This quick lemon orzo pasta side dish goes perfectly with any summer entrée! Make it in under 15 minutes to complete your meal.
Hello friends, I’m Madison from A Joyfully Mad Kitchen! I recently rebranded my blog, The Wetherills Say I Do, to better encompass a few of my passions in life, cooking and fellowship. Over the last few months, my blog has really shaped into a fun place to find easy recipes and hospitality tips, with the goal to make hosting guests in your home less stressful!
Back to the good stuff. This lemon orzo pasta is so easy. I literally came up with it the other night after realizing we didn’t have quite enough food to feed everyone around the table. I took a quick look in our pantry and fridge and realized we had just enough orzo to make this happen. It’s now one of my favorite go to side dishes.
I love keeping orzo and some fresh produce in the house as a quick side dish idea. Orzo is a rice-shaped pasta that cooks really quickly, making it a quick last minute idea. Since it’s smaller than regular pasta, it doesn’t need sauce or anything, just a light coat of olive oil and maybe a sprinkle of parmesan cheese!
How to Turn This into A Main Dish
This dish could easily double as a main dish if you decided to add some grilled chicken or sausage to it. Orzo is a really versatile ingredient, which is why I love it so much.
Substitution Tips for This Recipe
I should also add that two of the people in our family don’t like tomatoes and they easily picked around them and still enjoyed this dish just as much. If no one in your family likes tomatoes, you can sub them out for red peppers or any other produce you like. You could also add some spinach to the dish, the possibilities are really endless.
Lemon Orzo Pasta
This quick lemon orzo pasta side dish goes perfectly with any summer entrée! Make it in under 15 minutes to complete your meal
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb orzo, (usually half a box)
- 10 grape tomatoes, halved
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup sprinkle parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup feta
- Juice from 1/2 lemon
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper, plus more to taste
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil.
- Add in orzo, cook for 8-9 minutes.
- If needed, drain orzo.
- Slice grape tomatoes in half.
- Add orzo to serving bowl.
- In a small bowl or mason jar, mix together juice from half lemon, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper.
- Pour "dressing" over orzo.
- Add in feta and parmesan cheese.
- Mix ingredients.
- Serve immediately (warm) or refrigerate and serve cold later.
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I know cooking can sometimes be intimidating when you start. Trust me, I barely knew how to make more than Kraft Mac & Cheese when we got married four years ago. But dishes like these are the best kind to start to learn to experiment with adding new ingredients. I promise, there’s not a lot of things you could put in this dish that would make it bad (unless you add it all at once!)
The next time you need an easy side dish, this is it!
Be sure to stop by my blog for more of my recipes! Hope to see you at A Joyfully Mad Kitchen soon!
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