Orzo Salad with Corn and Tomatoes

Now one kind of salad I do like are grain salads. This blog is full of one pot/bowl recipes, and surprise, here's another one. I originally saved this recipe because I wanted to try farro, which I had never cooked before, but here I use orzo. Clearly I hadn't been to the bulk store in awhile. This Farro and Corn Salad is so simple, though, I should try to highlight some rare grain with it. Next time. Next summer...

The recipe calls for 1 cup farro or barley, but for some reason I used up what orzo I had and it was probably closer to 2 cups. I guess I didn't think orzo would fluff up as much as other grains? Either way, it was a little too much. Stick with 1 or 1 1/2 cups. Rinse when it's done cooking, and toss with olive oil. In a large pan, cook 1 1/2 cups corn for 2-3 minutes so it can char. I didn't use fresh corn... frozen worked just fine. Then throw in one pint of halved cherry tomatoes and a few sliced green onions and cook for 2 min to warm.

Throw the orzo and veggies into a large bowl and add the juice of one lemon, 1 tsp lemon zest and handfuls of baby arugula. 'Tis the season for cherry tomatoes and I've been having a mini love affair with arugula for the past few months so this was delicious. Bit too much pasta, as I mentioned above, so it wasn't as full of veggies as it was supposed to be. Also, no protein, so it wasn't the most balanced dinner - but that's me, eating side dishes as main meals. Will definitely try again with a more interesting grain.