A healthy, creamy vegan orzo made with a plant-based braised beef, cashew cream and nutritional yeast to give it maximum flavor. Don't be intimidated by the number of steps because this one is really easy and tastes amazing.
Prep Time
10 mins
Cooking Time
20 mins
Ingredients
Servings
2
Instructions
Make cashew cream
- Soak raw cashews in a bit of hot water (just enough to cover them) for 5 minutes.
- Drain cashews and transfer them to a food processor.
- Add half of your water to food processor, and process until smooth.
- Add remaining half of water, and process again until smooth.
Cook
- Heat up 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat and cook plant based meat or mushrooms until slightly browned. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Heat up 1/2 tbsp olive oil in the same skillet and add diced onions. Cook until fragrant and translucent.
- Add vegetable stock to skillet and bring to a boil.
- Add orzo and let simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add splashes of water as needed if it's drying out too much before the 5 minutes are up.
- When most of the liquid has evaporated and the orzo is al dente (cooked but still firm to the bite), turn the heat down to low, and add cashew cream, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, black pepper and Italian herbs. Stir until combined. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
- Add baby spinach and cook until wilted.
- Turn off the heat, and stir in the cooked plant based meat or mushrooms.
- Serve and top with more black pepper if you like. Enjoy!
Notes
- If you can't find or don't want to use plant based meat, you can omit it or substitute with mushrooms or any other protein of choice.
- Omit onion and garlic if they bloat you.
- You can use other pasta shapes instead of orzo if you like, but you might need to adjust amount of liquid and cooking time accordingly.
