Grilled Vegetable Orzo Salad
on Jul 26, 2021, Updated Jun 30, 2024
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This easy orzo salad goes big on veggies, specifically grilled vegetables. With zucchini, yellow squash, peppers and red onions, this is a filling and satisfying vegan pasta salad recipe. After you cook the orzo, you whisk together white wine vinaigrette and stir in the orzo. That allows enough time for the grill to heat up. Then you grill the vegetables, chop them and stir them into the orzo.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
It has lots of grilled vegetables. When I make a pasta salad, I like to have enough other ingredients, so I end up with more than noodles in each forkful. That’s why I like leaning into seasonal veggies.
A good pasta salad has a mix of flavors and textures. For this recipe, I toss everything in white wine vinaigrette with minced garlic. It gives this orzo salad, with its combination of vegetables, brightness and acidity.
Orzo salads are great for potlucks, holidays, cookouts and so much more. Besides feeding a crowd, keep this recipe in mind for meal prep for workweek lunches.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Orzo is one of the smallest pasta shapes. It looks like rice. You can use plain, whole wheat or an alternative type of orzo that is gluten free.
- Zucchini, yellow squash, peppers and onions are a great combination of summer vegetables that give this orzo salad a mix of flavors, colors and bites. It is ok if you make some substitutions and adjustments depending what vegetables you have in your kitchen. For instance, you can make your salad with more bell peppers than zucchini.
- Garlic: There is a minced garlic clove in the vinaigrette.
- Whole grain mustard not only gives the vinaigrette flavor, but it also helps hold the ingredients together.
- White wine vinegar: To let the vegetables really take center stage, I use white wine vinegar. It adds the right amount of acidity while not being too strong like balsamic vinegar. You can substitute with red wine vinegar.
- Parsley: Along with the grilled vegetables, I stir in chopped fresh herbs.
- Olive oil: Use extra virgin olive oil for the best taste.
- Salt & pepper season the vinaigrette and the vegetables before they hit the grill.
Optional Additions
As written, this recipe is vegan. You can make one or more of the following addition, but not all of them are plant-based:
- Cheese: torn fresh mozzarella, crumbled feta cheese or goat cheese, grated parmesan
- Nuts: chopped toasted walnuts, pine nuts or sunflower seeds
- Leafy greens: baby arugula or spinach
- Chickpeas or white beans
- Avocados, diced
- Hard-boiled eggs, chopped
- Kalamata olives, pitted
How To Make This Grilled Vegetable Orzo Salad
Preheat a gas or charcoal grill on medium high heat.
1. Cook the orzo. Refer to the recommended cook time on the package. Orzo is a pasta that’s ready pretty quickly. You want to make sure it turns out al dente. Then pour the orzo into fine mesh strainer over the sink and rinse it with cold water.
2. Make the vinaigrette. Whisk together the minced garlic, mustard, salt, pepper, white wine vinegar and oil. I do this in a bowl that I know will be big enough to hold the orzo and the grilled vegetables.
3. Stir in the orzo into the vinaigrette.
4. Toss the vegetables in oil, salt and pepper. That includes the zucchini, squash, peppers and onions. It is easiest to do this on a sheet pan. That gives you enough space to coat the veggies in oil and season them well. Also, you can be more careful with the onions, so they stay together in slices rather than coming apart in rings. Then you can carry that pan to the grill.
5. Grill the vegetables. You want them to end up with grill marks and a bit of char on the edges. This will take about 3-4 minutes per side for the onions and 2-3 minutes per side for zucchini, squash and peppers.
6. Dice the grilled vegetables. As needed, give them a few minutes to cool off.
7. Stir the grilled veggies and fresh parsley into the orzo. Taste it to see if you need to add more salt and/or pepper.
Alternative Cooking Method: Roasting Vegetables
I know not everyone has access to an outdoor grill or a stovetop grill pan. If that is the case, you can roast the veggies rather than grilling them. Just dice the zucchini, squash, peppers and onions all about a 1/2-inch. Toss them with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Then spread them across 2 sheet pans. Roast them at 400 degrees F for 25-30 minutes rotating the baking sheets halfway through roasting. They should turn out tender and lightly browned at the edges.
