Mediterranean Orzo Salad

Last updated on June 30th, 2018 at 10:19 am

This Mediterranean Orzo Salad is bursting with delicious Mediterranean inspired flavors, packed with chickpeas, Kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes and feta cheese. It’s colorful, refreshing and best of all ready in 20 minutes.

This here is my kind of salad. Want to know why? Because it has pasta. And this Mediterranean salad has orzo which is tiny pasta shaped like grains of rice. I love orzo, it’s so versatile, not to mention it’s perfect for salads like this. This salad is perfect as a side dish, or enjoyed on its own. I prefer it served cold, but you could eat it warm as well.

I packed this salad with lots of good for you ingredients like chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and one of my favorite ingredients ever, Kalamata olives. The dressing is really great as well and it couldn’t get any simpler.

The great thing about this salad is that you can customize it with your favorite ingredients. For example you could add kale to it, or spinach, grilled zucchini or even cucumbers. The sky is the limit.

The warm weather is finally here, even in Calgary we’ve been having amazing weather, the gorgeous blue Albertan skies and high temperatures which I can’t complain about. This is the time when I love eating these kinds of salads. They’re light, they’re tasty, and really fill you up. Trust me when I say that you will not feel like you’ve eaten a salad.

This salad comes together quite quickly, we’re talking 20 minutes tops, so make sure you start by cooking your orzo. By the way, the orzo could be substituted with rice if you wanted to, doesn’t really matter what you use. I’m just obsessed with orzo lately, because you know what, it only takes about 6 minutes to cook!

This salad is even more perfect the next day and it makes for a wonderful lunch. Try some of my other delicious summertime salads like Mexican Street Corn Salad or California Quinoa Salad!

If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!

5 from 2 votes

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Mediterranean Orzo Salad

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

20 mins

 

This Mediterranean Orzo Salad is bursting with delicious Mediterranean inspired flavors, packed with chickpeas, Kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes and feta cheese. It's colorful, refreshing and best of all ready in 20 minutes.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Servings: 6

Calories: 473 kcal

Author: Joanna Cismaru

Ingredients

For the Dressing

• 1/4 cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1/4 tsp salt or to taste
• 1/8 tsp pepper or to taste

For the Salad

• 1 cup orzo dry
• 19 oz chickpeas (1 can)
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes cut in half
• 1 1/2 cups Kalamata olives pitted and cut in half
• 1 cup feta cheese crumbled
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
• 1 red onion chopped

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

1. Cook the orzo pasta according to package instructions.

2. In a medium size jar add all the dressing ingredients together, close the lid and shake a few times, to mix well. Alternatively, you could whisk all the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl add all the salad ingredients, pour the dressing over and toss well. 

4. Top with additional feta cheese, parsley and pepper if preferred.

5. Serve cold.

Recipe Video

Recipe Notes

Orzo is a small type of pasta, similar in shape to rice. You can also use couscous for this recipe.

 

You can use rice in place of orzo in this recipe. Use a long grain rice, such as basmati, to prevent stickiness.

 

Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container, for up to 3 days.

 

Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.

 

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