Orzo with wild mushrooms & greens

Orzo is quite an interesting pasta - it's rice like in shape but with the chewy-ness of pasta! It's a nice way to jazz up your regular pasta dinners. I wasn't fancying the normal tomato sauce so I whacked some green veggies and mushrooms with it instead and the result was a beautiful herby meal!

This was also a good way to use up a punnet of mushrooms I had in the fridge. I used woodland ones (which were a mix of shiitake, king oyster and oyster mushrooms) for varying texture, but honestly any mushrooms would work. The sugar snaps, peppers, pak choi and broccoli added a nice crunch to the dish too, but you could use whatever veg you can get or have on hand.

This made 3 servings, and took around half an hour to make.

Ingredients

• 6oz uncooked orzo
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 1 red onion
• 200g woodland mushrooms
• 160g sugar snap peas
• 1 green pepper
• 150g sprouting broccoli
• 1 large pak choi
• 2 TSP dried basil
• 2 TSP basil oil (or your favourite vegetable oil and add more basil)
• 1 TSP dried rosemary
• 1 TSP dried chives

Method

1. In a large saucepan, add the orzo and a stock cube with 500ml of boiling water. Cook in a similar way to risotto rice by adding a little water at a time every time the remaining water gets absorbed until the pasta is cooked.
2. In a seperate pan, add the basil oil and the chopped onion and fry until it begins to go golden.
3. Chop the pepper and mushrooms as big as you like and add them to the pan. Continue to fry until they soften.
4. Chop the remaining veg and fry until softened. 
5. Add the dried herbs to the veg, and then add the cooked orzo. Stir to combine.
6. Serve, ideally with lots of nooch or vegan mozzerella!