This is such a delicious roastedside vegetable side dish. Serve it with a nice grilled piece of meat or fish.
Ingredients
½ head fresh broccoli, trimmed, florets only
½ head cauliflower, trimmed, florets only
8 pieces of asparagus, ends trimmed
8 ounces button mushrooms
1 cup orzo pasta
4 cups unsalted chicken stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 links hot Italian sausage, casings removed
1 cup yellow onions, chopped
1 carrot, peeled, minced fine
1 stalk celery, minced fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch of red chili pepper flakes
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped fine
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
Kosher salt and pepper
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Slice the broccoli and cauliflower into 1 inch pieces. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray. Put the broccoli and cauliflower pieces on the baking sheet, making sure not to overlap the pieces. Put the whole pieces of asparagus on the baking sheet and the whole mushrooms, stem side down. Lightly spray the vegetables with olive spray. Season lightly with kosher salt and pepper. Put in the oven and roast for about 30 minutes or until lightly caramelized. Check the asparagus at 20 minutes. You will probably take the asparagus out of the oven at the 20 minute mark so they don’t over cook. When all the vegetables are roasted, remove from the oven. Chop all the vegetables into ½ inch pieces and put in a large bowl.
Meanwhile, add the chicken stock to a small sauce pot. Bring to a boil. Add the orzo and cook to al dente. Reserve ½ cup of the chicken stock and then drain the orzo. Set the chicken stock and orzo aside.
Heat a large sauté pan to medium heat. Add the olive oil. Pinch off small pieces of the sausage with your fingers and put in the pan. Cook the sausage for about 4 minutes, or until lightly browned, breaking up the sausage into little pieces with the back of a wooden spoon. Add the onions, carrot and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and the chili pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes. Add the chopped vegetables to the pan and mix. Add the Parmesan cheese and basil and season with kosher salt and pepper. Add the ½ cup of reserved chicken stock and the pine nuts and mix well.
**Skinny tip..omit the olive oil when sauteing and just spray a little olive oil spray. Substitute a low fat chicken sausage for the Italian sausage. Only use ¼ cup of parmesan cheese.
Serves 6
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