This easy-to-make Mediterranean Orzo Salad is filling, filling and not boring at all! Orzo Salad is packed with fresh Mediterranean flavours including tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, crumbled feta cheese and a house-made Greek dressing. This is a great summer salad perfect for outdoor gatherings, potlucks, picnics and more!
Mediterranean Orzo Salad
This Mediterranean Orzo Salad couldn’t be easier to make! Overall, it’ll take you under thirty minutes from start to finish to follow my simple steps. After your half hour efforts are finished, you’ll end up with a delightfully flavorful and fresh salad that tastes like it’s straight from a Greek village! While the key salad ingredients are thoroughly Greek, it’s the homemade dressing that really ties it all together.
Store-bought Greek salad dressing just never quite cuts it for me. I like when my salads are tossed in a dressing that’s made with all real, natural ingredients – not preservatives and artificial flavors, which are all too common in the store-bought stuff. Instead of pouring a bottle of lackluster dressing onto your fresh salad, make the dressing yourself with my bold recipe! It’s got mouthwatering ingredients like freshly squeezed lemon juice, garlic, a medley of dried herbs, and more.
Bringing this Mediterranean Orzo Salad with you to a potluck or party of any sort during the summer is always a great idea. It’s filled with summery, fresh flavor, and it actually fills you up! While I do love a salad that’s full of leafy greens, those don’t always hit the spot like an orzo salad with diced veggies does. It’s always a hit at any gathering I bring it to, and it’s clear to see why. Really, who doesn’t love fresh vegetables, tender orzo, crumbled feta cheese, and a homemade dressing?!
How to Make Mediterranean Orzo Salad
Ingredients You’ll Need:
For the orzo salad:
- Orzo Pasta
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Red Onion
- Bell Pepper
- Cucumber
- Black Olives – Make sure they’re drained prior to tossing with the other ingredients.
- Feta Cheese – you can get a block and crumble it yourself or get crumbled feta.
For the Greek salad dressing:
- Olive Oil – Use a good quality olive oil.
- White Wine Vinegar – champagne or white balsamic vinegar works in a pinch, but white is really the best for this flavor palate.
- Dijon Mustard – Do NOT substitute this with plain yellow mustard!
- Lemon Juice – for the best results, use freshly squeezed lemon juice, not the bottled alternative.
- Garlic – use fresh garlic for the best flavor.
- Dried Herbs – A medley of parsley, dill weed, and oregano create a delicious herbaceous note in the dressing.
- Salt – try to use coarse or sea salt, not table salt.
- Black Pepper
Directions:
- Prepare the ingredients.
- Cook the orzo pasta according to package directions.
- Dice and chop all of your vegetables accordingly. Place them in a large mixing bowl.
- Drain the black olives and crumble the feta cheese before tossing them into the bowl.
- Drain the cooked pasta, allow it to cool for a few minutes, then toss it into the mixing bowl.
- Toss the salad.
- Once all of the ingredients are prepared and in the bowl, toss everything together.
- Combine all of the ingredients for your homemade dressing and mix it into the pasta salad just before serving. You don’t want the dressing to sit on the ingredients for too long, so make sure it’s only added to the salad right before you’re ready to enjoy it!
Can I make this orzo salad ahead of time?
Absolutely! You can make the whole salad the day before without dressing and store it in the refrigerator. Store in an airtight food storage container. You can also make the dressing ahead of time and store it separately in a lidded jar or dressing container. Toss orzo salad with Greek dressing before serving.
Remember, don't mix pasta salad with dressing before storing! The pasta will absorb all the moisture, keeping the salad dry, and the dressing will collapse and soggy all your fresh vegetables.
Can I substitute the rice grains with other pasta?
This is of course a personal decision. I would stick to small pasta like ditalini, stellini, pastina, acini di pepe, etc. The reason I recommend sticking to small noodles here is because of the size of the noodles to the ratio of vegetables and cheese. Because things are so small here, you get a well-balanced bite with everything.
Is this orzo salad gluten free?
If you use gluten-free orzo, this pasta salad is easily gluten-free. All other ingredients are already gluten free, so all you have to do is swap out the pasta!
