Vegetable Orzo Pasta is colorful and beautiful side dish to serve, and it is so delicious to eat. It pairs really well with a grilled chicken breast or with fish. It is one of my favorite side dishes.
The Ingredients
Orzo pasta is not a really common pasta. You may not be familiar with it. It is small like a grain of rice, but as pasta. So, it has a pasta flavor to it. Many grocery stores, including the larger chains that sell groceries, sell orzo pasta. Often times it is on an upper shelf. If you cannot find orzo pasta, just use another small pasta.
There are fresh vegetables like carrots, onion, asparagus, and garlic, and some sundried tomatoes that can be cup up in advanced. Or you can slice them at the time of cooking too. There isn’t a lot of each vegetable, so the preparation goes quick. The colors of the vegetables add to this recipe for Vegetable Orza Pasta.
The recipe calls for a little bit of lemon juice. The lemon juice adds a bit of freshness to it. I use the lemon juice in a bottle, but juice from a lemon and the zest would really be delicious too.
The pasta picks up additional flavor during the cooking process from the chicken bouillon cubes. If you add salt, add it cautiously since the bouillon cubes add plenty of salt too. This is one of those dishes that you need to taste it before adding the salt.
Cooking
The vegetables are sautéed in olive oil which helps bring out each vegetable’s flavors. Once they are prepared, water, lemon juice, and bouillon cubes are added and brought to a boil. Then the orzo pasta is added to cook. The pasta should absorb the liquid as it cooks and be about the right consistency by the time the pasta gets tender. If there is too much liquid just drain the excess. If there is too little liquid just add some more water sparingly.
Serving
This recipe is best served with chicken, especially a grilled chicken breast, or with fish. This is a great fish recipe to serve it with, Crispy Fish or even with a baked fish recipe. You can serve it with any protein, those two just happen to be my personal preference.
Another thing I like about this recipe is you can change some of the vegetables. You can use zucchini or peas instead of the asparagus. Also, if you have a little bit of a leftover vegetable, it can easily be added in this recipe for Vegetable Orzo Pasta.
Happy Cooking!
Vegetable Orzo Pasta
Equipment
- 1 Large skillet
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 3 each Carrots finely diced
- ½ cup Onion diced
- 1 cup Asparagus Sliced
- 1 clove Garlic diced
- ½ cup Corn
- ¼ cup Sundried Tomatoes diced
- 2½ cups Water
- 2 cubes Chicken bouillon
- 1 cup Orzo pasta uncooked
- 1 tsp Lemon juice
- 1 Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet using medium heat.
- Add the carrots, onion, and asparagus to the skillet on medium heat. Sauté until almost tender.
- Add the garlic, corn, and sundried tomatoes. Sauté for a couple of minutes to heat up the corn and release the garlic's flavor.
- Add the water, bouillon cubes, and lemon juice to the skillet and bring to a boil. Add the orzo pasta and cook until tender. Stirring occasionally to prevent the orzo pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pan. If there is excess liquid drain it. If it seems a little bit dry add a bit more water sparingly.
- Add pepper to taste. It gets salt flavoring from the bouillion cubes.
- Serve immediately.
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