Spinach and Orzo Salad with Chicken and Almonds

Pasta salads are a staple of American picnics and barbeques for a reason – they’re easy to make, it’s easy to scale them up to feed a crowd, and they taste fantastic at room temperature on a hot day. Growing up I was never really a fan of the traditional pasta (or even potato) salad because I don’t like mayonnaise.

I know it’s weird. I get the same looks I’m sure you’re giving the screen right now when I tell people I don’t like mashed potatoes either. It’s a texture thing. Both just strike my taste buds as wrongwrongwrong even though I know 98% of the country could probably happily live on mashed potatoes for a couple days (or years in the case of my sister).

In any case, I was a happy camper when I realized you could make pasta salad with olive oil rather than mayonnaise. I’m sure I’ll be sharing a couple other pasta salad recipes down the road with you all as we get deeper into summer, but for now I hope you enjoy this one!

Spinach and Orzo Salad with Chicken and Almonds
Adapted like woah from The Family Kitchen 

This salad lasts a while, I ate it over the course of a week for lunch. However, if you plan on spacing this dish out over a couple of days, don’t add the feta in the final step of the recipe and wait to add it until just before serving. I think this dish would also taste great if you tried different types of onions – vidalia or Shallots would be amazing, I’m sure (then again, you all know that I love shallots, spinach, and almonds together).

You can easily make this recipe vegetarian by taking out the chicken or vegan by removing the chicken and cheese (though you might want to add a pinch of salt to the final salad to balance out flavors).

Ingredients

1 cup orzo, uncooked
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
1 6 oz bag of baby spinach
1 white onion, sliced thinly

1 clove garlic

1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 chicken breast cooked and either shredded or sliced thinly

4 oz feta, crumbled

Equipment

Pot, pan, mixing bowl

Cook orzo according to instructions on package, set aside to cool completely in mixing bowl. Add 1/2 tablespoon olive oil to pasta to keep if from sticking.

Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to pan and heat over medium high heat. Add slice onions and cook about 20 minutes or until golden. Add the garlic and spinach and cook until spinach is wilted. Remove from heat and add to orzo. (If you were like me and had regular almonds, not toasted, now is a good time to toast your almonds in the same pan for a minute or two and then add them to the orzo salad mix).

Add the cooked chicken and mix well.

Add crumbled feta to top.

Serve immediately at room temperature or slightly chilled.

Serves 4-5 (with a 1/2 cup serving)