Best of Mother Earth

You must think we never eat with the lack of recipes from the heart posts around here.

Truth is after 130 recipes or so I wasn’t really cooking anything new. Like tonight this is a retread of something I adore making…served tonight with a cast iron skillet grilled garlic lemon chicken and a pear, pecan and yellow pepper salad!

Oh and just to confuse you. Tonight I didn’t really use orzo – I used cous-cous!

I made this lovely side dish tonight with Orzo from an amazing cookbook called Essentials of Healthy Cooking by William-Sonoma.

I have a really funny story about Orzo. Years ago I visited my very cosmopolitan friend Barbara (her story is a post in itself) and she made this amazing dish. I thought it was Orzo. She cooked it lovingly adding broth, and simmering adding more broth and simmering. What she was really making was Risotto. I didn’t have a clue.

Risotto is amazing  – it’s a rice ( arborio)

When cooked it releases this – is it a gluten?  I don’t know. It’s just terribly yummy and I don’t have the patience tonight to explain why

Orzo is a pasta

Risotto takes a good 45 minutes to make.

Orzo takes about 12 minutes

Upon my return from my friend’s house, in my own simple smarty pants way I tried to act ever so cosmopolitan and replicate what my friend made using orzo instead of risotto.  When you cook orzo for 45 minutes simmering it in broth and stirring it lovingly it unfortunately translates into total mush.

Awful gluey disgusting mush.

Thus my family and I hated orzo.

I later had another risotto experience in a restaurant and loved it!! I thought hey I can make this at home and when doing that I realized what a total goof I had been.

OH It’s Risotto a creamy rice,  NOT ORZO the pasta !!!

( see pictures below if your still confused )

I now completely understand the distinction between orzo and risotto.

like the words or their properties are at all similar. UGH!!!!

I am very happy to say I am accomplished at cooking both!

Bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil and add 3/4 of dried orzo. Simmer on low for 12 minutes. I found these exquisite extra thin asparagus for an absolute song in my shop this weekend. Cut them into 1 inch bites. Zest one small lemon, cut in half and juice – only 1 T is needed for this recipe. Save the rest. Chop a good T of fresh flat leaf parsley.

After 12 minutes add the asparagus and set the timer for 3 more minutes. Stir in lemon zest, juice, parsley and one T of butter – I think olive oil would be a fine alternative. I also think a bit of garlic in the water – the clove would give a nice hint vs a blast of garlic – I will try that next time.

This was 4 small servings

Serve with your favorite chicken or fish recipe. Very light and lemony. We also had raw orange pepper slices on the side.

ORZO – a pasta flickr image credit

ARBORIO - a rice flickr image credit

K a r e n     H a n r a h a n
Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant
Mentoring YOU to Health Success
708.482.0678

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WSWE Board Member and Programming Chair