Orzo salad is loaded with Juicy shrimp, cherry tomatoes, onion, and everything is tossed in fresh basil pesto. This refreshing salad can be served as a main dish or as a side dish during summer Barbeque. 
Orzo salad with shrimps, tomatoes, onion, and pesto is like summer on the plate. This salad is so good, yet quite effortless to make, and is bursting with fresh flavors. Use juicy seasonal cherry tomatoes, make a batch of fresh basil pesto or bottled one that will also work, and a generous topping of parmesan while serving. A perfect salad to make for a large gathering or any of your summer barbeques.
This tiny Orzo pasta resembles so much risotto but takes half the time to cook. It soaks up any flavor that you add it to. This salad can be served at room temperature or even cold.
Interested to cook with Orzo? Look at some of my other recipes - Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup, One Pot Tomato Basil Chicken Orzo, and Italian Sausage & Orzo Soup.
Tips and Variations to make Pesto Shrimp Orzo Pasta Salad
- Start with cooking Orzo in well-seasoned water until done. Drain and let it cool down.
- While I would recommend making a fresh batch of pesto for a zesty flavor, you can also use a bottled one.
- I cooked the shrimp just with salt and pepper so that when tossed in pesto, the taste of pesto shines through it.
- Cut cherry tomatoes in half and chop onions.
- Make sure when you add pesto to the salad the Orzo and Shrimps have cooled down a little bit. If you add veggies and pesto to very hot Pasta, then they lose the freshness.
- You can also add chopped red bell peppers, and mozzarella bites to it.
Make Orzo Salad in advance
This orzo salad can be made a day or two in advance, especially if you are making a big batch of it. Toss all the ingredients with the required amount of pesto and tightly cover with cling wrap and refrigerate. While serving you can top it with more fresh pesto if you want and fresh shaving of Parmesan.
Serve With
This Shrimp orzo salad is a meal by itself. It has protein and carbs from the shrimp and orzo. If there is something I would suggest, it would be to add more greens to your plate to enrich your diet with more fiber.
More Summer Salad Recipes...
Lemon Dill Potato Salad( No Mayo)
Ramen Noodles Salad With Peanut Dressing
Shrimp Orzo Salad with Pesto
Ingredients
- 250 grams Orzo pasta
- 250 grams Shrimp Cleaned and deveined
- 1 teaspoon Olive Oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 200 grams Cherry Tomatoes
- 1 medium Onion
- ½ cup Fresh Pesto
- Parmesan to garnish
Instructions
- Cook Orzo pasta as per package instructions. (Make sure to add enough salt to the water while cooking) . Darin and let it cool down a bit.
- Heat oil in a pan. Add shrimp to the pan, season with salt and pepper. Cook for 3-4 minutes. It will turn pink.
- Cut cherry tomato to half. Chop Onion.
- In a big salad mixing bowl, add orzo. halved tomatoes, Chopped onions, and shrimp. Add 3-4 tablespoons of pesto. Toss everything well.
- Serve with more pesto and parmesan shavings on top.
Jessie Georges says
Simple yet delicious! I used Argentian Shrimp, which taste like lobster. I used homemade pesto (Moosewood has an awesome pesto recipe). Delicious!