SYDNEY, October 2026 — Greek orzo salad brings cucumber, feta, tomato, artichokes and olives together in Patrice’s Allrecipes recipe, which home cooks rate 4.6 out of 5 from 636 ratings.
Greek orzo salad starts with kritharaki pasta
Orzo is a short, rice-shaped pasta. In Greek kitchens it is usually called kritharaki (κριθαράκι), according to Wikipedia’s entry on the pasta shape. Cooks simmer it in soups and stews, or chill it for a cold pasta bowl.
This Greek orzo salad follows the chilled route. Patrice, the Allrecipes member who shared it in April 2000, packs the bowl with the same summer produce you find in a village salad: cucumber, tomato, onion, olives and crumbled feta.
Greek City Times has already covered hot uses of the same grain. It has published a homemade tomato saltsa recipe, as well as a traditional giouvetsi recipe in which the rice-shaped pasta bakes under meat and sauce.
Unlike those mains, this dish is a make-ahead side. Allrecipes lists 393 calories, 57 g of carbohydrate and 14 g of protein per serve. Each serve also has 13 g of fat and 968 mg of sodium.
Ingredients for the chilled kritharaki bowl
Because the recipe makes about six serves — and several cooks say the bowl goes further than that — Greek orzo salad suits a barbecue, a picnic or a weekday lunch box. In addition, every item for this kritharaki mix is easy to find at the supermarket.
- 1½ cups (about 300 g) uncooked orzo pasta
- 2 cans (6 oz / about 170 g each) marinated artichoke hearts
- 1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
- 1 tomato, seeded and chopped
- 1 red onion, chopped
In addition, Greek orzo salad needs crumbled cheese, olives, herbs and a sharp finish of lemon.
- 1 cup (about 150 g) crumbled feta cheese
- 1 can (2 oz / about 55 g) black olives, drained
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon lemon pepper
Feta gives Greek orzo salad its salty, creamy bite. According to Wikipedia’s entry on feta, the cheese is a PDO product made from sheep’s milk or a sheep-and-goat mix.
Marinated artichoke hearts do double duty in this kritharaki mix. The drained pieces go into the bowl, while their marinade becomes the dressing at the end. Artichokes have long been eaten around the Mediterranean, as Wikipedia’s entry on the plant notes.
As for the pasta, cook the orzo only until it is al dente. Soft grains turn mushy once the salad chills and the marinade goes on.
How to cook, chill and dress it
Allrecipes lists 15 minutes of preparation, 10 minutes of cooking and about an hour of chilling. The method for this Greek orzo salad is simple, since most of the work is chopping and tossing.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.
- Add the orzo and cook until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes, then drain.
- Drain the artichoke hearts and keep the marinade aside.
Next, tip the warm kritharaki and the chopped produce into one large bowl so Greek orzo salad can chill evenly.
- Combine the pasta, artichoke hearts, cucumber, tomato, onion, feta, olives, parsley, lemon juice, oregano and lemon pepper, then toss well.
- Chill the bowl in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Finally, drizzle the reserved artichoke marinade over the salad just before you serve it.
According to Allrecipes, the reserved marinade is the built-in dressing for Greek orzo salad. Still, many home cooks swap it for a bottled Greek vinaigrette or a homemade oil-and-vinegar mix when they want more zest.
Tips from home cooks
Hundreds of home cooks have rated this Greek orzo salad on Allrecipes, with 636 ratings and 471 reviews. Allrecipes member Catherine Anna Volk wrote: “Everyone loved it!” after she took the bowl to a garden club meeting.
However, the artichoke marinade divided opinion. Dining Diva preferred a fresh dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice and dried oregano. By comparison, CARRIANNE22 stirred in Italian dressing and extra red wine vinegar and said everyone loved the result.
Other cooks changed the vegetables in their kritharaki salad. In particular, Jilly swapped black olives for kalamata olives and used leftover orzo. VeganJo replaced missing tomatoes with roasted red peppers. Amy added chickpeas for extra protein, while ProudMeat5347 stirred in pepperoncini and chopped salami for heat.
Barbara Adamczyk also noted that the bowl yields far more than six serves. Given that, it suits a potluck table as well as a family dinner.
Not every review of this kritharaki bowl was glowing, though. One cook found the salad dry and bland when made exactly as written and asked for more seasoning and olive oil.
Overall, reviewers treat Greek orzo salad as a make-ahead side for cookouts and weekday lunches, given that it keeps well once chilled. It pairs naturally with the cucumber, tomato and feta flavours in Greek City Times’ note on horiatiki’s health benefits. The original recipe on Allrecipes includes step-by-step photos.
Source: Allrecipes
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