Vic’s Tricks To…Roasted Red Pepper & Cauliflower Orzo

Well times are certainly strange right now.

Grateful to the health of my family and friends and to all those on the front lines right now. You guys are the real MVP.

Being stuck at home and with all the uncertainty, it’s certainly cause some changes to my typical dinners. But, I’m loving the opportunity to get creative and switch things up!

And getting creative means opening your fridge & pantry and making use of whatever you got!

This week, I had cauliflower (as always), red pepper, a bunch of shredded cheeses, and some orzo.

I’m also going to assume that the lot of you have some variation of the ingredients above already in your pantry.

Any pasta or rice could work instead of orzo. And quite literally ANY vegetable and ANY cheese will work!

To get started, preheat your oven to 450°.

Cut up the cauliflower and pepper and toss in a bowl with a little oil, salt, pepper, oregano, and garlic.

Lay the veggies out on a nonstick baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until veggies are nice and lightly browned.

In the meantime, boil some water and cook the pasta of your choice until tender.

Drain the pasta, but leave a veryyyy small amount of pasta water in the pot with the pasta.

Vic Trick: When you cook pasta in water, some of the starches are removed from the pasta and left behind, thus making that pasta water a natural thickening agent.

Now if you have milk, you’re more than welcome to add in a tablespoon or two, but I didn’t so the pasta water will do just fine.

Add in about 1.5 cups of the shredded cheese of your choice and mix until melted. Salt and pepper to taste.

Vic Trick: I added in a little cumin to mine – TACO MAC!

Add in veggies and BOOM you’re good to go!

Talk about easy!

Happy Eating!