Mediterranean Orzo Salad
This light and healthy
Mediterranean orzo salad
is a perfect blend of all
things Greek. Great to serve
as a side dish or even make
it a whole meal as its self.
There are certain culture’s food that I can not get enough of and Greek is one of them. Everything that originates from Greece food wise I just love. Mediterranean food has been proven to be quite healthy as well. Maybe that’s why everyone is so fit over there.
If you read my past post I showed you how to make some yummy taziki sauce. Now what to do with that sauce. The most common use is to use it when you’re enjoying a gyro. I can not say enough how much I love gyro. I’ve had a special love for gyros since I was a child.
I have searched all over town for the best Mediterranean food and believe it or not the local mall has the best and it’s been there as long as I can remember. That place is the only place that serves alcohol as well. Best of both worlds.
But instead of using the taziki sauce for a gyro, I thought about changing it up and making something new. That’s where this Mediterranean orzo salad came about. With a mix of chickpeas, kalamata olives, artichokes, orzo, cucumbers, and tomatoes topped with taziki sauce you get one awesome salad.
This salad is easy to throw together as well. Cook your orzo as directed on the package and when finished run through a strainer rinsing with cold water. This not only removes any extra start, but also cools down the pasta.
Add all another ingredients and mix well. Then refrigerate for a hour so everything can blend together and soak up the flavors. Now you have one healthy filling meal.
Mediterranean Orzo Salad
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 1 cup of uncooked orzo
- 1 cup of artichoke hearts drained and chopped
- 2 cups of chopped cucumbers
- 2 cups of chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 cup of chopped kalamata olives
- 1 TBSP of red wine vinegar
- 2 cups taziki sauce
taziki sauce (there will be leftover sauce)
- 2 cups full fat of greek yogurt
- 1 cucumber
- 2 TBSP of fresh lemon juice 1 lemon
- 1 TBSP of chopped dill
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 TBSP of olive oil
- 1/2 TSP sea salt
- 1/2 TSP of pepper
Instructions
- Cook orzo as directed on package
- After cooking drain with a strainer and rinse with cold water until pasta is cooled down
- Add all ingredients into a big bowl and mix
- Cover and refrigerate for an hour
Taziki
- Take a strainer and a bowl and place 2 coffee filters or a cheese cloth and put in strainer and add greek yogurt to drain for 2 hours in the refrigerator
- Take the cucumber and cut long ways and dig out all the seeds
- Take one half of the cucumber and chop into small cubes and the other half grate with a cheese grater. Get rid of excess juice from the cucumber
- Peel the garlic cloves and use a zester to grate the garlic or mince super fine
- Chop up the fresh dill
- Add all the ingredients into a bowl and mix together then refrigerate for at least an hour
