Roasted Vegetable Orzo {Featuring Delicata Squash}, inspired by this wonderfully delightful recipe from 101 Cookbooks.  As I’ve said many times before I eat with my eyes first and the vision of these beautiful roasted delicata squash is what drew me to this recipe.

Just as Heidi’s recipe suggested I added other veggies we had on hand: Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, new potatoes, parsnip, and spinach.  Anytime you can roast your vegetables before adding them to a dish means you have just insured yourself a wonderful flavor boost.  And roasting is a great time to try something new.  These delicata squash were a first for us and as suggested we roasted them with their skins on, making them super easy to work with.  They have a wonderful winter squash flavor, a cross between an acorn and butternut squash.

I didn’t want to overpower the individual flavors of the vegetables so I just tossed them in a nice roasted onion and cilantro olive oil with fresh herbs, sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper.  I cooked the spinach on a separate baking sheet until the leaves were crispy.  Who knew?!  Delicious.  Combined the roasted vegetables with cooked orzo and called it the perfect lunch.

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Roasted Vegetable Orzo {Featuring Delicata Squash}

Anytime you can roast your vegetables before adding them to a dish means you have just insured yourself a wonderful flavor boost.

Course Pasta

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author 101 Cookbooks, lightly adapted

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry orzo cooked according to package instructions
• 1 medium or 2 small delicata squash cut in half lengthwise, seeded and sliced into 1/4″ thick half moons
• 6-8 Brussels sprouts trimmed and cut in half
• 6-8 small new potatoes cut in half or quartered
• 1 cup cauliflower florets
• 1 parsnip peeled and thin sliced
• 2 handfuls of spinach leaves stems removed
• 2-3 Tbl. olive oil
• 1 sprig fresh thyme leaves only, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. fresh oregano chopped
• sea salt & freshly cracked pepper

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Prepare orzo according to package instructions, then drizzle with olive oil, sea salt & peper, cover and reserve.
• Prepare all vegetables, except spinach and toss in olive oil, herbs, salt & pepper. Spread in single layer on foil lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes until veggies are tender and golden brown.
• Meanwhile, spread spinach leaves on foil lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray, then lightly spray leaves. Bake on separate oven rack for last 10 minutes or until slightly crispy. They will continue to crisp as they cool.
• Gently toss roasted veggies with orzo, sprinkle with crispy spinach leaves and freshly cracked pepper.

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