Spinach Orzo Pasta

There is this pasta salad at 'The Fresh Market' that I love to get.  It is so simple and I cannot believe that I haven't tried to make it before now.  It is a simple spinach and orzo pasta salad.  I have had to eat it so many times so that I could get the flavors just right! I can taste a little garlic, a little lemon, and of course salt and pepper and spinach.  That's it.  6 simple ingredients, and I haven't tried to make it until now! Well, T is making our steak and chicken and said that he is doing it Greek style, so I decided that I would do a little orzo pasta on the side.  And guess what... I have spinach, lemon, garlic, and salt and pepper.  Perfect time to experiment! It actually came out really good! I don't think that it is exactly the same recipe as the one at 'Fresh Market,' but this will definitely be a staple side dish in this household.  The longest part of the whole dish was boiling the orzo, and that only took about  7 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 cup orzo pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 handfuls of fresh spinach
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Cook the orzo to the directions on the back of the box.  I poured water over the orzo and cooked for about 7 minutes.

2.  In a pan, without any heat, pour in the olive oil and put in the garlic.  To make sure that the garlic does not burn, you want to start the garlic without any heat and then raise the temperature.  When both ingredients are in the pan, turn the heat on to medium-high.

3.  After about 2 minutes of occasionally stirring,  pour the lemon juice over the garlic and add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir well.

4.  Add the spinach and stir until the spinach is wilted.

This is what the spinach will look like when it is ready.

5.  Add the cooked orzo to the spinach mixture and mix well.

Here is the finished product! Toasted pine nuts would also be a wonderful addition, we just did not have any on hand! Enjoy!

Until next time...

-A