9.04.2012

EZ Orzo Salad


On Saturday, one of our nieces turned 30. Yes, that makes us feel old, and she's not even the oldest of our 15 nieces and nephews (including a great-nephew and a great-niece) who range in age from 37 years to 6 weeks old. The party Saturday, for K, was a casino night theme, and one of the many activities was to answer questions (there were 30) about the birthday girl in order to win extra bucks. And one of the things we found out about K is that her favorite salad is orzo salad.






Now, we know for a fact that K's orzo salad is delicious because she made it for us once. We foolishly did not ask her for the recipe, but orzo salad was on our minds the next day when we needed to come up with a side dish for a little Labor Day BBQ we were hosting. And so, here is our version of easy orzo salad, inspired by our beautiful niece K. It makes plenty (we fed 8 and still had some left over), and is a great way to use those cherry tomatoes that just keep on growing in our garden! And it went perfectly with our lemon-rosemary rotisserie chickens!



To find the recipe for the roasted tomatoes, go HERE.

Orzo Salad

Ingredients:

1 lb. orzo
1/2 lb. crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons boxwood basil
1 tablespoon purple basil
1 tablespoon basil oil

Prepare the orzo according to package directions. When it is done, drain it and rinse it well with cold water. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

3 comments:

Karla said...

This looks amazing!!! So colorful and fresh! Perfect for a holiday BBQ. The best thing about orzo is you can eat it year round. It's a great compliment to your fresh veggies from your garden in the summer, goes with any soup in the fall and is the perfect comfort food in the winter. Hope everyone enjoyed it!!
Xoxo ~K

Anonymous said...

Looks delicious!

jck said...

Yum. I make something similar, but with red onions and olives (not Amy-approved)in addition.

(Putting those ingredients on the bottom of the bowl and adding the hot orzo on top--then waiting a few minutes before stirring--sweats the onions/gets rid of the raw edge ever so slightly.)

A nice squeeze of lemon is nice too.