Quick – Dr Pippa

Looking for a really easy dish which makes almost no mess? This is a one pot pasta dish which requires minimal effort for maximal taste. This dish takes around 25 minutes to make, so it’s also super quick meaning you don’t have to spend all night at your stove (or even cleaning up after yourself!).

Treating the pasta like a risotto rice means that loads of the starch normally lost to the water is retained in the dish. This gives a lovely creamy sauce at the end of the dish. Easily adaptable to whatever you have in the cupboards or freezer, why not give this dish a go!

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 tbs EVOO
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
160g baby tomatoes
160g orzo pasta
500ml stock (I used 1 heaped tsp vegetable stock powder into boiling water)
1 courgette, grated
100g kale, roughly chopped
60g cheddar cheese, crumbled

Method

Gently fry the onions in the oil till soft. Add the garlic and continue cooking for a further 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and orzo with a third of the stock. Simmer over a low heat, stirring frequently to stop the pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
When the liquid is almost absorbed add a further third of the stock. Repeat with the final third.
When the pasta is almost cooked add the courgette and kale.
Remove from the heat, crumble the cheese in and serve.

Per serving: 539kcal/ 17.7g fat/ 6.6g saturated fat/ 69.6g carbohydrates/ 6.8g fibre/ 22.9g protein

This is a staple in my house. I almost always have the store cupboard goods, and I grow chives in the garden so have them for most of the year, so all I really need to make sure I have bought is flat leaf parsley. And if you don’t have flat leaf parsley, you can substitute any green leaves in place, such as lettuce, rocket or even spinach.

I frequently have this as an easy lunch. I prepare it in a big batch and it will last 4 days in the fridge easily. Then I serve with with some salad vegetables, such as tomatoes, cucumber and avocado, and a source of protein. Usually I’d opt for tinned beans or cheeses such as goat’s cheese or halloumi, but fish, even tinned fish, also work well as do left over cuts of cold meat.

Ingredients

100g bulgar wheat
10g stock powder
15g chives, finely chopped
30g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
35g sun-dried tomatoes, finely sliced
Chilli, to taste, finely chopped

Method

Bring 120ml water to the boil. Add the stock powder and bulgar wheat, remove from the heat and cover. Leave to cook for 5-8 minutes.
Once cooked, fluff with a fork and add all the remaining ingredients.

Per serving: 144kcal/ 1.4g fat/ 0.4g saturated fat/ 27.8g carbohydrates/ 8.9g fibre/ 7.0g protein

Tag: Quick

One Pot Courgette, Kale and Orzo

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