Greek Orzo Salad

Hey everyone!

 

I hope you’ve had a good first week of September! Mine has been pretty eventful. Work has been very busy lately, and my patient load has been slowly increasing over the past couple of weeks. My boyfriend had a very interesting week. His car was stolen by a neighbor straight out of his apartment complex. It was missing for about three days, and the police finally tracked it down at an impound lot.  Apparently whoever stole the car had parked in a “Visitor Only” spot in an apartment complex and the complex had it towed.

 

The outside of the car was perfectly fine, but the inside was completely trashed. Let’s just say the inside of the car looked like a scene from Breaking Bad. We are very glad that we have the car back, and it’s getting an extreme detail at a service shop. I wanted to cheer him up, so last night I cooked him baked ziti, sautéed green beans, and banana cream pie from scratch. It worked well :)

 

Today was a busy day running around and shopping with my sister, and we wanted something light for dinner. We found this recipe for Greek Orzo Salad on the website All Recipes, but changed it up quite a bit. We added cherry tomatoes, more spices, and used a homemade dressing instead of the reserved marinated artichoke juice that it originally called for.

 

Greek Orzo Salad (Makes 6 Servings)

 

• 1 1/2 cups uncooked orzo pasta
• 2 (6-ounce) or 1 (14-ounce) can of artichoke hearts (Depending on how much you like artichokes)
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 (2-ounce) can black olives, drained
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
• 5 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 4 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

 

 

We actually doubled the recipe because we had quite a few people eating and we wanted plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day. The ingredient list above is for six servings, however!

 

 

Cook the orzo according to package instructions. Meanwhile, chop all of your veggies, and drain the artichokes and olives. There is something so therapeutic about chopping vegetables!

 

 

Chop the artichokes into small pieces.

 

 

In a very large bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Stir well. Add more olive oil/red wine vinegar/lemon juice if needed!

 

 

Let the salad chill for thirty minutes to an hour. We were pretty hungry so we let it sit for fifteen minutes, and it tasted even better the next day when it was nice and chilled.

 

 

We served this with baked tilapia! I love orzo, and it tastes especially great chilled with chopped veggies, olive oil and vinegar, and feta cheese.

 

Do you have a favorite summer pasta salad recipe?