ORZO Salad!

A great summer lunch, or a dinner side dish!

Orzo Salad!

Make it in Advance

Box, 16 ounces Orzo
2 Lemons
Spinach, good couple handfuls of baby spinach leaves, remove the stems, rough chop on spinach
Decent amount of Feta Cheese
Tomatos
Olive Oil
2 or 3 Garlic Cloves, sliced into slivers. More if you love it, less if you want to make the recipe wrong.
Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper

Options:

Red Onion, chopped
Tomato
Cucumber
Peppers

First up, in a pot, start the water boiling for the Orzo. I prefer the orzo cooked earlier, and cooled, when i work with it, so I cook it early then, prepare the rest later in the day. Let the orzo drain, and cool. Room temp is fine!

In a cast iron pan, heat some EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), and add the slivers of garlic. Brown the garlic. NOT burned. Be careful. Let it brown, and then, remove the oil, WITH the Garlic in it, into a large bowl.

Squeeze half a lemon, strain the juice into the olive oil. I like the Pulp. I only remove, seeds. Add HALF the Orzo, and mix it all together. Add a handful of Spinach, and mix it. Zest one full lemon into the mix.

Add half the crumbled Feta cheese, MIX again.

Add the remaining half of the Orzo. Add the remaining Spinach, Crumbled Feta, mix. Add the juice of the second Lemon. Zest the second lemon on the mix. Then, stir and mix it all again.

I do not actually use Olives, Tomato, or Pepper in my Orzo Salad... but many do. Add them, during the time when you are mixing in other ingredients.