Greek Orzo Salad

This delicious Greek Orzo Salad is the ultimate light, refreshing, and crowd-pleasing side dish perfect for your next summer potluck or easy weeknight dinner.

Want another great dish to serve to your guests? Try these cheesy olive tapenade crostinis.

Greek Orzo Salad

This Greek orzo salad recipe is easy to make and yet has a very tasty, fresh flavor. It is a great recipe to bring to get-togethers or parties, but a wonderful addition to a Mediterranean meal at home as well.

Grill up or pan-sear some chicken and add it to the salad to make it a more hearty, protein-filled meal.

This is a recipe that comes from my mom. After marriage, she passed along to me some of her favorite recipes. She seeks out tasty recipes. It has always been a passion. You should see her stacks and stacks of Bon Appétit magazines she has dog-eared and collected over the years.

I absolutely love the Mediterranean flavors found in this dish. This recipe feels so fresh and healthy. I hope you find this Greek Orzo salad a great addition to your cooking repertoire, as I have.

What is Orzo?

Orzo means barley in Italian. It is a type of short-cut pasta that is shaped like a large grain of rice.

While it looks a lot like a grain, it is actually made from flour—traditionally semolina flour, which comes from durum wheat. It is incredibly versatile and commonly used in Mediterranean cuisine.

Greek Orzo Salad

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 8 minutes mins

Resting Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 18 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Mediterranean, salad

Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups uncooked orzo
• 2 cans 6 oz marinated artichoke hearts (drained and liquid reserved)
• 24 cherry tomatoes halved
• 1 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 3/4 cup kalamata olives sliced in half
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 3/4 tsp dried oregano
• Freshly sliced basil to taste.

Instructions

 

• Boil pasta according to package directions. Drain.
• Combine orzo, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, feta, kalamata olives, lemon juice, oregano, and fresh basil.
• Refrigerate for at least an hour.
• Add reserved artichoke liquid, and stir to combine just before serving.
• This salad keeps very well, so if you have leftovers, just serve again another day.

Keyword pasta, salad

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Note: This post was originally written in 2013. It was recently updated for quality and clarity.