Summer Orzo Salad

Every summer, my mom's half of the family decamps to our beloved family beach house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a week of pool sitting, ocean plunging, cocktail sipping, outdoor showering, domino playing, and gaudy t-shirt buying. Part of the magic of this week, besides the ability to LEAVE MY PHONE IN MY ROOM ALL DAY (!) and trying my best to read a book a day, is the food. 

Being a foodie is in my family's DNA. My grandmother, aunts, and mom are all fabulous cooks. My mom brings a fat stack of new recipes to try every year and, despite the ability to make literally anything else, we always force my eldest aunt to make her signature spaghetti pie dish. The heart stomach wants what it wants! 

All of this to say, when I returned to my home after a week slurping oysters, cracking crabs, and biting into dribbly s'mores, I was in the mood for something fresh and light. Enter: Summer Orzo Salad. 

This dish is super simple, extremely hearty without making me feel overly stuffed, and (best of all in the summer) best served chilled. You can totally customize the ingredients to your taste, too. Some salty feta cheese, or grilled peaches and creamy ricotta, or tomatoes and parmesan could turn this into a completely new dish! And if you're not a big fan of dressing, I think the orzo packs such flavor when cooked in broth that you could probably get away with just a fat squeeze of lemon on top. Yum! 

Summer Orzo Salad

Ingredients

• 4 cups vegetable broth 
• 2 cups orzo pasta 
• 2 bell peppers
• 2 cucumbers
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 can of corn 
• 1 can of northern white beans 
• Fresh basil (to taste) 

For the dressing:

• 1/4 cup olive oil 
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

Steps

1. Bring your vegetable broth to a boil in a sizable pot. Once boiling, add your orzo and turn down the heat. Stir regularly until the majority of the broth has been absorbed into the pasta. Once that happens, turn off the heat. 
2. As your orzo cooks, dice all the vegetables.
3. Add the cooked orzo to a big serving bowl and let it cool as you make the dressing. 
4. Whisk together all the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl. 
5. Toss the vegetables in the orzo, mixing thoroughly. Dish up delicious bowlfuls of the salad and dress liberally! (Don't add the dressing to the huge batch because it's likely to get soggy) 

This recipe is based off the one I found here.