Garden Veggie Creamy Orzo

In our family, we eat a lot of various pasta salads.

Especially in the spring and summer months.

In fact, my oldest daughter, although told she could choose ANY restaurant for her birthday dinner, has requested my fully loaded pasta salad for tomorrow evening's dinner.

Last night, though, we had grilled tilapia and watermelon.  I wanted to use orzo with lots of veggies. I took the latest Simple and Delicious recipe and tweaked it a bit and wow....it was simple, only took about 30 minutes from start to finish and tasted delicious!!  And yes....we ate on the deck again!  I thought you might like to try this side dish as well so am sharing it with you.

image taken from tasteofhome.com

GARDEN VEGGIE CREAMY ORZO

1 small zucchini, chopped

1 small yellow summer squash, chopped

2 Tbl olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 c. uncooked whole grain orzo pasta

2 c. low sodium chicken broth

1 c. skim milk

1 pkg fresh baby spinach

(I used about 3 cups)

1 vine ripe tomato, chopped

2 tsp dried basil

1/3 c. grated parmesan cheese

• Saute the zucchini and squash in the olive oil in a large skillet until almost tender.  Add the garlic; cook 1 minute longer.
• Add the orzo, broth, and milk.  Bring to a boil.
• Reduce the heat to medium-low; cook and stir for 10-15 minutes or until liquid is almost absorbed. On my gas range, this took 13 minutes for mine.
• Stir in the spinach, tomatoes and basil; cook and stir until the spinach is wilted.  Remove from heat.
• Stir in the cheese.

Menu

Grilled lemon/pepper/garlic tilapia (or salmon, chicken)

Garden Veggie Creamy Orzo

Steamed Broccoli

Sliced Watermelon

Tips:  I put the tilapia in the marinade about 2 hours before grilling.  Since tilapia does not take long to grill (about 10 minutes), I put it on the grill at the point in time that I added the spinach to the cooking orzo.  While orzo is cooking, slice up the watermelon and arrange in pretty bowl.  Keep covered on the deck until serving.  While orzo is cooking, steam the broccoli!

You can also serve this creamy orzo as a main dish with garlic bread and steamed pea pods.  Fruit salad is a nice accompaniment as well.

ENJOY!!

You have the blog author's permission to copy this recipe.  The original recipe can be found in the latest Simple and Delicious Magazine, Aug/Sept 2012 issue.