Orzo Salad

I brought an Orzo salad to dinner last night and a few people asked for the recipe, so here it is! This is a tasty dinner salad and can be made in advance (it is actually better if it sits in the fridge for a few hours before eating it).

I made a big enough salad for 8 people as a side dish for dinner, feel free to alter the ingredient amounts to fit the number of people that you are feeding.

Here is what you will need for the salad:

- 3/4 package of orzo (very small rice shaped pasta, not rice) cooked and coated in a little bit of oil. I cook the pasta, stir in a tablespoon of oil and let it sit in the fridge, covered, until it is cool

- half of a long english cucumber, cut into small pieces (Erin, think salad sized bites)

- a small container of cherry tomatoes, cut in half

- a yellow pepper, cut into bite sized pieces

- a handful of parsley, chopped

- a quarter of a red onion, sliced into thin pieces

To put this salad together, I put all of the diced veggies, onion and parsley in a big bowl. I then cook and cool the pasta. When I am ready to serve it, I toss the whole thing together with the dressing - listed just below!

Dressing:

I make this dressing in a small tupperware container, so that I can shake it up vigorously before adding it to my orzo/pasta salad.

In your tupperware, add a generous amount of salt and pepper and a pinch of white sugar (you need just a little bit of sugar to cut back on the tanginess of the vinegar, trust me on this one).

The, using a big salad spoon, put in one spoonful of balsamic vinegar. Then add in two times that amount of salad oil (I use veg oil). Shake well and TASTE IT! If need be, add more vinegar or oil. **Erin - this is how my mom and I make our regular salad dressing, feel free to use any kind of vinegar you have on hand, I just like the balsamic for this salad**

Toss the dressing with the veg/orzo/parsley and enjoy! This is a great dinner salad that can be served with some french bread or even some grilled meat - tasty, tasty tasty.

E