When I was little, I always gave my mom a hard time about making orzo. I picked a fight every time we ate it because “it’s not pasta, it’s rice!” and would have to sit there and (un)patiently listen to her tell me that orzo is, in fact, pasta. It was a whole big thing. But I’m over it (sorry, Mom). Even though it still LOOKS a lot like rice. Just saying.
Anywho, Mom sent me some rice orzo in a care package awhile back, and I recently discovered the last half of the package sitting in my pantry. “Eureka!” I thought. “I’ll make some orzo!”
And make orzo I did. This rice pasta is great because it is quick to make but still flavorful. Annnnd it has parmesan cheese. Which means I am instantly a fan. Plus, it’s a great, light side dish for pretty much anything. Versatility! I like it.
Parmesan & Spinach Orzo
Serves 4
2 and 1/2 cups whole wheat orzo
2 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp. flour
1 cup milk (I used skim!)
2/3 cups spinach, chopped
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded, plus extra for garnish
1. Cook orzo according to package directions. Set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a medium-sized pot over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, salt and pepper and saute for 1 minute or until onions are translucent. Add flour to form a roux and cook for an additional minute.
3. Add about 1/4 cup of the milk to the pot and whisk to work out any lumps from the roux. When lumps are worked out, add the remaining milk and whisk to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook until sauce has thickened, about 8 minutes.
4. Add chopped spinach to sauce and cook an additional 2 minutes or until spinach has cooked down. Remove sauce from heat.
5. Stir parmesan cheese into sauce. When cheese has melted, add cooked orzo to sauce and toss to coat. Garnish with extra parmesan cheese and serve immediately.
I don’t have green onions, will it make a huge difference if I leave it out? Can I use 1/2 of a white onion??
No green onions = not a problem. If you use regular white onion, I’d use a bit less so that you don’t end up with a lot more “onion” flavor – I like the green onions because they are so mild and really let the parmesan shine through. But all onions are good onions in my book!
This sounds great! I’m wondering if frozen chopped spinach wound be ok with this?
Definitely! The spinach will cook down in the sauce, so you won’t lose any texture by using frozen.
I made this for dinner a few nights ago. I doubled the recipe to ensure plenty of leftovers, and made a few tweaks with the seasonings and cheese (to accommodate for personal preferences) and then tossed in some seasoned grilled shrimp to the completed dish. It was absolutely wonderful. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out!
Don’t tell your mom, but technically orzo is a grain. “Orzo” in Italian means barley. I live in Italy and this type of pasta is called “risoni”, meaning big rice! Call it whatever you want, it’s still delicious!
Agreed! You’re right about the Italian nomenclature, although its “barley”-derived name is solely because of its shape – it isn’t a grain that grows and is picked from a plant. It’s actually pasta dough that is cut to look like a grain of rice – hence the resemblance to barley and the name “orzo!” The term “risoni” is new to me, though – thanks for sharing!
We made this tonight for our dinner. The kids are enjoying it. I probably overloaded it with cheese and a little extra garlic because I tend to do that with all italian recipes. We topped with pine nuts, it gave a little texture. We will definitely be making this recipe again. Thank you for sharing this quick and easy weeknight recipe!
Overloading something with cheese and garlic is ALWAYS an excellent choice in my book. I love the idea of the pine nuts! Thanks for letting me know how the orzo turned out for you
Can you add chicken to this meal?
Of course! Dice some cooked chicken up to mix in with the orzo, or serve some grilled chicken on the side!
Great!! I’m so excited to make it tonight!! Thank you!!
Made this last night and it was amazing! So quick and easy, one of my new favs!!! Thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out
Thanks for sharing! Orzo goes with so many veggies and it’s quick which makes it great ingredient for weekday nights.
That looks really delicious and cheesy! Thanks for the recipe, will be trying it out soon!
Dawnbydawn.com
Looks amazing! I absolutely adore orzo, always have ever since I was ‘introduced’ in about 7th grade. I recently thought I was going to have to stop eating gluten and this would have been the hardest thing for me to have to give up over breads and sweets, I was sad about my orzo!
Is the 2.5 cups of orzo cooked or uncooked?
Uncooked
Are you sure that you meant uncooked? I just made this, and it seems pretty dry. It seems like it would have been just the right creamy consistency w/ 2 1/2 cups COOKED orzo, instead of uncooked.
Yup, I’m sure! I only measure pasta/rice/etc in its uncooked state, because it expands as it cooks and would make measuring too complicated to list is as a pre-cooked ingredient. These are the proportions I use when I make this. There are a ton of different things that could happen to make a dish like this seem dry – the most common problems I run into are 1. letting the sauce thicken too much (easy fix: add a bit more milk!) 2. adding too much cheese (which will have the same effect – sauce will be thicker and clumpier, but again, add more milk) and 3. using a too-big cut of pasta (probably not the case here, if you stuck with orzo). If you’d like to try the recipe again, and would like more sauce, I’d suggest adding an extra 1/2 cup of milk to the recipe. Alternatively, you could use half as much of the roux to avoid thickening the sauce too much, or cut back on the amount of cheese you melt into the sauce (and throw it on top of the orzo instead!) I’m not big on a lot of sauce, so I like to make just enough to coat the pasta without having a pool at the bottom of my plate/bowl. But if you like more sauce, definitely give it a try with extra milk!
Is the 2.5 c. of orzo cooked or uncooked?
Uncooked – you’ll cook it in the first step of the recipe directions.
I love orzo but have only used it in pasta (er…rice) salad. Can’t wait 2 try this. Thx
I have some spinach in the fridge & now I know what to with it! thanks
This sounds real good going to try it tomorrow night. Thank you.
This looks so good, Jessie! Thanks for sharing! Do you have a facebook post for these as well?