and FTW...this salad rocks...

OK, it has been so HOT here... we are eating late here every night here because of the heat outside and my cooking area is not air conditioned. So, I have been looking for ways to use up grains on hand mixed with the pre-abundance of garden fare. My herb garden is over flowing but my veggies aren't quite ready yet so I'm looking for suitable recipes.

So....I came up with an orzo salad. I had some salad greens in the fridge and some vine ripe tomatoes and tons of herbs. A google search brought me to Giada's Orzo salad so with some quick adaptations, I had a delicious dinner.

Here is her recipe, which is the photo above. Here is my adaptation/substitution:

I had no garbanzo beans, so I substituted black eyed peas.
I subbed 2 seeded chopped vine ripe tomatoes for the cherry/mini tomatoes.
No mintl but used a bit of extra basil.
I used a mixture of homemade balsamic vinaigrette, which i keep in the fridge at all times, plus the juice of 1 lemon.
I don't like the flavor of too much raw onion, so I subbed some fresh garlic chives instead.
I also had some leftover roasted garlic in the fridge which I added, about 1-2 T.
I added some freshly grated parmesan cheese, which, in my infinite reasoning, thought would make up for the lack of creaminess of the garbanzos.

Yeah, not too much like the original recipe. But,it was so good, anyhow, and I thought you might like to hear about delicious adaptation.