This Roasted Chickpea and Orzo Salad is drizzled with a lemony hummus dressing and a scattering of fresh parsley. It's the perfect lunch recipe that can be made ahead. Get the recipe below.
Simple salads
When it comes to your every day lunch I like dishes that are easy to make but full of flavour. When it comes to salads I like to keep the core ingredients simple and then dress them with a banging salad dressing.
This Roasted Chickpea and Orzo Salad recipe is just that. It's a simple salad taking store cupboard staples like chickpeas and spices, adding them to fresh veggies and finally dressing with a lemony hummus salad dressing and fresh herbs.
You might be less familiar with orzo but it's definitely an ingredient you should have in your pantry.
How to make this Roasted Chickpea and Orzo Salad
What is orzo and how do you cook it?
Orzo is pasta that has been shaped to look like a large grain of rice. Because of this it works well in dishes where you'd use more familiar pasta shapes, or where you'd use rice! It is super versatile.
Cooking orzo is easy. You can, of course, just follow the instructions on the packet. But, in short you cook it as you would any other pasta shape: in a pan of boiling water for 10 - 12 minutes or until tender.
For this recipe I simply cook the orzo then leave it to cool. It can then be added to the fresh salad vegetables and herbs along with the roasted chickpeas. More on that below...
How do you roast chickpeas?
Roast chickpeas are the other cooked component of this salad.
You could add the chickpeas to the salad without roasting them first but in doing so you'd lose lots of the flavour and you'd miss out on the crunch.
Roasting chickpeas is easy. You just toss them in oil and spices then roast in the oven for 30 minutes. In that time they become smokey and crisp.
They are the perfect crunchy addition to any salad.
How to make a hummus dressing?
The third and final component to this recipe (bar the chopped veggies of course) is the lemony hummus dressing.
Sometimes I start my creamy salad dressings with tahini but I wanted to make something thicker and more luxurious and full of flavour.
To make the dressing just mix the hummus, extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice until it is able to be drizzled.
I like to spoon it over the salad but you could stir it in too.
The recipe
Roasted Chickpea and Orzo Salad
Ingredients
For the roasted chickpeas
- 245 g chickpeas from one 400g tin
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- salt and pepper
For the salad
- 150 g orzo
- 12 cherry tomatoes
- 3 inch piece cucumber
- 1 yellow pepper
- 0.5 small red onion
- 1 bunch parsley
For the dressing
- 2 tablespoon hummus
- 0.5 lemon juice only
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Begin by pre-heating your oven to 200C / F / gas mark 4.
- Toss the drained chickpeas in the oil and spices then place into the oven to roast for 30 minutes then leave to cool.
- In the meantime, cook the orzo in a pan of boiling water for 10 - 12 minutes or until tender.
- Once cooked, drain and leave to cool.
- While the chickpeas are roasting and the orzo is cooling, finely dice all of the salad vegetables.
- Add the vegetables to a large bowl along with the parsley (thinly sliced).
- To make the dressing, whisk together the hummus, extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice before seasoning to taste.
- Once the orzo and roasted chickpeas are cool, add to the salad vegetables.
- Toss together then serve with the salad dressing.
Nutrition
More orzo recipes
Orzo is one of my favourite ingredients. It's so versatile. Why not try one of these other orzo recipes.
More lunch recipes
For more simple lunch recipes check out my lunch recipe collection.
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