Herby Orzo Pasta Salad with Chickpeas and Olives

Orzo pasta salads are the BEST for meal prep! Combine the season's fresh ingredients with your briny pantry staples, and you will always have a delicious pasta salad in your fridge. This herby orzo pasta salad with chickpeas is one our favorites to make and adapt with the seasons.

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Giant, scoopable salads are my favorite thing to have in my fridge for the week. I don't care if it's a garbanzo bean salad, a grain salad, or pasta salad-if it's delicious, nourishing, and ready for me to eat in the middle of my workday for lunch... I am HERE for it.

And various versions of orzo pasta salads are typically what I gravitate to in warm-weather months, when all the produce is popping off at the farmers market. Those fresh ingredients, combined with some pantry staples (especially if briny!), make a pasta salad that's incredibly flavorful and versatile.

If you're getting into eating seasonally, this is one where I highly suggest you take some liberties to adapt the recipe with what you have in your CSA, garden, or farmers market haul (more on that below!).

Jump to:

• Adapting This Recipe to the Seasons
• The Pasta I've Been Loving for Pasta Salads
• Step-by-Step Overview
• Pro Tips for Making a Really Good Orzo Salad
• another heading
• 📖 Recipe

Adapting This Recipe to the Seasons

You can absolutely follow this recipe to the letter, but once you get the hang of it, I'd love for you to look at my recipes more like guidelines.

For this pasta salad, feel free to swap out the peas for another summer vegetable, or add some other tender herbs to the parsley that need to be used up.

Some ideas: cherry tomatoes (Sungolds, if you have them, are hands down the BEST!!), diced raw or roasted bell peppers, pickled red onions, sweet corn, blanched broccoli, diced cucumber, chives, cilantro, tarragon. Don't be afraid to test and learn!

The Pasta I've Been Loving for Pasta Salads

I've gone through all the health mindsets over the years, so I've tried everything from legume to whole wheat to all the gluten-free pastas.

It was a trip to Italy in 2025 that finally made me realize that the slow-dried, Italian way of processing pasta is my favorite. So now I usually walk to my local Italian deli for imported, slow-dried pasta, or I look for similar brands at my local co-op. Some brands I find at those places include: Stonewall Kitchen's Montebello and Casa Rustichella. I also always love pastas from Delallo.

These are nice-to-haves and not need-to-haves, so at the end of the day, whatever orzo you have will work 🙂

Step-by-Step Overview

Pro Tips for Making a Really Good Orzo Salad

• Keep the dressing simple - I've made a lot of orzo pasta salads in my day, and while vinaigrettes are very good, I've honestly found that a generous amount of olive oil and lemon juice works just as well with fewer dishes.
• Taste and adjust - The pasta salad may need more lemon, olive, salt, and/or pepper to your taste, so I recommend tasting and adjusting. I often find myself adding even more lemon juice because I love the acidity.
• Fresh & pantry. Using a combination of fresh ingredients and pantry staples creates the best flavor and textures. You get your fresh, crunchy veg, and also your salty, pickle-y, marinated, punchy add-ins.

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📖 Recipe