I am currently writing this post at my old desk at my parent’s house. It’s definitely going down memory lane for me. I’m home not only for a little vacation from being a grad student, but also to see my brother for his birthday. Yesterday we had the whole family over and had a great meal. My Dad BBQ’d beef (what exactly, do not ask me, but it was delicious). My contribution was a little bit different from what we normally eat in that I wanted to make a cold pasta salad. It made sense to me to make something light and refreshing and also cold. Not hot winter food (if you get what I mean).

Cold Orzo Salad

Ingredients: Orzo, chicken broth, grape tomatoes, fresh basil, can of chickpeas, lemons, salt & pepper, olive oil, red wine vinegar, chickpeas, red onion, and honey

To make pasta: I started by bringing 4 cups of chicken broth to a boil and allowed the orzo to cook until al dante in the chicken broth. You don’t have to use chicken broth for this, but it sure gives the orzo some tastiness.

I then cut up a cup of (each) red and yellow tomatoes, a bit (1/3) of red onion and some springs of basil. Add as much of basil as you like. I’m not a huge fan, but some people love its aromaticity.

I allowed the orzo to cool a bit prior to me adding all of the veggies (so that the other ingredients didn’t cook). This step gave me time to wash and cut everything I wanted to put in this dish.

I combined all of the vegetable ingredients and let the dish come down to room temperature.

For the dressing: 1 cup of olive oil, 1/4 red wine vinegar, 1-3 tbsp of honey, 3 lemons squeezed and salt and pepper to taste. I combine these ingredients well into a light dressing and put about half of it onto the orzo mix. Now, this is where you have to let your tastebuds guide you. I like more sweet so I added more honey. Some however, like sour so more red wine vinegar and lemon. Keep tasting the dressing until you deem it worthy to put over your mixture.

Dressing for orzo salad

Now lightly place the well-combined dressing on the orzo salad. Don’t drench, but lightly drizzle. Mix well and place in the fridge to let it get cold. Before serving, mix well and place more dressing if the salad needs it.

All combined!

I hope you all enjoy!