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This salad was inspired by one of my favorite’s growing up. My Aunt would make this salad with roasted vegetables, feta cheese and a ton of oil. Today I found myself craving a hearty pasta salad and decided to recreate this one using no oil, no animal products and all whole foods.
It features orzo pasta that is a small, rice shaped pasta that originates from Italy, then we sauté garlic, onion, peppers, kale, and artichokes to give it a robust flavor. It is all topped off with fresh basil, toasted pine nuts and a creamy lemon, garlic dressing. This recipe is super simple to make and lasts for up to a week in the fridge. It is the perfect salad to bring to a Christmas gathering as everyone will enjoy its authentic flavors. Bon appétit!
Orzo Salad - Vegan
Base Ingredients
- 1lb orzo pasta, cooked
Vegetables
- 1/2 (each) red/yellow bell pepper, chopped
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
- 3 cups chopped Tuscan kale (curly kale)
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
Sauce
- juice 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp sea salt (may omit if SOS free)
- 2 tbsp tahini or cashew butter
Toppings
- 2 ounces pine nuts (toasted)
- 3 tbsp fresh basil, julienned
- 3 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes
- juice 1/2 lemon
Instructions
- First cook your orzo pasta following the directions on the bag. Once its al’ dente, rinse under cold water in a strainer and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
- If you cannot find toasted pine nuts, you can toast them yourself. Place 2 ounces of raw pine nuts on medium heat in a non-stick skillet and stir until they start to become fragrant and toasted (about 5 minutes) be careful not to burn them. Once toasted remove from heat and place in a small bowl.
- Next place your onion and garlic with 1/4 cup water in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat and sauté until fragrant. Then add in the rest of your vegetables and another 1/4 cup of water or vegetable broth and cook for 10 minutes or until all the water has evaporated.
- While the vegetables are sautéing we will prepare the sauce. Take all of the sauce ingredients and whisk them together. Pour this over the pasta and stir to combine it thoroughly.
- Once your vegetables are done, add them to the pasta, stir them in, add your toasted pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil. Squeeze the other half lemon on top and enjoy!
- Note - You want to add the dressing immediately before you serve the dish. The orzo pasta will absorb liquid pretty quickly so if you plan to keep this in the fridge and eat it during the course of a week, I would suggest keeping the dressing in another container and using a tbsp at a time on each individual serving as you eat it. If you don’t do this you will notice the dressing “soak in” it is still flavorful just not as creamy.
Want some more delicious recipes like this? Make sure to check out our recipe books for some delicious high carb low fat plant-based meal ideas.
We also have a newly released Instant Pot recipe book you can find here.
When you click on the pdf, the ingredients are listed but the directions talk about cooking butternut squash.
Sorry about that! I updated it Jenny 🙂
Just wanted to share a tip about making dressings in the VitaMix that might be helpful to some… I make all my own dressings and sauces in a VitaMix, too, but when it comes to ingredients like garlic, I almost exclusively use only the fresh stuff. (I don’t know why, but powders like garlic powder or onion powder tend to disagree with me a lot.) So if other’s have the same problem like I do, or just don’t have garlic powder on hand, I’d suggest it’s totally fine to replace the garlic powder in the dressing with a small clove of fresh garlic. 🙂 …Peace!