Caramelized Onion Orzo
I wanted to serve an orzo side dish for dinner to pair with seared sea scallops and a spinach, tomato, and bacon sauté. I decided to make it extra special by adding caramelized onions along with sautéed minced garlic and fresh parsley. This caramelized onion orzo recipe was flavorful and delicious–my husband and I loved the onions! My son, on the other hand, couldn’t believe I would ruin pasta with onions! My daughter didn’t say much about the orzo, but ate it all, so I’ll take that as a good sign.
Caramelized Onion Orzo
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp butter or olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 1 cup of orzo, cooked per instructions, reserving ¼ cup of the cooking water
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
- Parmesan, grated (optional)
How to Make Caramelized Onion Orzo
Heat the butter or olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Side Note: Add some water if the onion starts to get dry.
Add the minced garlic to the finished caramelized onions and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
When the onions are 10 minutes from being done, cook the pasta per the instructions in a large saucepan of well-salted water. Drain, reserving ¼ cup of the cooking water.
Add the drained pasta to the onion mixture along with the fresh parsley, and season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste. Add reserved pasta water, as needed.
Toss to mix thoroughly. Serve immediately. Enjoy.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp butter or olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 1 cup of orzo cooked per instructions
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
- Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
- Parmesan grated (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the butter or olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Side Note: Add some water if the onion starts to get dry.
- Add the minced garlic to the finished caramelized onions and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
- When the onions are 10 minutes from being done, cook the pasta per the instructions in a large saucepan of well-salted water. Drain, reserving ¼ cup of the cooking water.
- Add the drained pasta to the onion mixture along with the fresh parsley, and season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste. Add reserved pasta water, as needed.
- Toss to mix thoroughly. Serve immediately. Enjoy.
I love the idea of caramelized onions, that’s brilliant. I usually toast the raw orzo in a pan with a dab of butter until it’s light golden color and then instead of using water, I use chicken broth, which has been very good, but with your addition of the onions, it will be MUCH better, thank you for sharing.
Your son’s reaction is hilarious!! lol I adore caramelized onions.. actually, it’s the one way I really enjoy eating them…. this is a fantastic idea! Can’t wait to try it!
I would love this dish.
I laughed when I saw your son’s comment! I love onions, so this looks delicious to me!
Fabulous side idea, Pam! We love orzo but I tend to lose creativity with it once in a while. Thanks for sharing!
Sometimes your son sounds like my youngest fussbudget! Ruining the pasta, indeed! I made brown rice the other night, and said son basically refused to eat it. Can’t win them all. This sounds like an idea that could be used with barley, too.
Caramelized onions make a great compliment to orzo. Nice dish!
I love caramelized onions so this sounds like a winner to me!
Funny about your son and onions. I ran into that at Thanksgiving when I decided to zip up my cheese sauce broccoli. One of the zippy ingredients was onions. Boy howdy there were two very disappointed people in the group because I ‘ruined’ my broccoli with cheese sauce. I thought it was great and they were in the minority. So you get my vote for your recipe.
Looks good to me.
I just made this, it is delicious! I might add some cherry tomatoes to it next time.
caramelized onion has become a red flag for me, meaning that when i see it in a title, i want to eat that dish. 🙂
I still pretend orzo is rice even though I know better now. Thought it was the tenderest rice forever.
I made this tonight and it was delicious! Light and bit buttery. So good. I even forgot the garlic! Will definitely be making this again!