I have been meaning to make Orzo for a long while now but kept putting it off until recently. When I went last for my usual shopping stroll, I made sure to buy a small packet of Orzo.

Orzo is a rice shaped Pasta which is made of wheat semolina and is an Italian speciality. I had no idea of how to go about making Orzo dishes and started searching for the same. I came across this recipe which looked simple, straightforward and something which I could relate to in terms of ingredients. I bought the necc. contents and started my process.

But one hitch was that, I find it hard to consume food without my usual servings of vegetables. I need them in every meal. I had no desire to make a side dish since I was not sure what side dish would go well with orzo, so I went ahead and twisted Heather’s recipe to suit my palate and came up with the one below. It tasted awesome and my special thanks to Heather for inspiring me for this dish.

Method

1. Saute the onions in a tbsp of butter ( /olive oil) till soft. Add carrots, garlic and peas and saute for 2-3 min more. Add salt to help them to cook faster.

2.Add the orzo along and saute them for 3-4 min more.

3.Add about 2 – 2 1/4 cups water or vegetable stock and cook for 5-6 min with the lid on. Once 80% cooked, that is Orzo would have absorbed most of the water, add the herbs, lemon zest , italian seasoning, red bell pepper and mushrooms and mix well. Let it cook for another 5 -8 min till all the water has been absorbed and Orzo is cooked thouroughly.

4. Garnish with basil and parmesan and serve.

It tastes heavenly. But I was in some jolly good mood so I went ahead and cut the top of 4 bell peppers and deseeded them

5. I blanched them for few min in boiling water and set them in a pan.

I filled them with the Orzo along with pine nuts, topped them with parmesan and kept them in the Oven at 200F for 5 min till the cheese melted.

6. This recipe was v tasty and Orzo is sure going to be a regular visitor to my pantry.

Since this was inspired by a fellow blogger, I would like to send this entry for MBP event started by Coffee and hosted this time by Pavani

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