Make Ahead Greek Orzo Salad

Submitted by Marianneee

"This came from my mom after I begged for the recipe. Can me made a day ahead, I think it gets better the longer it sits."

 

• Ready In: 20mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 10

ingredients

• 453.59 g orzo pasta
• 453.59 g feta
• 170.09-198.44 g kalamata olives (about 6.5 oz of actual olives)
• 340.19-453.59 g Baby Spinach
• 10-15 large basil leaves (can leave out)
• 1-1 whole red onion, diced (add as much as you like)
• 5 fresh mint leaves (can leave out)

• For Dressing

• 236.59 ml lemon juice, fresh
• 236.59 ml olive oil (I put 1/2c of olive oil and 1/2c of the oil from the olive jar)
• 2.46-4.92 ml dried oregano
• salt and pepper

directions

1. Prepare salad dressing.
2. Roll the basil and mint into a cigar like roll and slice thin as you can.
3. Dice the red onion.
4. Cook the orzo until it is al dente, about 9 minutes and drain.
5. While it is still hot stir in the salad dressing, then 1/2 of the crumbled feta.
6. Next stir in the spinache, mint/basil, olives and red onions. You do not need to chop the spnache as the heat from the pasta will wilt it.
7. Let it sit for a couple of hours, or even better over night.
8. Before you serve it, stir in the remaining feta and re-adjust the salt and pepper. If it seems a little dry add some olive oil.
9. Note: Go light on the salt as the feta is salty and you will be adding feta at 2 different times.

Reviews

[Katie -D]

This is hubby's new favourite pasta salad! I did make some changes: I felt there was too much dressing, so once I doubled the pasta and kept the amount of dressing the same and once I halved the dressing but kept the pasta amount the same. I also added about 200 g of grape tomatoes and a minced garlic to the dressing. Very nice for potlucks.