Creamy Orzo with Mushrooms
Ooh lala! If you’re looking for a super easy thing to make that kids and grown-ups will all eat, creamy orzo with mushrooms is the thing. Orzo is a tiny rice-shaped pasta (orzo means barley in Italian) that is most often used in soups, but I like to cook it as a side dish and mix a bunch of stuff into it. Stuff like sauteed mushrooms and garlic and olive oil and arugula and a little button of cream cheese. You know, stuff like that.
This is the latest iteration of “orzo with stuff mixed in” and we like it so much I’ve made it twice this week!
Use cream cheese or full-fat sour cream if you don’t have cream cheese. I think it would be fantastic with chevre in place of cream cheese, but I haven’t tried it myself yet. The recipe is great with white mushrooms or cremini mushrooms; if you really love strong mushroomy flavors, it’s excellent with fresh shiitake mushrooms.
Creamy Orzo with Mushrooms
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
1 cup dry orzo
1 pint fresh cremini, shiitake or button mushrooms
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sherry or white wine, optional
couple handfuls baby arugula, kale or spinach
2 ounces cream cheese, sour cream (or chevre?)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
Start boiling a couple cups of water to cook the orzo.
Meanwhile, wipe or rinse the mushrooms and slice thickly. Mince the garlic. Chop the arugula finely and set aside for now.
Heat the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Once melted, swirl to spread and lay the sliced mushrooms in a single layer. Let brown without moving for about 2 minutes. Stir and add the garlic and salt. Cook another 5 minutes or so. Deglaze pan with sherry, scraping up the brown bits, then turn off heat.
Drain orzo and turn back into the pot. Add the mushrooms, arugula, olive oil and cream cheese and stir until the cream cheese is melted and evenly distributed. Serve hot or warm. This reheats well in the microwave.
Notes
For heat, add some crushed red pepper flakes to the mushrooms. Also try adding fresh parsley with the arugula.
Serve with some grated Parmesan on top if you like.
Nutrition
- Calories: 270
- Fat: 12
- Carbohydrates: 33
- Protein: 7
4 Comments
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Love all your recipes on the website. Haven’t tried them all, but have used some to make my own variations, got the basic how to do, then added or changed to my own ingredients. Love the videos. Such a good thing to have someone who isn’t trying to Mr. or Mrs. snub nose chef and make a fun video of food prep. You go girl. Love it. By the way I’m almost 75 and have fun doing woodwork, fishing, and cooking. It all counts for life. And never take anything too serious.
Thank you, Warren! 🙂
Awsome hilah keep them recipes coming girl!
Thanks, Amanda! 🙂