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Greek style Mediterranean Orzo Salad makes a quick and easy summer meal.
This delicious and colourful vegan salad is herby, tangy and super satisfying, and it makes a fresh and light, yet filling, no-fuss summer meal. Mediterranean Orzo Salad is also simple and easy to make (ready in 20 minutes), and keeps well in the fridge for a few days (yay for leftovers!). Packed with amazing textures and flavours, this salad is also perfect to serve a crowd or to take with you for lovely summer picnics and potlucks.
Since the warmer weather finally arrived to Hamburg, all I want to eat is salads. In these summer days I enjoy occasionally light green salads, but usually I prefer something that’s a bit more satiating. I really love quinoa, rice and pasta salads, and my new love nowadays is orzo. This small, rice-like pasta is such a great cheap and filling addition to any salad. Especially when it’s tossed with summer veggies and a creamy lemony-herby dressings. Yum!
If you avoid gluten, simply use any of your favourite GF pasta here (a smaller type would work better), but quinoa, rice, millet or buckwheat would be delicious too. Plus as usual, this salad is totally customisable, so feel free to add or take whatever veggies and herbs you like (basil and artichokes are crazy good here). Or make it more “Greek” by adding some vegan feta cheese.
If you try this recipe, let me know! I would highly appreciate if you could leave a comment and rate it. Also don’t forget to take a picture and tag it on Instagram (use the hashtag #greenevi) or post it on Facebook! I love seeing what you come up with! ♥︎
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Mediterranean Orzo Salad
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 2-4 1x
Ingredients
- 1,5 cup of orzo
- 1 cup of roasted bell pepper
- 1 cup of kalamata olives
- 1 cup of cherry tomatoes or diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cucumber
- 1 red onion
For the dressing
- 2 cups of fresh parsley
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 lemon, juice and zest
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 2 tbsp hemp seeds
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
Instructions
- Prepare orzo according to package instructions. Drain well and transfer to a large bowl to cool.
- Cut bell peppers into small pieces, halve cherry tomatoes and slice thinly cucumber and onion. Add them to cold orzo with the olives.
- For the dressing add ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Add a little bit of water if too thick.
- Add dressing to the bowl and toss gently to combine. Serve warm or chilled. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: Vegan
I’m such a big fan of Mediterranean and Greek flavors! I mean…OLIVES <3 Haha! And cucumbers…those 2 together are the best!
I could live off olives in my whole life 😀
“herby, tangy and super satisfying” <– Yep, you're getting good at this describing food thing. 😉 So crazy that it's only just starting to warm up in Hamburg. Now you can really whip up like four gallons of your Wasabi and Cucumber ice cream! Also, how cool is that shirt in the top photo? I must know more about it and its origins. Surely it has an incredible backstory! 😉 This salad looks insanely scrumptious! 🙂
Please tell me it was super hard to shoot those pics in hand. Bc, honestly, whenever I get Erik to stand in those shots, I'm always like, "stop quivering so much!!" Lol. Blurry shots for days… 🙂 Wishing you an awesome weekend, my dear friend. Pinning, naturally. xo
Hahaha, thank you, I do my best and practice describing things (aka reading your blog!).
I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s already good that we’ve got summer weather here at all. Northern Germany is not famous of it’s non-rainy days… 😀
Oh, and what a great question about shoots in hand. I don’t really have problem with blurry pictures, we just simply always get in fights when taking pictures. I have very exact plans for what I wanna see, and if he dares to hold his finger a tiny bit differently, I get frustrated and angry. Then he gets also angry, because I have “unrealistic” expectations and so on. Then we don’t even want to eat anymore, because we hate each other, so we usually have to wait 5-10 minutes after photo shoots before eating until we realise we were silly. But luckily nobody can see these things on the pictures 😀
Oh, and the t-shirt? I’m pretty sure it’s from my mom so I don’t have any great stories here – ask her!
Hope you had an awesome weekend too <3
Oh GURL, you are makin’ me blush. Stop it!! 😉 Lol.
Summer weather… woah. It’s crazy how different the weather is in different parts of the world. I feel like I’ve learned more about Germany just reading your blog! Back when I was living in SF, they had what some people called “micro-climates.” So, literally, the weather would be different from one neighborhood to another. Rainy and gloomy in one; bright and sunny in another. Crazy, right?
Photoshoots in hand: YUP. That’s EXACTLY how it goes over here too. Lololol. Is it okay that I’m laughing because I know exactly how that entire process feels? Although, I must say 5-10 minutes isn’t too long. I’m VERY impressed by the brief nature of your cool-down period. 😉 Props to you and your man!
Your mom: okay, let me just call her up. Haha.
Happy Monday, E! 🙂
It’s true. You are the best food describer I know. And the funniest too 😀
Micro-climates? How cool is that! I’ve never heard of that before. Although I guess I’d pretty much hate it that I can’t trust in any weather forecast!
And yep, the truth is that my cool-down period significantly shortens when otherwise I couldn’t eat 😀 Plus luckily my boyfriend had learned that I’ll never ever say sorry so he comes to me first…. OMG, I’m such a horrible, bossy person, but at least I’m not the only one 😀 😀
Lol. Food describer. I like it! Do you think I could put that on my resume or something?? Hahaha.
Micro-climates: yep, you learn to pretty much dress for everything. It’s… interesting!
Gurl, I feel ya. Hunger is no joke! I’m glad that he’s wised up so quickly. Yes, we may or may not relate on that level… Ahem. 😉 ????
Yes, I think you should definitely put food describer on your resume. Very impressive 😉
And hey, who are we kidding? We are both horrible when it comes to photograph food in boyfriends’ hands. But they are the ones to blame. They chose us 😀
I love orzo and orzo salads, and the good thing about such salads is that they even more delicious the next day (Sure if kept in the fridge haha). Also, I like your idea of using millet as well. I think I’ve never added it in salads yet, and that sounds good too:)
I actually love all the foods that get even better the next day. Leftovers are the best 😉
I could eat a plate of this orzo salad for lunch every day! This looks so fantastic and so beautiful with the bold green orzo, vibrant cucumber, and brightly colored tomatoes. Such a summer perfection! Loved it!
Thanks, Anu 🙂
I love Mediterranean foods. A salad with Orza is very delicious.I tried it for my husband.he loves it too. . Thank you for sharing.
Hi Anna!
I’m so happy you both loved the salad!
Mediterranean food is one of my favourites too 🙂