Beet Orzo Pasta Salad Recipe

Orzo salad is an easy one-dish, summertime meal. You could add anything you like, so you can adapt the recipe to fit whatever you find at the market. The most labor intensive work involved in preparing the salad is chopping all the ingredients. For this version, I added cherry tomatoes, broccoli, sugar snap peas, pickled carrots and canned black beans. The main event though, was the addition of the roasted beets. I prepped them in the morning and let them cool to room temperature.

We spent a very low-key, relaxing weekend and I didn't feel like cooking a ton, raising the temperature in the kitchen with the stove and oven during the afternoon, as the temperature got higher. This cold pasta dish was light, complete but still flavorful, and we got to enjoy it by the scoopful in our garden.

Cumin Coriander Orzo Pasta Recipe

Orzo is rice-shaped pasta. If you have little children, this dish is always a hit. I mixed several vegetables such as Japanese eggplant, roasted pumpkin and green beans, and flavored the dish with cumin and coriander. The spices take the stage in this pasta dish and impart a wonderful Asian flair.

I wanted to incorporate some protein into the dish, so I also added garbanzo beans. They're an excellent source of protein for the vegetarians in my house. For the meat eaters in the house, I typically serve the orzo with roast chicken or a cordon bleu.

Summer Orzo Pasta Salad

Orzo pasta salad is a very quick and easy dish to prepare. You can vary the ingredients in the sauce, but the basics are the same: you need the orzo pasta, some vegetables and a sauce. I made a roasted red bell pepper paste, added some green beans for color, lentils for protein and finished the dish with enoki mushrooms and cashew nuts for texture.

If you're looking for a quick and easy recipe for a picnic, this dish is an excellent choice. It's a light dish that pairs well with almost any kind of protein (hamburgers, fish, etc.). It's also very flexible; as spring turns into summer, you can incorporate many different seasonal vegetables into the recipe. Our extended family has a lot of picnics and potlucks this time of year, and I often prepare some variation of an orzo pasta salad. It's great for both the vegetarians and non-vegetarians in our house.