Greek Orzo Salad

With a zingy Greek dressing and filled with fresh summer vegetables, this Greek Orzo Salad is going to be the biggest hit at all your summer barbecues!

It’s no secret that cooking during summer… Kind of doesn’t happen. Right? It’s just too hot and I’d much rather spend time at the pool than slaving away at the stove.

My favorite summer staple are pasta salads. And nothing makes it easier to switch things up than using this fun little pasta shape: Orzo. Here I’m adding all my favorite Greek salad flavors for the ultimate summer treat!

Ingredients you’ll need

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

Ingredient notes

• Dressing: I use my homemade Greek Salad Dressing – it’s my favorite! You can easily use a store-bought dressing though.
• Fresh herbs: I like fresh oregano and parsley in any kind of Greek salad. Oregano can be kind of hard to come by, so you can just stick to parsley!
• Chickpeas: If you’re not a fan, feel free to skip these or use white beans instead.
• Olives: Kalamata olives are my favorite here, but feel free to use whatever you like.

How to make Greek Orzo Salad

1. Prepare all of your ingredients and place them in a bowl.

2. Mix together the dressing and pour it over the ingredients in the bowl.

3. Toss the salad well to combine with the dressing, then cover and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Recipe tips

How do you keep Orzo from sticking together?

The first rule of making Orzo salad: Do not let the little pasta shapes stick together.

I know a lot of people recommend washing Orzo before cooking. But I’m usually too lazy/tired/short on time to be bothered to do that.

Instead I place the Orzo in a colander and rinse it under cold water right after cooking (I do this with all pasta for pasta salad – who has time to wait for it to cool?!) and then toss it in the dressing right away. Easy peasy!

Can you make this salad ahead of time?

The beauty of pasta salads is that you can make them ahead of time – if you pay attention to a few details:

• You can make ahead and chill the pasta salad up to overnight. Keep it covered in the fridge.
• Any chopped herbs you want to add, add them right before serving – they’ll wilt too much otherwise.
• And finally, keep some extra oil, salt and vinegar/lemon juice on hand. Check for dressing/seasoning and adjust right before you’re serving the salad!

Serving ideas

Here are some of our favorite ways to serve this easy salad:

• Greek Marinated Chicken on the grill
• Grilled Chicken Kabobs
• Marinated Pork Chops on the grill
• Marinated Pork Tenderloin on the grill
• No Knead Bread

PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.

Recipe first published in 2018. Updated with new photos and text on 05/30/2022.

More summer salads to try