Creamy Orzo, Artichoke & Spinach Bake
At 6.30am on Saturday we packed up our cars and left the comfort of home for a very long day ahead. First stop – Green City Market.
The convivial atmosphere and good, hot coffee at the market kick start our arrival before our long anticipated debut at their Chef Demo Series. We demonstrated our Maple French Toast Casserole taking extra care to shine a light on the market vendors. Burton’s Maplewood Farm provided us with their artisanal maple syrup tapped from the most southern maple trees in the world in Indiana.
Our demonstration over, we left the clean up to Meg’s husband Steve and our intern Kara and hot footed it down to ABC7 studios to appear as a semi-finalist on the Windy City Live & Peapod’s “Next Best.” We watched the results show LIVE this Monday and are excited to have been selected as on of the 6 finalists! Tune in next Thursday and watch us LIVE.
The gray and lifeless foliage at this time of year make the winter greens all the more alluring at the market. The hectic nature of our current schedule left me weary this week but with handfuls of spinach in hand and a new recipe from the Cornershop Cookbook, photography by my good friend Charlotte, called to me.
Simply put, I emptied a box of orzo into my slow cooker, poured a carton of organic chicken broth on top, added a tin of artichokes and left it to cook. Some hours later when I arrived home I stirred in a cup of cheese, some light sour cream and the torn spinach and left it to melt together and served it for dinner topped with toasted breadcumbs. It was perfectly creamy, cheesy and crunchy on top.
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup / 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 tsp / 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small green chili, chopped *optional
- 2 x 14 oz can artichoke hearts, drained (I use Trader Joe's in water)
- 1lb box of Orzo
- 4 cups / 32 fl oz chicken / vegetable broth
- 1 cup / 6 oz cheese, mixed blend (Asiago / Parmesan / Provolone)
- 1/2 cup low fat sour cream / greek yoghurt
- 6 oz spinach
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- toasted breadcrumbs
- heat the oil over medium in a skillet and soften the onions, garlic & chili for 2 minutes
- add the onion mixture to the slow cooker
- stir the artichokes, orzo & broth into the onion mixture
- cover and cook on LOW: 6 hours or HIGH: 3 hours
- remove the lid and stir in the cheese, sour cream, spinach and pepper
- cover and leave the cheese to melt & spinach to wilt for 10 minutes
- stir again before serving and sprinkle with toasted breadcrumbs
- for a really decadent addition add slices of mozarella cheese and pop it under the broiler on a high heat until the cheese bubbles
- refrigerate any leftovers and stir in splash of milk before reheating to bring it back to a creamy consistency
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
-Henry Ford
