Orzo pasta salad
Pasta salad is a great dish that can be served not only as a snack but also as a dinner. Thanks to the pasta content, this salad will make you feel full fast. For me, pasta-based salads go best with fresh vegetables. Sometimes, I add meat to them as well, in which case I usually go for chicken.
The type of pasta used is up to you. Depending on what ingredients you combine with the pasta, you can use shells, tubes, ribbons, augers, circles or rice noodles.
The salad in the recipe below is made with orzo pasta, which I combined with chicken breast meat, fresh vegetables, mayonnaise and cream. Despite the addition of pasta, the fresh vegetables make the salad light.
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Ingredients for orzo pasta salad.
- 2 big chicken breasts
- a bunch of fresh dill
- 1 big salad cucumber
- a can of sweetcorn (280 g)
- 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil
- 250 g rice-shapped pasta
- 250 g cocktail tomatoes
- 1/6 teaspoon of black pepper
- 5 tablespoons of mayonnaise
- 4 tablespoons of sour cream
- 1 and 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
How to make orzo pasta sald.
Cook the orzo pasta according to the instructions on its package. If there is none, then pour water into a pot and when it starts boiling, pour in the pasta. Reduce heat to low and cook for approximately 5 minutes. After that, pour the pasta into a colander, pour cold water over it and cool it down.
Pour the oil into a pan and add diced chicken breasts cut into medium size cubes. Fry them over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. At the end of frying, add 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Put the cooked, drained and cold pasta into a bowl. Add tomatoes cut into quarters, drained sweetcorn, cucumber cut into strips (remove the middle of the cucumber with a spoon), cold chicken pieces and finely chopped dill.
Combine pepper with 3/4 teaspoon of salt, mayonnaise, cream and lemon juice in a cup. Pour the prepared sauce over the ingredients in the bowl. Mix well.
Good to know when making orzo pasta salad.
I used cherry tomatoes. However, you can replace them with any type of tomato, e.g. raspberry.
It is worth hollowing out the cucumber, i.e. removing the center containing the seeds. If you do that, the salad will not be too watery.
Orzo pasta is best for this salad. You can replace it with other type of pasta of your preference e.g. small shells.
Do you like salads with chicken? If so, try our recipe for Baked chicken salad.
