This simple and delicious summer dish is healthy, balanced and beautifully flavourful. It is also a great way to use up any vegetables you have in the fridge. You can use any veg you want but I have opted for pepper, mushrooms, courgetts, onions, asparagus and brocolli and tomatoes. You can roast the vegetables in larger quantities than stated below and save them for another dish (such as my Vegetable Puff Pastry Tart).
Cooking Time: 50 -60 minutes
Serves: 2
Ingredients
25 g pine nuts
50 g mushrooms, sliced
2 bell peppers, cut into chunks
200 g asparagus, trimmed
150 g tenderstem broccoli
150 g cherry tomatoes
1 courgette, cut into 1 cm slices
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, bashed
4 tbsps olive oil
2 tbsps red/green pesto
120 g orzo
200 ml vegetable stock
1 lemon, juiced, but keep the lemon halves
salt and pepper, to taste
Fresh basil and parsley, to garnish
20 g feta, crumbled, to serve
Method
1. Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan for a few minutes until beginning to go golden brown. Remove from the pan and set to one side.
2. Preheat the oven to 220⁰C. Place the vegetables (mushrooms, peppers, asparagus, brocolli, tomatoes, courgette, onion and garlic) in roasting tray in a single layer (if you need to, use two roasting trays). Drizzle over 1tbsp olive oil, the pesto and a good grating of salt and pepper. Shake the vegetables around to coat them in the oil and pesto. Place in the oven for 40-50 minutes or until golden and crispy.
3. When the vegetables are around 20 minutes from being done, heat another tablespoon of the oil in the frying pan you used to toast the pine nuts. Add the orzo and fry for 2-3 minutes until it is beginning to go golden. Add the vegetable stock and two halves of lemon (squeeze out the juice for later, just throw in the leftover squeezed fruit) then cover. Cook on a low heat for 12-15 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed and the orzo is soft. Add a splash more stock if needed. Remove the lemon halves when cooked.
4. In a large glass bowl, combine the final 2 tbsps olive oil, lemon juice and grate of salt and pepper. Mix until well combined.
5. Add the hot orzo to the bowl and toss to coat it in the dressing. Serve the roasted veg over a bed of the lemony orzo with the pine nuts, a sprinkle of crumbled feta and some torn basil and parsley leaves.
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