Creamy Tomato Orzo with Ground beef

A more simple dinner tonight. I also did some sweet and spicy sweet potatoes. Then some roasted garlic and rosemary focaccia. Also not picture is a little oil, parm cheese, salt, and pepper dipping for the bread.

By Olivia Hall

Creamy Tomato Orzo with Ground beef

Ingredients

  • 1 16oz can of peeled tomatoes
  • 1 pound of ground beef
  • 1 tablespoon of basil
  • 1/2 cup of heavy cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
  • 2 cups of beef stock (you can also do veggie stock or chicken if you do ground chicken)
  • 2 cups of kale
  • 2 cups of orzo
  • 2 tablespoons of oregano
  • Half an onion
  • I used about 5 cloves of garlic (you can use as many as you’d like, I just love garlic)
  • Olive/avocado oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Cook your ground beef on a medium heat and add about half of the spices. once you ground beef is cooked set this aside in a different dish
  2. in the same pan/pot you cooked your meat in, you can wipe out the greens and then add a little olive oil to the pan. toss in your onion and cook until they are translucent. Add in your minced garlic and cook until fragrant (about 30-45 seconds).
  3. add in you’re can of pealed tomatoes. I use my spatula to crush the whole tomatoes up a bit kinda like you would ground beef. Add in your heavy cream and your broth and stir these all together.
  4. Let this mixture come to a simmer/ soft boil and then add in your orzo. turn the template down to from medium/ high to low and lightly stir up the orzo then cover it and let it cook for about 12 minutes.
  5. After 12 minutes, take the lid off and mix the orzo. Add in your kale and your ground beef (or meat or meat substitute of choice). Mix in you meat and kale. Add in your seasoning and give it another stir. You want to let the kale wilt (you can also do spinach or pepper if you’d like another texture in there).
  6. Once everything is fully mixed and the kale is wilted you are ready to plate up!
  7. for the sweet potatoes I wanted to have a bit of a sweet and spicy flavor. I diced up about two sweet potatoes. I added some oil, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, and chili flakes and mixed that on the potato chunks. Spread that out on the pan and stick it in the oven at 350°.
  8. So I don’t have an exact time I cooked these but I put them in when I poured the tomatoes into the pan. About halfway through I took the potatoes out and tossed them around. Then I took some hot honey and drizzled that over the potatoes and stuck them back in the oven to finish. half way through was about 6 minutes in to cooking the orzo.
  9. you can top your orzo dish with some freshly grated parm. you can also put some fresh garnish on top, I just didn’t not have any at the moment.