Orzo with Goat Cheese, Peas and Mint

Usually, I make a big deal of Eating Dinner Together At The Dining Room Table As a Family.  Especially on Sundays.  There's just something about being at the table, with placemats and candles and fabric napkins that makes me feel like all is right with the world.  And now that my teenager is leaving for college in a matter of days, I've gotten even more, shall we say, insistent?  I'm trying to memorize every last detail of her sunny face across the table from me.  Somehow I don't think gazing into this face across the table is going to be the same.

Although I'm thinking I am going to miss the teenager so incredibly much that I might actually break down and let the dog sit in her chair, just so it's not so, well, EMPTY.

Anyway.  Family dinners are great, but every once in a while there is nothing like eating supper out of mis-matched bowls on the sofa in front of a movie, with the dog curled up at your feet looking pleadingly at whatever you are eating.   And this is one of those meals - a warm, comforting, cheesy bowl of easy to eat orzo mixed up with just enough wonderful and comforting things to make it both interesting and scrumptious.

And putting it together could not be easier.  Cook up some orzo, which is rice-shaped pasta and one of the world's best comfort foods.  Once it is done and drained, pour it into a bowl and stir it up with a little olive oil and lemon zest, and then toss in some peas (fresh are fabulous if you can find them, but frozen cooked peas will work just fine), some crumbled goat cheese, a little fresh chopped mint and some salt and pepper.  Voila!  Instant comforting coziness...it's great warm, warm temperature or even as a chilled pasta salad kind of dish.

Personally, I plan to eat mine at all different temperatures curled up on the coach until my baby comes home for Thanksgiving break.  I hope the orzo supply holds out!

Orzo with Goat Cheese, Peas and Mint

• 1 pound orzo, cooked
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
• I cup peas, fresh or frozen and thawed
• 6 ounces crumbled goat cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
• Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper

1. Combine hot cooked orzo with olive oil and lemon zest.

2. Stir in remaining ingredients.  Can be served warm or cold!

Print this!

Avgolemono Soup with Chicken and Orzo

Okay, so where should I start with this soup?

Let's start with the name, which is pronounced Ahv-go-leh-MAN-o. 

I think. 

It's Greek, and I am Irish-American, and so I am on shaky ground here.  I've now picked out the recipe, made the recipe, photographed the recipe, eaten the recipe, and I am STILL asking the Southern husband how to both pronounce and spell it.  

So next I should tell you that I posted on my Facebook page that I would be making this soup for dinner, and I got a whole string of comments in response.  Which were pretty evenly divided between people who (based on the word avgolemeno) had NO idea what I was cooking in my kitchen these days, and people who knew exactly what it was and left all kinds helpful advice about combining eggs with hot broth.  Because the base of this recipe is a mixture of chicken broth, lemon juice and beaten eggs, and if you are not both EXTREMELY CAREFUL and EXTREMELY LUCKY, you will mess the whole thing up by adding the beaten eggs to the hot broth and the whole thing will curdle and the world as we know it will come to an end.

I was actually worried for a few minutes, and then I remembered this happy fact: recipes are pretty much all about Following The Directions, and if you do this, you will almost always end up with something that looks like the picture in the cookbook.  Which is what I did, and which is exactly what i ended up with.  So do not, I repeat do NOT be afraid.

Lastly and most importantly: this soup is SO amazingly easy and delicious that you (if you are me) will have one of those moments where you smack yourself on the forehead and wonder how you have managed to live all these years without knowing about it and making it and eating it at every possible opportunity.  The soup is as healthy as you can get - the ingredients are pretty much chicken broth, a few eggs, lemon juice, chicken, shredded carrots, a handful of orzo pasta and some herbs - but because of how it is put together, it comes out in this rich, creamy format that feels positively sinful.  If you didn't know better, you would swear that there was a boatload of heavy cream lurking in this one...but there isn't!  Not a drop!  That in and of itself makes this worth a try.  

So...ahv-go-leh-MAN-no.  Go for it.  Eating is believing!

Avgolemono Soup with Chicken and Orzo, adapted from Cooking Light's The Essential Dinner

• 6 cups chicken broth (I like the boxed Imagine and Pacific brands)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
• 1/2 cup uncokked orzo
• 4 large eggs
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup shredded carrot
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 8 ounces cooked chicken breast, shredded into bite-sized pieces

1. Bring broth and dill to a boil in large saucepan and add orzo.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Turn off heat and remove one cup of broth from the pot (without any orzo in it.)  Let it cool for 5 minutes.

2. Put eggs and juice in blender and process until smooth and frothy.  With blender on, slowly pour the one cup of cooled broth that you removed from the pot into the blender and process until smooth.  This is to thin out the eggs a little more so they will blend in to the soup obediently later on.

3. Add carrot, salt, pepper and chicken to the broth and orzo in the pot.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes or until orzo is tender.  Reduce heat to low.

4. Slowly pour in egg mixture, stirring constantly, until soup is heated through, about 1-2 minutes.  Do not let it boil or you may get the dreaded curdling.  If you do, remind yourself that it is still going to taste just fine.  

5, Ladle into bowls and serve at once.

Click here for printable recipe

Pork and Chorizo Kebabs with Lemon Orzo

Now that I am practically a professional kebab-chef (see earlier post on Scallop Kabobs) I decided to really go for the gusto with some MEAT. I had another recipe on hand from Everyday Food (I wonder why I had all these kebab recipes? Obviously I had been harboring this secret, subconscious kebab craving that is just now working its way to the surface!). It followed the advice I got from my amazing cook of a mother, who pointed that that if one was having trouble having the meat and the veggies cook to the appropriate levels on the same skewer, one could use DIFFERENT skewers for the meat and the vegetables.

Wow.

She's right.

Different skewers.

Never occurred to me.

Anyway, this recipe loads up those skewers with chunks of marinated pork loin and chorizo sausage, along with layers of onion (which personally does not count to me as a vegetable). That's it! Cooks on a medium grill for about 12 minutes. In the meantime I followed Martha Stewart's advice and cooked up a side dish of Lemony Orzo, which went perfectly with the spicy kebabs.

Okay, I think I have worked the kebab thing out of my system for a while now. But in case you haven't, here are links to the Everyday Food recipes:

Pork and Chorizo Kebabs

Lemony Orzo

Different skewers. I feel so humbled.