This One Pot Orzo with Spinach, parmesan and few other ingredients it’s such a satisfying dinner. It cooks in one pot, it’s super easy, has few ingredients and most importantly it’s sooo, so yummy! Plus you can have dinner on the table ready in 25 minutes!
All about Orzo!
Orzo is a small pasta that looks like big grains of rice. Countries like Greece, Albania and Italy use plenty of orzo in their cuisines since it can easily replicate rice dishes, it tastes amazing in soups and you can even make salads with it.
In my native country of Albania we called this pasta ‘kritharaqe’. My grandparents even made homemade orzo at home and I’d help create the little grains, then we’d dry it out and store it in a flour sack for winter time.
I usually make an orzo soup after Thanksgiving with turkey leftovers, but you can make the same soup with shredded rotisserie chicken too. I also bake orzo with chicken and veggies and it turns out fantastic as well. Just giving you more options:).
Minimal Ingredients
These are most of the ingredients I used to make this dish (minus salt/pepper and spices).
- orzo pasta
- spinach
- onion
- chicken stock (or broth) – you can replace it with vegetable stock too
- white wine
- Passata di Pomodoro (Italian strained tomatoes) – you can use tomato sauce or blend soft tomatoes too. Taste will vary slightly but you can customize to what you have available.
- parmesan cheese
- garlic
- olive oil
- salt/pepper, herbs and spices
Let’s Cook!
What I love about cooking this recipe is that often times I don’t even look at the recipe. I even eyeball some of the ingredients and add them to taste.
- I usually saute diced onion and minced garlic in olive oil (medium heat).
- Then I add the orzo and using a wooden spoon I move it around the pot to slightly toast it a bit and incorporate it with the onions and garlic.
- Deglaze a bit with white wine.
- Then add stock/broth and passata di pomodoro (the strained tomatoes).
- Add parmesan, salt, pepper and spices. Mix, lower heat and cover pot.
- When orzo looks almost cooked but there’s still liquid around it, add spinach and mix slowly.
- Turn heat off, garnish with fresh parsley and more parmesan. Serve warm:).
One Pot Orzo with Spinach
Equipment
- 1 Wooden spoon
Ingredients
- 2 tbsps olive oil extra virgin
- 1 yellow onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 16 ozs orzo
- ⅓ cup white wine I prefer pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc
- 2 cups chicken stock or broth
- 1.5 cups strained tomatoes passata di pomodoro
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1 tsp oregano
- ¼ tsp crushed red pepper
- ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese this is needed during cooking, have more available to garnish on top when serving
- 2 cups fresh baby spinach
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley use as garnish
Instructions
- Chop onion and mince or crush garlic cloves.
- Place Dutch Oven on medium heat, add olive oil. Once oil is shimmery, add diced onions and minced garlic. Mix with a wooden spoon occasionally so nothing sticks to the bottom.
- Once onions are translucent, add orzo and mix slowly to incorporate and lightly toast the grains of orzo until they all become shiny.
- Deglaze with white wine and mix until alcohol evaporates.
- Add chicken stock/broth or vegetable broth and the strained tomatoes. Mix well and lower heat to low-med.
- Add parmesan, salt, pepper, oregano, crushed red pepper and mix. Feel free to add other spices or herbs to your taste. Mix well. Cover the pot and lower heat to low. If needed at this point you can add few tbsps of hot water (it's not always needed).
- In about 5 minutes, add spinach and mix as spinach wilts. Check if orzo is al dente, if it needs an extra minute or two. Turn heat off and cover the pot so steam finishes the cooking process. Serve warm and garnish with fresh parsley. On individual plates you can add more parmesan as well as freshly ground black pepper to taste. Enjoy:)
Notes
- I love adding marjoram herb when I have it available (dry marjoram).
- Store leftovers in airtight container in the refrigerator for few days. Warm up the leftovers in microwave with few tbsps of water or in a skillet with 1-2 tbsp of water and 1 tbsp of butter.
- Another adjustment you can make is if you have shredded chicken or diced rotisserie chicken, add it in at the step when you add the spinach. It makes for a delicious complete dinner with more protein that way:).
- If you like the pasta to be a bit more runny, add some more stock than I did or few more tbsp of hot water in the middle of cooking (like you would do with risotto).
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you would like to save this recipe for later, please pin one of the pictures from this post to your boards in Pinterest so you can easily retrieve the recipe later. Let me know in comments if you have any questions. Thank you for reading my blog:).
Pasta Dinners
Several of my other pasta dishes are listed below, feel free to check out these recipes too.
- Gigli pasta with green peas
- Cacio e Pepe with bucatini
- Ground beef & mushrooms pasta sauce
- Baked penne pasta with turkey and spinach
- Baked ziti in a beef sauce with ricotta and cottage cheese
Leave a Reply