I have been a little eager to start getting some autumnal flavours into our meal plans – especially as a lot of the seasonal veg is available already… and because with being ill I’ll do anything for a bit of autumn comfort food to help to me feel better!
Orzo is a wonderful pasta and I urge you to try it if you haven’t already – this is a great dish for it – as it has the properties of rice, but the flavour and texture of pasta so it creates lovely easy to eat bowl food and is easy o cook and prepare.
Normally I would make this with pine nuts as the additive, but I was completely out (not like me at all! This cold is definitely affecting me!) so I used sunflower seeds which worked just as well and are much cheaper to buy! So the choice is yours really, you could even experiment with other nuts and seeds to see which works for you – let me know which you find to be your favourite!
This recipe is great when you cooking other meals with cabbage aubergine and squash as you only use a proportion of each. And if you just want an easy option for using all the left over veg, chuck it in the slow cooker and make a delicious chunky stew or soup with the addition of a bit of broken up spaghetti or pasta shapes.
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INGREDIENTS:
50 g sunflower seeds
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 a medium aubergine, diced
1 large onion, chopped
2 clove of garlic or 1 tsp garlic powder
250 g butternut squash, deseeded and diced
350 ml vegetable stock (Kallo)
225 g orzo
125 g savoy cabbage, shredded
a handful of fresh basil, chopped
200 ml low fat creme fraiche or make it vegan by using soya yoghurt or cream
100 g vegetarian cheddar grated or make it vegan with Sheeze/Cheezly
METHOD:
Heat a large pan over a high heat and add the sunflower seed and heat until golden, remove and set aside
Add the oil to the pan and toss in the onions and garlic and cook until starting to soften
Add the aubergine and saute the vegetables for a further 10 minutes
Add the squash to the mixture and stir through, heating for 5 minutes, then add the stock and stir through
Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes, covered
Meanwhile, cook the orzo according to the packet instructions and drain
Stir the cabbage into the squash mixture and simmer fr a further 5-10 minutes until almost all the stock as been absorbed
Stir the drained pasta, basil and creme fraiche into the mixture and heat through thoroughly
Add the cheese and stir through lightly before serving with some more basil for decoration
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PS: When I was sorting the nutrition label, I was astonished to see that the calorie count per portion was 46240!!!! Only to realise that I had stated 250 butternut squash instead of 250 g! LOL
- 50 g sunflower seeds
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 a medium aubergine, diced
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 clove of garlic or 1 tsp garlic powder
- 250 butternut squash, deseeded and diced
- 350 g vegetable stock (Kallo)
- 225 g orzo
- 125 g savoy cabbage, shredded
- a handful of fresh basil, chopped
- 200 ml low fat creme fraiche or make it vegan by using soya yoghurt or cream
- 100 g vegetarian cheddar grated or make it vegan with Sheeze/Cheezly
- Heat a large pan over a high heat and add the sunflower seed and heat until golden, remove and set aside
- Add the oil to the pan and toss in the onions and garlic and cook until starting to soften
- Add the aubergine and saute the vegetables for a further 10 minutes
- Add the squash to the mixture and stir through, heating for 5 minutes, then add the stock and stir through
- Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes, covered
- Meanwhile, cook the orzo according to the packet instructions and drain
- Stir the cabbage into the squash mixture and simmer fr a further 5-10 minutes until almost all the stock as been absorbed
- Stir the drained pasta, basil and creme fraiche into the mixture and heat through thoroughly
- Add the cheese and stir through lightly before serving with some more basil for decoration