Lemon Kale Orzo

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This is a quick and easy orzo recipe. Even though it’s simple, it still delivers on taste and texture with hearty greens.

It doesn’t involve much prep work. There’s nothing complicated about mincing garlic, chopping kale and grating cheese. 

Enjoy this orzo recipe warm, at room temperature or cold. Small pasta shapes are versatile and play well with lots of other ingredients. You can serve this pasta as a main dish, a side dish or even as a pasta salad.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

• Lemon: Including the lemon zest and juice means nothing goes to waste, and the orzo turns out fresh and full of citrus.
• Kale:  Just tear the leaves off a bunch of curly kale, discarding the stems, and chop the greens. You can substitute with lacinato kale.
• Orzo is my first choice. I’ve also tested this recipe with ditalini, which is what I use in my spinach artichoke pasta, and it also works.
• Garlic: I mince 4 garlic cloves to infuse the oil and breadcrumbs. With so few ingredients, I like really amping up the garlic. Trust me, it isn’t too much. Lately, I’ve been loving my microplane to quickly mince garlic into a paste.
• Panko breadcrumbs: These Japanese-style breadcrumbs are something I always have in my pantry because they have such good crunch and toast quickly in a skillet.
• Pecorino: This hard Italian cheese is saltier and more pungent than Parmesan. If you only have Parmesan at home, you can substitute.
• Red pepper flakes, kosher salt & black pepper season this orzo dish. Sprinkling in red pepper flakes is such a simple way to add a touch of heat to pasta. Taste it when you finish cooking in case you need to adjust the seasonings.
• Parsley: Chopped fresh parsley gives the orzo a nice herby finish. 
• Olive Oil: For the best taste, use high-quality extra virgin olive oil. 

How To Make Lemon Kale Orzo

1. Cook the orzo. I get this out of the way first. To make sure the pasta holds its al dente bite, I drain the pot into a strainer and rinse it with cold water. The pasta will reheat when you add it back into the skillet.

2. Toast the breadcrumbs. It will only take a couple minutes or so for them to brown. Then I stir in the garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

3. Saute the kale, lemon zest and juice. The kale leaves will soften in a few minutes. Then I stir in the orzo, pecorino and parsley. The heat in the pan will quickly warm all the ingredients as you combine them.

Serving

You can serve this lemon kale orzo with greens such as this classic house salad or this Italian chopped salad. Another option is to pair it with with a vegetable side like this roasted broccolini with sun-dried tomatoes or this parmesan roasted zucchini.