So here’s a really easy side dish. I actually put this on top of my salad one day at work and it was yum! It’s nothing fancy, I just didn’t have much food left so all of these ingredients tasted pretty super together.
Start by boiling a serving of orzo or your favorite pasta. Orzo works REALLY well for this.
Cut up a small tomato, a tiny bit of onion, a little fresh basil, feta cheese (or another hard cheese of your preference) and garlic.
So here’s a little trick. Listen to me, you’ll like it! I love garlic, right? But sometimes I’m not a huge fan of huge chunks of fresh garlic which is quite potent. We’re gonna make a garlic paste so it sort of infuses in the food. So chop up the garlic as much as possible, add a nice pinch of salt (kosher or sea if you have it), then take the edge of your knife (a chef’s knife if you have it) and smush it like crazy. You can even use a little paring knife if you don’t have a big one. Keep smushing till the salt grinds into the garlic and releases the oils.
Cut up a nice portion of fresh spinach and put it in a bowl.
Stick in all the other ingredients now…
Dump in the cooked orzo, a pinch of salt and stir well! You can either serve this lukewarm with a salad or something, or hot as a side dish.
Enjoy!
1 serving orzo – $.15
1 small tomato – $.30
Handful of spinach – ~$.10
Chunk of feta – ~$.50
1 Serving: $1.05
That looks like something I would like to make! I've never made a garlic paste though.. I use a garlic press, but that looks useful. I'll bookmark this for basil season. 🙂