Mediterranean Pasta Salad

While in school, my go-to lunch was Mediterranean pasta salad. It can be eaten by itself, or as a side dish (I am partial to enjoying it with a juicy hamburger!). I like this dish because it is extremely flexible -- you can replace the red bell peppers with tomatoes, throw in Kalamata olives instead of black olives, substitute parsley for cilantro...the list goes on and on! You can definintely personalize it to suit your tastes :)

Ingredients:

1 c. Orzo pasta
A handful of chopped cilantro
1 red bell pepper
1/2 c. diced black olives
1/2 c. chopped red onion
1 c. sun-dried tomatoes (I prefer the sun-dried tomatoes that are NOT soaked in oil. They're less messy).
1 stalk of green onion, sliced
4 oz. feta cheese
Italian dressing of your choice (I like Wishbone)
salt and pepper

How to Prepare:

Prepare the orzo pasta according to the directions on the box. Drain and rinse with cold water. It should look like this:



Next, chop the olives, red/green onions, bell pepper, sun dried tomatoes, and cilantro.



Add your veggies to the orzo and mix well. Add the Italian dressing until the orzo is well coated, along with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for a few hours so that the orzo can soak up the Italian dressing. Right before serving, add a little more dressing as well as the feta cheese.



Enjoy!