives (without seeds!)
Salad Dressings and Other Toppings
Added flavorings! Use a store-bought salad dressings or one you've made yourself. I usually have two. Any more and people have decision paralysis.
I like serving dressings in a lidded jar so folks can shake up the dressing.
Italian Dressing
Greek Dressing
Fresh basil
It is also nice to offer a fresh chopped herb for a final flavor addition and a pretty color topping.
Fresh parsley
Fresh green onions
Fresh chives.
- Italian Dressing
- Greek Dressing
- Ranch Dressing (Favorite with Kids)
- Cut up fresh basil
- Fresh parsley
- fresh green onions
- fresh chives
How to serve
I usually end up putting all my soup and cereal bowls out. People can choose the size of salad they'd like. Larger bowls are great when this is a main meal and will allow people to toss thier salad.
HINT - cook and cool pasta the evening before. It makes serving this meal so much easier!
Cook pasta according to package directions. Most noodle/pasta packages provide instructions to prepare pasta to an al dente stage (firmer). You do NOT want to overcook the pasta since it is the base for this salad.
Instructions
Decide on the toppings you would like. I have provided some suggestions above. But, the sky is the limit! Purchase a day or two ahead of time.
It's a great idea to prep your veggies the night before too! That way, this is easy to serve, and you don't stress during the day you are serving this.
Prepare and cool your pasta. I recommend doing this the night before! I like using elbow macaroni type pasta for this. But, use what you have! The most important thing is, do not overcook. After you have cooked it, drain it and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Place in a large bowl, add some salad dressing or some olive oil, and gently mix to gently coat the pasta. This will prevent your pasta from sticking as it cools. To cool faster, place in the fridge.
When serving themselves, guests should add more dressing.
Kids can easily enjoy this with some cubed or shredded cheese for protein. If it's just your family, cut up string cheese. Just make sure there are a few veggies that they like. And tell them the rules - they can have cheese cubes, and they need to add a vegetable (or two).
Everyone can find something they like! And this is not an expensive option. Look in your fridge and start from there : )
Other Delicious Salad Ideas
Pasta Salad Bar
Ingredients
- Please note that I am offering quite a few selections for your salad bar. Choose just a few of your favorites and let your family and friends put together their own pasta salad!
Pasta
- I usually offer two types of pasta when there is a crowd. Choose your favorites or select what works for the food preferences of your guests.
- Macaroni elbow
- Rotini
- Whole wheat
- Gluten free
- Small cheese tortellini
Protein
- If the pasta salad is a side dish I usually only offer eggs and a cheese or two as the protein selection. If it's a main meal, shrimp, cut up chicken or steak are great options.
- Grilled shrimp
- Cut up grilled chicken rotisserie works great as a time saver or in the winter
- sliced or quartered hard-boiled eggs
- Pepperoni bites my kids loved those
Cheeses
- Feta
- Cubed cheddar
- Mozzarella fresh small balls, or cubed
- Parmesan grated
Fresh Vegetables
- You can have so much fun with appetizing looking colors! Use what you have what is in season or what you are growing in your garden! To make eating easy, try to cut or cube your veggies so they are of similar size.
- Cucumbers - sliced or cubed
- Tomatos cherry tomatoes or full sized tomatoes cut into cubes
- Carrots - sliced
- Onions - chopped my favorite to serve is red onion because on the color
- Red Pepper - cut up
- Green Pepper - cut up
- Radishes
- Asparagus steamed to crisp tender and cooled
- Zucchini
- Corn boiled and sliced off the cob, cooked from frozen, or canned
Canned or Preserved Veggies and beans
- The bean are a nice vegan and vegetarian protein option.
- Black beans
- Chick peas
- Corn
- sliced or whole kalamata olives seed removed!
Dressings and other flavor boosters
- Added flavorings! Use a store-bought salad dressing or one you've made yourself.
- I like serving this in a lidded jar so folks can shake up the dressing.
- Italian Dressing
- Greek Dressing
- Fresh basil
- It is also nice to offer a fresh chopped herb for a final flavor addition and a pretty color topping.
- Fresh parsley
- Fresh green onions
- Fresh chives.
Instructions
- Prepare and cool your pasta. I recommend doing this the night before! I like using elbow macaroni type pasta for this. But, use what you have! The most important thing is, do not overcook. After you have cooked it, drain it and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Place in a large bowl add some salad dressing or some olive oil and gently mix to gently coat the pasta. This will prevent your pasta from sticking as it cools. To cool faster, place in the fridge.
- Decide on the toppings you would like. I have provided some suggestions above. But, the sky is the limit!
- It's a great idea to prep your veggies the night before too! That way this is easy to serve and you
- It all depends on what your guests like or, you can do a theme. For example, I love making a Greak type pasta salad. Easy to do by just selecting cucumbers, red onions, olives, and feta cheese. By all means swap out the dressing to Greek!
Notes
Originally published May 14, 2016. Updated many times : ).
Maria
Nice idea for summer party