Light, summery, colorful and tasty – this Spinach & Orzo Salad is a treat to behold!
Yep! A real treat!
I was sitting under a dryer chair at the salon, drinking my coffee, flipping through the pages of a magazine (I save my Hollywood gossip fix for my salon adventures) when I decided to step outside my norm and pick up SELF, a magazine geared toward nutrition, health and wellness.
As I was checking out the latest on how to get my bikini bod in sixteen minutes, I quickly realized it was going to take me more like eighteen, so I lost interest and moved on to the recipes.
I stumbled upon a whole host of awesome Greek inspired dishes but one in particular held my attention. Spinach and Orzo Salad. Gosh, this is good.
I modified the recipe a bit, with some added ingredients and a little extra dressing.
It is light, it is summery, it is colorful, it has feta! It has feta! The feta provides the perfect amount of tang and brine. This, coupled with the brightness of the lemon and freshness of the mint is a perfect combination of flavors…I could live on it.
I made this dish last week while preparing for a 21st birthday, a graduation party, and a bon voyage. What I’m trying to convey here is that with so much on my mind, and household activities at an all-time high, I was still able to make it, easily!!
Normally, under such extreme circumstances, take-out is the only option. But this salad looked so good, it had to be done. Besides, cooking calms me. The clean-up afterward, not so much, but the joy of cooking, the delight in creating, makes the entire job worth it. And really, isn’t that what life is all about? Taking the good with the not so good.
The dichotomy of life…hmmmm, this theme keeps showing up. It’s trying to teach me something. What has spinach and orzo taught me? Well, now, in hindsight I see that it all worked out – every celebration came together – even with the time it took to prepare and clean up from making this delightful dish. It all fit.
Eleanor Roosevelt said it best when she stated, “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” Perhaps by choosing to make the salad rather than dialing for a pizza, I learned that I can do the thing I thought I could not do.
And upon further reflection, I realize this can translate into bigger things…things like adjusting to the quiet of the household come fall…adjusting to the idea that our oldest lives across the country…adjusting to the idea that we now have two full-fledged adult children.
We won’t have dinner together, every night, however, our dinners will now be events; events with tastier food, sweeter wine, and deeper conversation. We haven’t had bed time stories for a long time, however, we’ll make time for a long distance book club, character chats, and personal revelations, beginning with The Great Gatsby! No more good-morning kisses…no more good-morning kisses. Of course there will be things we cannot replace…some things we’ll just have to move through; no getting around them.
Wow – all this from a salad…can you imagine if I made a lasagna?
*Update: Things have changed in the last four years…Lauren is now home, working on her Master’s degree, Chelsea lives and works in California, and Nick, our recent college grad, is working in town and living at home! Stages and phases…simply wonderful!*
Buon Appetito!
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Spinach & Orzo Salad (Video)
- Category: Salad
Ingredients
- 6 Tbsp. olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- Juice and zest of 2 lemons
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 4 oz. baby spinach leaves
- 1 lb. cooked orzo
- 1 cup pitted Kalamata olives, roughly chopped
- 4 oz. crumbled feta
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced and chopped red onion
- 1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
Instructions
- In a small pan, warm olive oil over medium-low heat.
- Saute garlic until lightly golden, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Transfer garlic and whatever oil remains in the pan to a bowl.
- Add the juice and zest of the two lemons.
- Add salt and pepper then whisk to combine.
- Add spinach and toss lightly.
- Add orzo, olives, cheese, onion, sun-dried tomatoes and mint.
- Toss again & serve!
Forgot to pin? No worries….
CIAO!
We just made this for lunch and it’s delicioso! Grazie!
Music to my ears! Thank you!