Cherry Tomato Orzo Salad

By KSmitherman

Ingredients

• 8 ounces orzo pasta
• Salt
• 1 pint red cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 pint yellow cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 8 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 large cucumber, peeled and chopped
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• 2 Tbsp minced fresh oregano
• Juice of a lemon
• Black pepper to taste

Details

Servings 8
Preparation time 25mins
Cooking time 40mins
Adapted from simplyrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

I am not the most talented of gardeners. I over-water, under-water, over-fertilize, under-mulch. I plant little plants behind big plants, blocking out their sun. I then transplant my poorly placed plants to what I'm hoping will be a better location and almost kill them in the process. No, if a plant survives with me in charge it's because it's one heckova sturdy plant, or just has a strong will to live. I have been getting better at this over the years, but it still surprises me how difficult growing tomatoes can be, with the singular exception of the glorious sungold tomato. Do you know about the sungold? It's a cherry tomato, or the size and shape of a cherry tomato, but brightly orange colored when ripe.

with orzo pasta and without olives. Though you could easily add olives if you wanted to. You could probably make it with quinoa instead of the orzo, though I haven't tried it that way yet. And if you like it, maybe you'll want to plant some cherry tomatoes in your garden too. (I recommend sungolds.)

Do not refrigerate the tomatoes ahead of time. Doing so will hurt the flavor of the tomatoes and can make the texture mealy.

Bring a large pot of well salted water to a rolling boil. Add the orzo, stirring it so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Cook, uncovered, at a high boil until al dente, cooked through but still a bit firm. Drain the pasta (it helps to use a fine mesh sieve for this as the small orzo might pass through holes in a colander), and rinse with cold water to stop the pasta from cooking further.

Toss the pasta with the olive oil in a large bowl. At this point you can make ahead and chill until you are ready to serve (or transport to a party). Toss with the rest of the ingredients, the tomatoes, feta cheese, cucumber, green onions, oregano, lemon juice, and black pepper. The feta is salty so you shouldn't need to add more salt.

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That looks fabulous! Will try to make it one day!

However, my problem is the same as yours-getting the tomatoes to make the short trip from the garden to the house! As an aside, last fall we had a ton of green Sun Golds and a frost was threatening. Picked them all, put them in a basket and "harvested" them as they ripened, which they did wonderfully. Extended our season a wee bit.

This sounds fantastic...if my cherry tomatoes make it inside. I love tomato candy in the heat of summer and will definitely try sungold plants next year.

Your timing is perfect. I was just thinking last night that I need to make something with the 2 boxes of Orzo in the pantry. This is perfect. Thanks!

This salad looks excellent and I happen to have some orzo for just this purpose! We planted the sweet one hundreds and some small pear shaped yellow tomatoes this year. My goodness, the vines are going crazy and the tomatoes, though still green, are numerous...and all in the face of barely any heat (live in San Jose, CA) The heat wave we're expecting this week should help move the ripening along. You are in prime tomato growing land, so you should barely have to do anything and they'll grow in spite of you!

I love this salad idea! I've recently been experimenting with whole wheat orzo and loving the results. Just made a whole wheat orzo salad that had roasted zucchini, roasted red bell pepper, and olives that also had oregano, so we're kind of on the same wavelength.

Just made a higher fiber version of this using Farro in place of the Orzo. It was delicious! Will definitely make it again. Thank you for the recipe.

I just made orzo last night and wish I had seen your post beforehand. I've only recently added orzo to my side dish repertoire, and even more recently, whole wheat orzo. But this recipe will be my next summer side -- it sounds delish!

I love Orzo and cook it any possible way that I can. This is a very refreshing twist to what I am used to cooking, though and I cannot wait to try it. I probably will not add olives to it because this household is very anti-olive things.

My favorite way to prepare orzo is with little slivers of beef (I buy the cubes and slice them thin and throw them in a skillet with oregano, parsley and garlic until golden brown), toss in the freshly boiled orzo and some pasta sauce and a few rich slices of yellow squash and coli four.

A salty, crumbly cheese is important for this salad. Cotija would work too. But if you don't like that kind of cheese, just leave it out or make a different salad with the ingredients. Your guess with what to do is as good as mine. ~Elise

This looks amazing!!! Love all the flavors - the lemon and feta must really make it pop! Will definitely have to try this soon!

I'm not a big fan of oregano. Is there another herb or spice that I could use to replace the oregano? Otherwise, this sounds gorgeous!

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