I hardly ever, if ever, purchase orzo, the rice-shaped pasta, however I used to be intrigued by barbecue chef Melissa Thompson’s ballot on her Instagram tales asking: “Do you’ve got a half-finished bag of orzo sitting in your cabinet?” She had greater than 600 responses, virtually 90% of which stated sure. Thompson turned hers right into a salad with pepper, spring onion, tomatoes and cucumber. Impressed, I rushed out to purchase a bag (sure, I see the irony, too) and made a salad utilizing leftovers. And, after all, ended up with half a bag of orzo in my cabinet.
Orzo salad: an anti-recipe
I’ve referred to as this an anti-recipe as a result of I feel recipes are sometimes responsible of making meals waste by being too prescriptive. I would like you to prepare dinner with love, confidence and creativity, utilizing up no matter you will discover. So, use orzo when you have it; if not, one other pasta or perhaps a grain will be shortly cooked as much as create a satiating salad.
Construct an imaginative meal utilizing leftovers saved from a earlier lunch. Stale or out-of-date – however nonetheless suitable for eating – nuts, seeds and spices. You may inform in the event that they’re off by the rancid, oily odor and bitter style. Different meals you’ll be able to revive and reuse: wrinkly veg and wilted herbs from the crisper drawer (revived in ice water), tinned or frozen greens, and odds and ends of cheese.
Serves 2 as a essential or 6 as a facet
All elements and portions are optionally available and must be added to style
For the salad
300-400g cooked orzo (from about 125-150g raw)
130-260g cooked beans or pulses (eg ½-1 can drained cannellini, brown lentils or kidney beans)
200-300g greens, cooked or uncooked (eg, frozen peas, diced boiled candy potatoes, inexperienced peppers)
100-200g cheese (eg, feta, parmesan, cheddar), sliced or crumbled
50-100g toasted nuts and/or seeds (eg, cashews, almonds, peanuts, pumpkin or sesame seeds)
50-100g different retailer cabinet elements (eg, sun-dried tomatoes, dried apricots, sultanas)
30-50g recent comfortable herbs (eg, parsley, coriander, mint), stalks finely chopped, leaves roughly chopped
Different leftovers, to style – I had a small quantity of fennel frond pesto salad (recipe arising in a few weeks), which I added to the combo.
For the dressing
Leftover salad dressings (eg, caesar, French, honey and mustard), or drizzle on 2–4 tbsp oil (eg, extra-virgin olive oil, avocado oil, hemp oil) and 1–2 tbsp lemon juice, wine vinegar or ume vinegar (see my apricot umeboshi recipe for the latter)
Tip the cooked and cooled pasta into a big bowl. Now construct the salad like a buddha bowl, arranging every ingredient facet by facet, so you’ll be able to see precisely what you’ve acquired earlier than mixing.
Add the beans or pulses, adopted by the cooked and uncooked greens. Add the cheese, then sprinkle over the nuts and seeds.
Prime with anything you’ve got within the cabinet that’s full of flavour, reminiscent of sun-dried tomatoes or dried fruit.
End with the chopped comfortable herbs, then gown to style (in the event you’ve acquired just a bit dressing left within the bottle, bulk it out with a splash of oil and lemon juice or vinegar). Combine, style, regulate and serve.
