Meera Sodha’s roasted Greek salad with orzo. Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Isobel Clarke. View image in fullscreen Meera Sodha’s roasted Greek salad with orzo. Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Isobel Clarke. Meera Sodha recipes Vegetables Meera Sodha’s recipe for roasted Greek salad with orzo Bring the flavours – and heat – of Athens into your kitchen, with this traditional salad baked for an added sweetness and jamminess
Meera Sodha Sat 18 Jul 2026 07.00 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google G reeks, look away now! Those who don’t turn on the oven in the summer months might want to turn the page, too. Personally, I don’t mind putting something in the oven in summer, not least because I enjoy that the oven does the work when I might not want to. I even quite like that cheeky blast of heat when I open the door, imagining briefly that I’m on the streets of Athens. I digress … Today’s recipe is for a Greek salad (minus the cucumber) that’s roasted to make the flavours sweeter and more jammy, then cut with briny feta and cooked with orzo to fill bellies after a long summer’s day.
You’ll need two roughly 30cm x 40cm oven trays.
2 red onions (260g), peeled, halved and cut into roughly 4mm-thick half-moons 2 red peppers (350g), stalks, pith and seeds removed and discarded, flesh cut into 5mm-thick strips 2 green peppers (350g), stalks, pith and seeds removed and discarded, flesh cut into cut into 5mm-thick strips 300g cherry tomatoes , halved 80g pitted kalamata olives , halved 100ml extra-virgin olive oil , plus a little more to finish 1½ tbsp dried oregano 1¾ tsp fine sea salt 1 tbsp red-wine vinegar 300g orzo 200g feta 20g fresh dill , leaves and tender stems only, finely chopped
Heat the oven to 210C (190C fan)/415F/gas 6½. Put all the vegetables and the olives in a large bowl and add the oil, oregano and a teaspoon and-a-quarter of salt. Mix well, then tip into the two trays and bake for 30 minutes, or until soft, jammy and caramelising.
Combine all the roast vegetables in one tray, then add the vinegar, orzo, a half-teaspoon of salt and 400ml just-boiled water from the kettle. Stir well, sit the whole block of feta in the centre of the tray, on top of the vegetables and orzo, and cover the lot tightly with foil.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until the orzo is cooked through, then lift off the foil and cook for five minutes more, until the feta is lightly golden. Sprinkle the dill on top, drizzle over a little more oil and serve straight from the tray.