The Pie’s parents, Mrs. Nice and Papa John, are in town on a visit for the Pie’s graduation (B.Sc. Honours in Geography and Computer Science, booyah), so I get a good number of opportunities to cook new things that I think might appeal to them. This one I made with Mrs. Nice in mind, and reminds me somewhat of that amazing orzo salad we had at Ferryland a few years ago.
Prep your vegetables. Dice up half a large red onion, 1 red pepper, and half a large cucumber (I cut out the seeds). I also halved 250g grape tomatoes and defrosted 1 cup each frozen corn and frozen peas.
Prep your dressing. In a small jar (or other container with a lid), dump 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 2 teaspoons dried savoury (or basil, or oregano, or whatever you want), 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons honey, 3 tablespoons rice vinegar, and 3 tablespoons vegetable oil.
Close the lid tightly and give that a shake. Let it sit for a while.
Fill a large saucepan with about 4L of water and salt it generously. Put it on to boil. When it’s boiling, remove the lid, turn the heat down a bit, and pour in 450g orzo pasta.
While that’s on the go, cut up about 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts into small cubes and pitch those in a frying pan or skillet with a bit of vegetable oil.
Sauté those until fully cooked and browned on the outside. Remove from the heat.
Drain your orzo and plop it in a big bowl. This bowl was not big enough.
My peas and corn were still a little frozen so I added them to the still-hot chicken pan to let them thaw properly.
Then I chucked in the rest of the vegetables and stirred that around.
Then you just add your veg to your pasta. Give that a good stir.
Give your dressing another shake and toss that with all the rest of your salad (don’t worry about the amount — it will be absorbed into the pasta) and serve warm or cold.
Looks lovely. That’s tomorrow’s packed lunch sorted!
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Glad I could help!
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All you did looks so tasty !!! (Sorry for my english i’m french :p ) I’ll do this one with rice because i can’t eat wheat!
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Merci! Essayez-le avec du riz arborio – il aura la meilleure texture. Ce sera différent, mais très bon quand même.
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Oh! Vous parlez français 😉
Great! Thank you 🙂
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This looks delicious, healthy and filling! Can’t wait to try it!
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Ali, those were beautiful pictures you took for this post! You do a great job of prepping for your recipes — all that precisely uniform chopping — I see a 2nd career as a sous-chef in your future, or would it be 3rd or 4th after student, law librarian, and blogger? This is one recipe I am definitely going to try —“Orzo: It’s not just for Italian Wedding Soup anymore!”.
Sorry to be so late commenting on this post. Terry and I just got back from an amazing 15-day trip to the Azores and Madeira, where we so enjoyed the bread, fish, pastries and wine. Any chance of you tracking down a good Portuguese bread recipe? They told me it’s because they add sweet potatoes, but it might have just been a language thing … 🙂
P.S. Good luck with the move!
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Sounds like a great trip, Shirley! I have actually been hoarding sweetbread recipes for a while so once the dust has settled I’ll give some of them a shot, just for you!
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