20 Pasta Salad Ideas for Lunch You’ll Actually Look Forward To

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My mom used to make one enormous bowl of pasta salad every single Fourth of July, the kind with the tri-color rotini and the bottled Italian dressing, and it sat on the counter for three days getting slowly more delicious. I did not appreciate it at the time. I was twelve and wanted hot dogs. Now I think about that bowl constantly.

These days I have rebuilt my whole relationship with cold pasta as an actual weekday lunch, not just a picnic side dish.

It travels well, it doesn’t need a microwave, and if you make a big batch on Sunday you basically don’t think about lunch again until Thursday.

20 Cold Lunches Worth Packing Twice

1. Classic Italian Pasta Salad

This is basically my mom’s bowl, rebuilt for one person instead of a whole family reunion. Rotini, salami, little mozzarella balls, banana peppers if you’re into that, and a bottled dressing because life is short.

See the Recipe

2. Greek Orzo Salad

This is one of the orzo salad ideas lunch that I keep coming back to whenever I look it up, mostly because orzo cooks fast and somehow soaks up dressing better than any other shape I’ve tried. Cucumber, red onion, feta, a lot of lemon.

3. Caprese Pasta Salad

Fusilli, cherry tomatoes cut in half, torn basil, a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic. That’s it, that’s the whole entry, and it’s genuinely one of the better lunches I’ve seen when tomatoes are actually good, which is not most of the year, let’s be honest.

4. Peanut Sesame Noodle Salad

This is the noodle salad lunch ideas entry Tessa keeps sending me photos of, and I finally understand why. The peanut sauce deepens overnight in the fridge, so a Sunday batch is somehow even better by Wednesday.

5. Southwest Quinoa Bowl

Quinoa acts like a small, sturdy pasta stand-in here, and if you’re hunting quinoa lunch ideas cold, this is the one that shows up on every list for a reason. Black beans, corn, lime, cilantro if you’re a cilantro person (my brother Theo is very much not).

6. Tuna Pasta Salad

This one is not glamorous. It is, however, the lunch I make when I have not been to the store in a week and a half. Canned tuna, frozen peas, macaroni, a little mayo mixed with mustard.

7. Moroccan Couscous Salad

Couscous cooks in the time it takes to boil a kettle, which is honestly the whole appeal of couscous lunch ideas as a category. This version leans sweet, with chopped dried apricots and toasted almonds tossed through, and a handful of mint at the end that wakes the whole thing up.

8. Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

My neighbor Marlene brings this to every single block party and there is never a bite left. Bowties, crumbled bacon, sharp cheddar, a good bottled ranch. I’ve tried to make it lighter with greek yogurt in the dressing and it’s fine, just not the same.

9. Antipasto Pasta Salad

This is the antipasto platter’s cold cousin. Penne, cubed provolone, salami, roasted red peppers, a handful of olives. It’s a little heavier than most of the entries on this list, so I usually pack a smaller portion with a piece of fruit.

10. Lemon Orzo With Spinach and Feta

I keep this one in rotation because it’s fast and it doesn’t ask much of me. Cook the orzo, stir in raw spinach while it’s still warm so it wilts slightly, add feta and a lot of lemon zest.

11. Thai Peanut Noodle Salad With Chicken

Rice noodles, leftover shredded chicken, a peanut lime sauce, crushed peanuts on top for crunch. I made a version of this once with too much fish sauce and could not eat lunch near anyone for a week. Measure carefully.

12. Cold Sesame Soba With Edamame

Edamame is one of those ingredients people forget has real protein in it, and tossed into cold soba it stops being a side and starts being an actual meal. Sesame oil, a splash of soy, scallions if you have them.

13. Broccoli and Cheddar Pasta Salad

Raw broccoli, chopped small, mixed with a creamy dressing and sharp cheddar. Sunflower seeds for crunch. This is the one I make when I’m trying to convince myself I’ve eaten enough vegetables that week.

14. Israeli Couscous With Roasted Vegetables

Pearl couscous holds up better than regular couscous against roasted vegetables, which tend to be a little wet and would turn smaller couscous to mush. I roast a tray of whatever’s in the fridge on Sunday and this is where half of it ends up.

15. Chickpea Pasta Salad

Chickpeas bulk this one up so a small portion of pasta still feels like a full lunch. Red onion, parsley, red wine vinegar. Simple, a little sharp, holds up in the fridge for days.

16. BLT Pasta Salad

Bacon, romaine chopped small, tomatoes, mayo dressing thinned with a little buttermilk. I add the lettuce right before eating instead of storing it mixed in, because it goes limp fast and nobody needs that.

17. Curried Chickpea and Couscous Salad

This is another one of the couscous lunch ideas that surprised me. Curry powder, chickpeas, raisins for a little sweetness, a squeeze of lime at the end. It smells better than it sounds, I promise.

18. Cold Quinoa Tabbouleh

This is basically tabbouleh with quinoa standing in for the bulgur, and it’s ridiculously herb heavy in the best way. Parsley and mint by the handful, not the tablespoon. My friend Tessa doubles the herbs every time she makes it and I think she’s right to.

19. Pesto Tortellini Salad

Store-bought cheese tortellini, a few spoonfuls of pesto, halved cherry tomatoes. This is the lunch I make when I want something that feels like more effort than it was. Nobody has to know it took twelve minutes.

20. Orzo With White Beans and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil do a lot of work here, both for flavor and because you can use a bit of that oil in the dressing instead of buying more olive oil. White beans make it filling enough to skip a snack later.