Orzo salad with kale pesto
19 July 2011 § 16 Comments
With the temperature over 90° outside it is far too hot to have the oven on for kale chips. Eating it raw in this salad will give you your dose of daily greens. This salad is vegan but don’t let that put you off – should you desire add a handful of grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese.
Recipe – serves 4
Ingredients:
- 8oz orzo
- 5 cups water
- 1 cup walnuts
- 2 cups chopped kale (remove the woody stems)
- 1 cup fresh basil
- 1 large clove of garlic
- Juice from 1 lemon
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- ½ cup halved olives (remove the stones)
- Salt and pepper
Bring a pan of water to boiling, add a generous pinch of salt and add the orzo. Simmer for 5-7 minutes, drain when tender and let it cool.
Add the kale and basil to a pan of boiling water for about 30 seconds. Then submerge in ice water for a few seconds, then drain. Dry in some paper towel. This will preserve the bright green color so your salad does not turn a muddy green color after a few hours.
In a food processor, pulse the nuts, garlic, basil and kale until you have a fine mince, adding some olive oil and lemon juice as you go. You might have to do in 2 batches. When you have a green, thick smooth paste. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Should you wish to add parmigiano stir it in now.
Add the chopped olives and tomatoes and serve.
King Marv and I loved this, but The Ladies™ were not keen. However my friend’s two-year old son kept begging for more.
This looks great! I can’t wait to make it as I have a bunch of kale sitting in my fridge but I’ve been dreading making the chips in the hot oven.
-Jackie
Thanks Jackie -How about trying kale chips on the grill? If you turned off the burner immediately under them so they don’t burn,that would work. In fact I’m going to try soon!
Looks TASTY! The garden grown kale is almost ready to begin picking!!
Excellent – I’ll trade you some arugula for kale!
Love your idea for kale pesto! And also your suggestion to make kale chips on the barbecue. We are escaping the heat wave here (no hot oven issues….we could use a bit more sun, though) but any excuse to barbecue makes me happy.
Thanks Hannah – we love a barbie too and will use well into the fall!
I love this. I think I’ll try it first without the cheese, and then with. Do you think it would be worth the trouble to heat up the walnuts a little bit? I usually prefer them crispy, but if they are processed anyway, I suppose it doesn’t really matter.
Thanks for the veggie recipes!
It would have a better flavor if you toast the walnuts beforehand. You caught me out taking a shortcut!
What a great idea for kale! I will definitely give this a try before summer is over.
Yum! I’ve never tried pesto with orzo – looks so refreshing. Tim is highly skeptical of all things vegan, so I’d probably add cheese. I second the toasted walnuts idea too – love them on just about anything.
Hello! This recipe has been featured on The Bees Elbows!
View the post here: http://beeselbows.blogspot.com/2011/07/tasty-tuesday-potluck-guide.html
Woot!
This is going on my make again list. Loved it. Thanks so much.
Thanks!! Great blog name baconandbeer – I will check it out!
I just made this for dinner! yum! I didn’t have walnuts so I subbed pine nuts. I am glad to have another recipe for all this kale I have.
Thanks Michelle – I just did not use pine nuts as they are so expensive at the moment.
[...] was inspired by this salad for Orzo Salad with Kale Pesto, but I simplified it quite a bit by used prepared [...]