Orzo Pasta Salad
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The following recipe was adapted from the Fork Knife Swoon recipe.
Ahh. It’s finally summer here in Michigan, and that means I get to make all sorts of different salads. Fruit salad, green salad, and of course pasta salad!
This recipe doesn’t take a lot of time to prepare, and provides a very light and refreshing stand-alone meal or a great side to any main course. I like to serve it alongside my Baked Greek Chicken.
Cooking Level
FOUNDATIONAL | Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced
Summer Orzo Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 C dry orzo pasta
- 2 T olive oil, or enough to coat the pasta
- Juice and zest of 1 lemon
- 1 English cucumber
- 1 T fresh mint
- 1 T fresh parsley
- 6 oz crumbled feta cheese
- 1 T - 2 T champagne or prosecco vinegar (alternatively, 1 T red wine vinegar)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the orzo pasta according to directions. Drain and let cool for a couple minutes.
- Meanwhile, peel and seed the cucumber. To remove the seeds, cut the cucumber lengthwise and scrape the seeds out using a spoon. Dice into small, bite-sized pieces.
- Chop the fresh mint and parsley finely until you have 1 T of each.
- Zest the lemon* and squeeze lemon juice into a medium-sized bowl.
- Into the bowl, add the diced cucumber, chopped herbs, and lemon zest. Add the pasta, drizzle with 2 T of olive oil, and toss to combine, adding more olive oil if necessary.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste, and add 1 - 2 T of champagne or prosecco vinegar.** Toss again to combine.
- Serve at room temperature, or chilled. Keeps in the fridge for 2-3 days in an airtight container.
- Enjoy!
* When zesting citrus, it’s very important not to go too deep into the fruit. We don’t want to hit pith, the spongy, white tissue under the skin, because it is very bitter. For best results, use a micro plane zester like this one and use shallow, light strokes to just take off the very outer layer of skin. If you start to zest white, you’ve gone too deep.
** Vinegar is the secret ingredient in a lot of my recipes! Champagne or prosecco vinegar adds a light, slightly-sweet acidity to round out the flavors in this meal, bringing out the salinity of the feta and the freshness of the herbs. To learn more about which vinegars are my favorite and how I like to use them, check out my basics post, “Let’s Talk About Vinegar”!
