A happy coincidence

Confetti Orzo Salad
365 Ways To Cook Pasta Copyright 1988

1 ½ cups orzo or other small solid pasta such as acini di pepe
1/3 cup light olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 medium carrot, cut into 1/8-inch dice
1 ¼ cups finely diced red, green and/or yellow bell pepper
½ cup peeled, seeded and finely diced cucumber
¼ cup finely chopped scallions
¼ cup finely chopped red onion
¼ cup finely chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley I used curly

1. Cook orzo in plenty of boiling, salted water until tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain (in wire mesh strainer); rinse under cool water.
2. Whisk oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper and garlic until blended. Toss diced and chopped vegetables, orzo and dressing together. Serve warm or at room temperature. I think they meant cold or at room temp.

I chose this recipe only because I happened to have almost all of the ingredients, minus the orzo and lemon. It was odd that I had all of these veggies on hand at the same time. I really didn't expect to like this salad so much. I'm not a huge fan of raw veggies but I like them diced up small like this. I really liked the lemon dressing on this. I wouldn't plan to serve this for a hot dinner date though - between the garlic, onions and peppers you won't be forgetting you ate this anytime soon.

The other part of this happy coincidence is that I've been wanting to get in on Sweetnicks ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays but I never remember in time to make a submission. I made this salad right in time to participate this week. However, when I looked back at the original 'challenge' nothing in this recipe was on her list of the Top 20 ARFs. Since everything in this except the orzo and the cucumbers is on this list of Top 100 Foods, and I believe the challenge includes all fruits and veggies, I hope this recipe is still acceptable. After all, we still need to look at the big picture when we eat and not concentrate on the latest and greatest nutrtional discovery.

Oh yes, this cookbook is from my days working in the book warehouse. I believe there's an entire collection of these '365 Ways...' books but this is the only one I own. It does have good recipes but no pictures and a poor design (ring-bound and the 'rings' tear the pages unless you're super careful) so I don't often take it off the shelf but I'll be giving it a closer look after this successful recipe.