Orzo with Roasted Shrimp

Shrimp and Orzo salad

This dinner is completely inspired by Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa.  I love her style of cooking and many of her recipes and have tried quite a few.  But I had a couple pounds of shrimp sitting around and I wanted to use up some of it.  I also had a ton of veggies sitting around and I didn’t want to waste those either.  So, I thought that orzo would be a perfect canvas to combine all these great ingredients. I tried to stick to her recipe for the most part, but of course, I had to make things “mine” by switching a few things.

Ingredients:
Shrimp
1/2 cup (dry) orzo
2 bell peppers (I used yellow and orange)
1/4 large hothouse cucumber
1/4 cup feta (I used French feta, but use your favorite/whatever you have on hand)
basil, lots (I used about a 1/4 cup)
2 TB olives, finely minced
2 scalions finely minced.
Olive oil, salt, pepper to taste

Steps:
1. Dice the bell peppers and cucumber.
2. Cook the orzo according to package directions.
3. Combine all the ingredients.

Orzo with Shrimp

Oven Roasted Shrimp

Mediterranean Orzo

This is a little odd, but I’ve never made orzo before today. I’ve eaten it plenty of times, just never made it. don’t know why I haven’t tried it sooner. I’ve been craving warm-weather dishes, and the Mediterranean always makes me think of summer and all those fresh flavors.

Here, I just threw things that I thought would work, but of course, experiment with your favorite flavors and quantities.

Some of the ingredients

Ingredients:
1 cup of orzo
1-2 tb of olive oil
Spinach (about 4 cups fresh)
Mushrooms (I used about 1.5 cups of baby bella)
2 Red bell peppers
2 Roasted bell peppers
3 cloves of garlic
3-6 small tomatoes
1 small onion
handful of pitted olives
handful of jarred artichoke hearts
3.5 – 4 cups of chicken stock (for the orzo)
chili powder, cumin, flat leaf parsley, garlic powder
Feta cheese

Steps:
1. Cook the orzo according to the directions on the box (I used stock instead of water though).
2. In a large skillet, saute diced onion and garlic.
3. Add diced bell pepper and roasted red pepper. Cook together for a few minutes.
4. Add the sliced mushrooms and spinach. Cook together for a while, till spinach wilts. This is where I usually add the spices, but you can add them a little sooner.
5. Add the diced olives, artichokes and halved tomatoes.
6. When the orzo is cooked, add it to the skillet with everything else.
7. Add the parsley and feta.

Mushrooms, Artichokes, Olives, Peppers

Added the Orzo, Spinach, and Parsley

Close-up - Added the Orzo, Spinach, and Parsley

Ta-Da!