Meatless Monday: Edamame & Orzo Salad

When we're running low on groceries, I often just throw a bunch of ingredients together and hope for the best. Sometimes it turns out well, other times...not so much. This Edamame & Orzo salad with tomatoes, artichokes, red onion, and a simple home made dressing turned out to be a success! This salad can stand alone as a light lunch thanks to the protein in the edamame, and would be great way to use up an assortment of produce. Bell peppers or cucumbers would make especially tasty additions, and any variety of onion could be substituted for the red onion. In fact, next time I make this, I'll probably opt not to use the red onion, as it ended up overpowering the salad a little bit.

What You'll Need:

• 1&1/3 Cups dry orzo
• 1 10-12 oz. bag of frozen shelled edamame 
• 1 Jar of Marinated artichoke hearts, cut up into smaller pieces if you prefer
• A few handfuls of grape tomatoes, halved (or cherry tomatoes, quartered, or regular ol' tomatoes, cut up however you like them)
• 1/4 Red Onion, finely chopped (I used 1/2 red onion and didn't finely chop, and it was WAY too much)
• Dressing: 3 Tbsp Olive oil, 2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar, Juice of half lemon, garlic salt, and pepper

What You'll Do:

• Cook orzo and edamame according to package instructions. Rinse both in cold water, then transfer to a large bowl or serving container.
• Add everything except for the dressing ingredients to the orzo and edamame and toss together.
• In a small bowl, mix dressing ingredients.
• Add dressing to Orzo & Edamame mix and well to coat.
• Enjoy!

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