This is the bowl I bring when somebody says “just bring a salad.” A lemon orzo salad<\/strong> with feta and chickpeas, served cold, sharp enough to wake up a plate of ribs. Cherry tomatoes, a full can of chickpeas, two cheeses instead of one, peppery arugula, cucumber, red onion, slivered almonds for the crunch. It holds up on a picnic table for an hour without going sad, which is more than most pasta salads<\/strong> can say.<\/p>\n Most orzo salad with feta<\/strong> recipes stop at lemon and olive oil. Mine doesn’t. White balsamic vinegar and maple syrup<\/strong> go in alongside the lemon juice, the oil and grated garlic, and that sweet-sour depth is the reason people ask for the dressing recipe instead of the salad recipe. White balsamic instead of dark, on purpose: the dark stuff turns the whole bowl a muddy brown, and this salad is supposed to look like July. The maple is the Quebec in it.<\/p>\n It works as a side for anything off the grill. It also works alone, with a baguette and a puddle of olive oil to mop. Add grilled chicken, shrimp or soft-boiled eggs and it stops being a side entirely. Best part: you can make it ahead<\/strong>. The flavors settle overnight, so this is the rare potluck dish that pays you back for cooking a day early.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \ud83e\udd57 A cold orzo salad built for a crowd This is the bowl I bring when somebody says “just bring a salad.” A lemon orzo salad with feta and chickpeas, served cold, sharp enough to wake up a plate of ribs. Cherry tomatoes, a full can of chickpeas, two cheeses …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":18073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"lemon orzo salad","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Lemon orzo salad with feta and chickpeas recipe","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Cold lemon orzo salad with feta, chickpeas and arugula in a maple white balsamic dressing. Make it ahead for BBQs and potlucks.","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"recipe_category":[165,180,167,178,186,177],"sponsorship":[],"class_list":["post-18078","recipe","type-recipe","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","recipe_category-lunches-en","recipe_category-pastas-noodles","recipe_category-main-dishes","recipe_category-sides","recipe_category-vegetarian","recipe_category-vegetarian-dishes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\ud83c\udf6f The dressing is the whole argument<\/h3>\n
\ud83c\udf64 Side tonight, lunch all week<\/h3>\n