“Needs more cheese.” “Needs more vinegar.” “Needs fewer olives.” “You could add more spinach.”

My parents love it when I cook for them, especially when it’s a new recipe and they get to be the taste testers. They happily put up with the delays to the meal due to my tweaking the dish as they “dish out” their suggestions. And with the delays that come from my attempts to take the perfect photo (“Don’t touch that, I still haven’t shot it!”). I love their input, as they know much more about food than I do, and their suggestions almost always result in something better.

This spinach, orzo, and feta salad recipe comes from our happy family collaboration. Feel free to experiment with the proportions. Many recipes I’ve found online call for twice as much orzo to the other ingredients than I’ve listed here. I think there is a lot of room for maneuvering when you are working with great ingredients like these.

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