Greek orzo with spinach and feta
Lemony orzo cooked with a whole bag of spinach, oregano and dill, then finished with salty feta, spanakopita in a bowl.
- 30 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $2.94 a serving
- 420 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, small, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1½ cups orzo
- 3¼ cups vegetable broth
- 5 oz baby spinach, one box
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- ¾ cup feta cheese, crumbled
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 420 calories, 15 g protein, 59 g carbs and 14 g fat, and costs about $2.94 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No feta cheese? Goat cheese works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the onion and the garlic.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Heat the oil in a large, deep over medium heat. Add the onion and cook 4 minutes, until soft, then add the garlic, orzo and oregano and stir 1 minute.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Pour in the broth and salt, turn the heat to high, and .
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Turn the heat to medium and 9 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the orzo is tender and most of the broth is absorbed.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 9 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Stir often and scrape the bottom. Orzo loves to glue itself to the pot.Stir in the spinach a few handfuls at a time until it .
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: It looks like far too much spinach. It cooks down to almost nothing.Take it off the heat and stir in the lemon , 2 tablespoons juice, the dill, most of the feta and the pepper.
Zest. Zest is the thin, colored outer layer of citrus peel, rubbed off on the smallest holes of a grater. It holds the fruit’s fragrant oils, so it adds bright flavor without the sourness of juice.
How you’ll know: You see bright flecks and smell citrus right away; stop when you reach the white layer, which is bitter.
Serve with the rest of the feta over the top.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Dolly’s tip: Leftovers are great cold for lunch with a squeeze of lemon.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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