Frugal Feasts: Crisper Drawer Orzo with Lemon and Dill

On Monday we had our column photo shoot with Ken Williams, who in addition to being a great photographer, is as helpful and soothing as Tim Gunn. If Tim Gunn lived in New Hampshire with his wife and five kids.

Anyway, we realized that we needed something to add to the plate with the turkey burgers. We raided Suzanne's fridge and came up with a simple and scrumptious pasta salad that was pretty and surprisingly refreshing...



It's really not a recipe, it's more of just a suggested list of ingredients:

Mix together:
Pasta
Fresh vegetables
Vinaigrette

Et voila!

Here's what we used:

1 pound orzo (rice shaped pasta) cooked according to package directions, drained and rinsed with cool water.

Toss together with:

2 cups chopped fresh vegetables.

We used:

2 carrots
1 red bell pepper
1/2 hothouse cucumber
1 can small black olives, cut in half

Anything from the crisper drawer would work here: radishes, lightly cooked asparagus, green beans, Swiss chard stems, baby spinach, the list is endless

Whisk together a quick vinaigrette:

1/4 cup olive oil
juice and zest of one lemon (or 3 tablespoons wine or cider vinegar)
handful of minced fresh dill (or any other herb)
2 tablespoons minced onion
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
fresh ground pepper to taste.

Drizzle the dressing over the pasta and veggies, toss and chill until serving time.