Spicy Sausage Orzo
Whenever I’m craving a quick and easy meal, my brain pretty much goes straight to pasta. It’s fast, comforting, and you can make it feel a little bit fancy without actually doing much work.
One of my absolute favorite pastas to cook with is orzo. It’s technically pasta, but it looks like rice.
This vegan orzo recipe is a simple 15 minute weeknight meal. It features sun dried tomatoes which are a shortcut to helping a pasta dish feel like its taken ages to cook as they're a flavor bomb.
Then theres the sausages that with a few spices can be given an upgrade to turn a plain sausage into something worthy of topping a pasta dish with.
If you’re looking for a 15 minute meal that’s cosy, satisfying, and full of flavour, this vegan orzo recipe is definitely one to try. It’s the kind of quick midweek dinner that ends up becoming a regular in your rotation. I hope you love this sun dried tomato orzo as much as I do!
Ingredients you'll need for sun dried tomato pasta-
- Sausages- For pasta recipes I tend to use a more meaty style sausage as they are soft and juicy but also hold their structure well when cooked in a creamy pasta sauce. Feel free to use your favourite vegan sausages. You could use tofu or just leave out the sausages if meat substitutes aren’t your thing.
- Sundried tomatoes- I recommend that come in a jar of oil due to their softness. You can also use sun dried tomato paste or regular tomato paste can be used but the flavor wont be as rich and concentrated as the sundried tomatoes.
- Vegan cream-You can use any vegan shop bought cream such as soy or oat.
- Orzo- I used orzo for this dish however the recipe can be used with any other pasta so feel free to use what you like.
- Paprika & Chilli flakes- This combination of spices slightly resembles a chorizo style seasoning which makes an ordinary vegan sausage pop with a smoky spicy flavour. It is essential to use a good quality smoked paprika and if you're not a spice fan feel free to leave out the chilli.
More easy 15 minute Vegan recipes
One pot orzo
You can also make a one pot version of this by adding raw orzo at the onion cooking stage. You'll then need to add up to 500ml of vegan chicken stock gradually to cook the orzo. This will take a little longer but saves on washing up!
What to serve with orzo
I love to serve my orzo with some garlic bread and a good vegetable dish such as this charred lemon broccolini. Or alongside a big salad such as this Chickpea Caesar salad.
Storing and reheating leftovers
If you have leftovers you can store them in an airtight container for 2-3 days. As with all pasta dishes this will cease up once stored due to the starch content so to reheat you may need to add a little liquid- cream or water and heat in a pot stirring until loosened again.
Spicy Sausage and Sundried Tomato Orzo
Ingredients
- 6 Vegan Sausages
- 1 Onion diced
- 50 g Jarred sundried tomatoes
- 100 ml Plant based cream
- 1 tbsp Nutritional yeast
- 250 g Orzo dry weight
- 1 Clove of garlic
- 1 tbsp Tomato puree
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 1 tsp Chilli flakes
- 50 g Parmesan + more for garnish
- Chopped fresh parsley to garnish
Instructions
- Pop the orzo in some boiling water and cook to packet instructions. Once cooked drain and reserve the cooking water.
- Next break up the sausages into bite sized pieces and fry until browned.
- Turn the heat down and add the paprika and chilli flakes, stir well to coat the sausage pieces. Take these out and set aside.
- In the same pan as you cooked the sausages fry off the diced onion until soft. Set these aside in the same bowl as the sausages.
- Now for the sauce- add the sundried tomatoes, garlic, nutritional yeast, tomato puree and some of the orzo cooking water for consistency. Heat until thickened.
- To the sauce add the sausages, onion and the cooked orzo into and vegan parmesan mix well and heat through.
- Season to taste then serve up topped with some more parmesan and chopped parsley.
Notes
Some popular pasta recipes from the blog
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