Orzo Greek Pasta Salad

This is one of my absolute favorite pasta salads. I make it at least 4-5 times a summer. Yet for some reason I have never posted the recipe on the blog. Also, I don’t have a mouth watering photo to share. Sorry, you’ll just have to use your imagination 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 lb orzo pasta (but really anything will do. If you want to make it go further, use a larger noodle!)
• 2 english cucumbers, diced (or regular cucumbers peeled and seeded)
• 1 container cherry tomatoes, cut in 1/2 (also can just use a blend of heirloom for color)
• 1 large package of feta cheese (I usually buy the block kind and crumble myself)
• 2 green onions, finely diced

Toss all ingredients in a large bowl. Dress with recipe below. This is best on the first day. It’s still definitely good on day 2-4? but the tomatoes start to break down.

Dressing:

• 1 tbsp dill, fresh is preferable, but I’ve made it with dried too
• 2-3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
• 4 Tbsp dijon musstard (I use grey poupon)
• 1/8 c. low fat mayo
• 1/4-1/2 c. olive oil

Combine all ingredients except olive oil in a bowl. Wisk in olive oil until desired consistency. Some times I double the dressing recipes and save some for salads. If you’re using a larger pasta you’ll probably want to double it as well in order to have enough to cover.

** Yesterday I made this for our small group bible study and I made a few substitutions to my typical dish. First, I pretty much doubled the dish. Then I added more cheese yum. Can’t go wrong with more cheese. I used about 8 oz of block motz and cubed it. I used rotini noodles and acini di pepe noodles in place of the orzo (about a lb of each). I left out the onions b/c I didn’t have any at home. I also added a can of chick peas 🙂 AND since I was still in Columbus finishing up buying a car yesterday when it was time to go, Steve dressed the salad with a bottle of Marzetti’s Champagne Vinaigrette that we had in the fridge! Yay for improvisation 🙂 I guess the dish yesterday ended up being quite a bit different than the original~ but that’s what’s fun about cooking!