Summer Orzo Salad (Risoni Salad)

This Orzo Salad is brimming with the tastes of summer: cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet corn, and basil. Tossed with an easy red wine vinaigrette and feta cheese, this vegetarian meal comes together in under 30 minutes.

I don’t know about you, but in the summer I am craving light meals that don’t require me to turn on an oven. Bonus points if they’re jam-packed with all the vegetables I just picked up from the farmer’s market. Interested? Voilà this Summer Orzo Salad, which pairs orzo (risoni) pasta with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, sweet corn, and feta cheese. That combination is delicious on its own, but add in an easy red wine vinaigrette and some chopped fresh basil, and you’ve got a winner. 

Why Make This?

- This dish is heavier on the veggies than the pasta, which makes it lighter and healthier than most traditional pasta salads, not to mention tastier too!

- This recipe is so versatile: you can easily swap out the vegetables for whatever is in season near you. See below for ideas.

- This orzo salad is perfect for batch cooking. I love to make a batch of this to eat for vegetarian lunches throughout the week. That said, it’s also fantastic as a side dish for whatever’s on the grill or as a potluck dish.

🥗 Ingredients

• Tomatoes: Halved cherry tomatoes (or halved grape tomatoes) are the perfect size for this dish. You can use red, orange, or yellow tomatoes, though the red ones look the prettiest in this salad. If you don’t have cherry tomatoes, you can cut up any kind of tomato into bite-sized chunks, and add those instead. In the winter months, you might try chopping up some sun-dried tomatoes. 
• Cucumber: I love the crunch of cucumber in this dish, but if you don’t have one, you can leave it out, or replace with a chopped green bell pepper. 
• Corn: Fresh corn is fantastic in this dish, but you can substitute canned or frozen corn if you can’t find fresh. Personally, I love Del Monte’s Summer Crisp canned corn when fresh corn is out of season. 
• Feta Cheese: Feta cheese adds saltiness, creaminess and tang to this dish in the best possible way. If you can’t find feta, substitute crumbled goat cheese. You could also try this with blue cheese or with chopped up fresh mozzarella. 
• Orzo (also called risoni): I love orzo, and if you do too, you might want to check out two other orzo salad recipes: Orzo Pasta Salad with Black Beans and this Pesto Orzo Salad. But any small pasta that you might use in a traditional pasta salad would work with this dish—elbows, ditalini, mini bow ties, small shells? For a gluten-free version of this dish, replace the orzo with gluten-free pasta or with quinoa. 
• Olive Oil: I recommend a good-quality extra-virgin olive oil for this dressing—this is a dish where the quality really comes through. 
• Basil: Fresh basil is fantastic in this summer orzo salad, but if you can’t find it, you can add dried herbs to your vinaigrette. Dried basil and oregano or herbes de provence whisked together in the dressing will also taste great. 

🥣 Instructions

Trim the excess leaves and corn silk off one ear of corn. Heat corn in the microwave for 3 minutes, then let it sit for 1-2 minutes before removing from microwave. When it is cool enough to peel, peel back the leaves and remove the corn silk. Then, holding the ear of corn upright with the peeled-back leaves, use a chef’s knife to cut the kernels off the cob.

(For more detail on this method and for two other ideas for cooking corn, see my 3 Best Ways to Cook Corn post.) 

Rinse and halve a pint of cherry tomatoes. Cut 1 cucumber in half lengthwise, then in half or thirds again lengthwise. Then cut each baton into ½-inch chunks.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add orzo pasta, and cook until just done, referring to the cooking times on your package.

While orzo is cooking, make the vinaigrette by whisking together red wine vinegar, olive oil, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper. 

When orzo is done, drain and put in a large bowl. Toss with a couple of tablespoons of the vinaigrette and stir well, cooling off the pasta. Continue to let the pasta cool for a few minutes.

When the orzo is no longer steaming, add the cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, and 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil. Then add the rest of the vinaigrette. Gently stir in crumbled feta cheese, and serve. 

🧐 Recipe FAQs

👩‍🍳 Expert Tips

Cutting kernels off the cob cleanly

When you're cutting the corn kernels off the cob, it’s best to work over a large bowl so that the corn kernels don’t spray all over your cutting board or counter. Just prop the tip of the corn on the bottom of the bowl and cut down from the top

Quick way to make a vinaigrette

Whisking together ingredients in a small bowl is a fine way to make a vinaigrette. However, if you have an extra mason jar with a lid, I love to shake my vinaigrette ingredients together in that. Bonus, you can double or triple the recipe, then save the leftover vinaigrette in the mason jar—no cleanup required!

Why you should not rinse pasta after cooking it

You may wonder why not rinse the orzo in cold water after draining it, so that it will cool down before you add the rest of the ingredients? The reason is that rinsing pasta after you cook it coats it with a bit of water such that it won’t absorb the sauce or dressing you use with it as well.

For the best flavor, I like to drain it and then immediately stir in some of the vinaigrette—that way, it won’t be sticky, and the pasta will absorb the flavor of the dressing rather than becoming watery. 

Other Delicious Summer Recipes

If you love summer produce as much as I do, you may want to check out some of my other favorite summertime recipes. Got a ton of ripe summer tomatoes? Don’t miss these:

You might also enjoy these recipes highlighting fresh basil, eggplant, figs, peas, and of course, corn!

• Simple Lemon Basil Pesto
• Pesto Aioli
• Vegetarian English Pea Salad
• Pesto Tortellini Salad with Chicken
• Fig Salad with Blue Cheese
• Black Bean and Corn Salad
• Air Fryer Eggplant Parmesan

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