Serving
You can serve this orzo pasta salad as a main dish or a side dish. It all depends on what else you include in the meal. The flavors of these grilled vegetables and vinaigrette work well other summer recipes such as baked corn zucchini fritters. Also, I like serving this salad with a protein like grilled chicken, shrimp, salmon or steak.
Leftovers, Storage & Make-Ahead Tips
Pasta salad is best the day you make it, but with orzo, I find it is more forgiving than bigger noodle shapes. You can make the vinaigrette up to 3 days in advance. Store it in a jar in the fridge. Let it sit out at room temperature before you whisk it into the orzo because the oil will need about 15 minutes to turn to liquid again if it has hardened in the cold temperature of the refrigerator.
Wait to cook the orzo until you are planning to make the entire salad to ensure it has the best texture.
You can keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days. Let it sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes before you’re going to serve it.
Recipe Tips
Don’t overcook orzo. This is important. The pasta should turn out very al dente because it will absorb some of the dressing. Rinsing off the orzo with cold water in a fine mesh strainer prevents it from continuing to cook and preserves its ideal texture.
Keep an eye on your veggies as they grill.These are recommended cook times, but you know your grill best and its hot and cool spots.
Check the seasonings. When dishes are served cold or room temperature, they need more salt and pepper than food eaten warm or hot. Once you have the orzo salad assembled, taste it and see if you need to season it. Salt has can jumpstart the flavors of all the ingredients.
More Pasta Salad Recipes
Classic Italian Pasta Salad
Strawberry Cucumber Pasta Salad
Southwest Pasta Salad
Roasted Veggie Chickpea Pasta Salad
Roasted Tomato Pesto Pasta Salad
Broccolini Zucchini Pasta Salad
White Bean Lemon Orzo Salad
Check out my collection of simple seasonal salad recipes including some of favorite ingredients and tips for making better salads. Also, if you love pasta for dinner, don’t miss my easy pasta guide for inspiration all year long.
Grilled Vegetable Orzo Salad
Ingredients
For orzo
- 1 cup orzo
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
For vegetables
- 2 zucchini, sliced lengthwise 1/2” thick
- 2 yellow squash, sliced lengthwise 1/2” thick
- 2 red bell peppers, cut lengthwise into 2-inch wide strips
- 1 red onion, sliced into 1/2” thick rounds
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat a gas or charcoal grill on medium high heat
- Cook the orzo in a large pot of salted boiling water on the stove until al dente according to package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water in a fine mesh strainer.
- In a large bowl, whisk the garlic, mustard, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, white wine vinegar and 3 tablespoons olive oil. Stir in the orzo.
- Toss the zucchini, squash, peppers, onions with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.
- Grill the vegetables until they have grill marks and are charred at the edges, about 3-4 minutes per side for the onions and 2-3 minutes per side for zucchini, squash and peppers.
- Dice the grilled vegetables.
- Stir the grilled vegetables and parsley into the orzo. Taste the salad to see if it needs any additional salt and/or pepper.
Notes
- Cheese: torn fresh mozzarella, crumbled feta or goat cheese, grated parmesan
- Nuts: toasted walnuts, pine nuts or sunflower seeds
- Leafy greens: baby arugula or spinach
- Chickpeas or white beans
- Diced avocados
- Pitted Kalamata olives
- Hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Delicious! Light taste that made the veggies the star of the show. Served with some baked tofu, husband picked the plate clean. Thank you!
Very good, refreshing salad that we made for a meatless Monday Memorial Day. All the veggies took up the whole grill, which I loved! My husband and I both liked it and as lunch leftovers my husband mentioned how good it was. I served it with halloumi. Will be saving this recipe. Oh, the only thing I did different was I didn’t have white wine vinegar (I thought my rice vinegar was white wine vinegar), so I used red wine vinegar and it was still really good. Usually my husband complains when I make dressings with red wine vinegar, but he didn’t notice!
Can this be made one day ahead of serving?
Pasta salad is best the day you make it, but with orzo I think you should be ok to make it 1 day ahead. Store the cooked pasta, grilled vegetables and vinaigrette in separate containers. Stir it all together right before you are going to serve it. You can make the vinaigrette up to 3 days in advance.
This recipe sounds delicious. Do you think I can make it with quinoa or farro instead of orzo? I want to up the protein in the dish. Thank you!
Delicious!