This Creamy Vegan Spinach Orzo is smooth, satisfying, and delicious. With its tender orzo pasta and flavorful spinach leaves, you can serve it as a side dish or enjoy it all on its own.
This Creamy Vegan Spinach Orzo recipe is a great way to change up your pasta routine. This small pasta looks like rice, but it's made of semolina flour from durum wheat, like any other pasta. But its shape makes it ideal for soups, salads, and side dishes, like this one. But you can easily make this orzo recipe your main meal because it's so satisfying and tastes amazing.
This dish is versatile and also easy. Orzo cooks quite quickly so it won't take long to prepare and serve this to your family. It's also tasty enough that kids hardly notice the healthy serving of spinach on their plates, too. Make this Creamy Vegan Spinach Orzo for dinner or lunch, served with other dishes or all on its own. You're going to love it regardless. Let's look at the ingredients that make it taste so good.
Video Tutorial
What you'll need
- Orzo Pasta. Or another kind of small pasta.
- Veggie Broth. Use your favorite kind.
- Oat Milk. I like oat milk best because it's creamy and smooth.
- Nutritional Yeast. It adds a nice cheesy flavor and a touch of color.
- Spinach. I like fresh baby spinach best here because there are no hard stems and it has a nice fresh taste.
- Salt & Pepper. If needed. Depending on how well-seasoned your vegetable broth is, you might need to add just a little bit of salt and pepper, or skip these altogether.
How to make it
1. Combine the vegetable broth and oat milk in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Add the orzo and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and spinach. Keep cooking for about 3 minutes, until the spinach wilts down.
4. Taste the orzo. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir, and remove from heat. Serve.
Tips for the best Creamy Vegan Spinach Orzo
- Use a non-stick pot. To avoid the orzo pasta sticking to the bottom of the pot if it's not stirred often enough, opt for a non-stick pot. It makes clean-up just a little easier.
- Adjust seasonings to taste. As the saltiness of your vegetable broth can vary, add salt in the final step, after you have tasted the dish. This way, you will only add as much as you need, and no more.
- Use fresh ingredients if possible. Fresh herbs and vegetables make all the difference in cooking, so try to use fresh spinach, as well as any other ingredients that are added in.
Add-ins and Substitutes
- Substitute different pastas. Any small pasta would work here, such as acini di pepe, midolline, alphabet pasta, anelli, fideo, or pastina.
- Substitute frozen spinach. Fresh baby spinach works best in my opinion, but you can use frozen spinach if it is all that you have on hand. Just thaw and drain it before use.
- Add other vegetables. Add asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms, or any other vegetable that you prefer. Depending on the veggie, you may need to parboil it to get it to the right tenderness.
- Make it gluten-free. You can substitute gluten-free orzo for regular orzo so you can serve this to anyone with a gluten restriction. It's usually found in the pasta aisles at supermarkets, and online.
How to Store
Store any leftover Creamy Vegan Spinach Orzo in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will last for up to 4 days. When reheating, you’ll want to do so in a skillet with a little water, oat milk, or veggie broth to prevent the pasta from drying out or becoming gummy.
How to Serve it
- On its own. This Creamy Spinach Orzo makes a filling meal, so enjoy it on its own for a light lunch or dinner.
- With vegetables. Pair this orzo with Simple Vegetable Skewers or Roasted Tomato Pesto Vegetables.
- As a side dish. This recipe goes well with main dishes like Easy Hummus Wraps, Baked Portobello Mushrooms, and Vegan Black Bean Burgers.
- With salad. Serve this Spinach Orzo with Creamy Cucumber Radish Salad, Napa Cabbage Salad with Corn, or Tomato and Onion Salad.
This Creamy Vegan Spinach Orzo is perfect for family dinners and the leftovers can be enjoyed as a light lunch. It's both convenient and versatile. I hope you'll love the flavors and textures of this creamy pasta dish as much as I do.
More tasty vegan pasta recipes:
Creamy Vegan Spinach Orzo
Ingredients
- 2 cups veggie broth
- 1 cup oat milk
- 1 cup orzo pasta
- 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
- 4 oz. baby spinach, roughly chopped
- ½ tsp. salt or to taste
- ¼ tsp. pepper or to taste
Instructions
- Combine the vegetable broth and oat milk in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Add the orzo and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and spinach. Keep cooking for about 3 minutes, until the spinach wilts down.
- Taste the orzo. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir, and remove from heat. Serve.
Notes
Add-ins and Substitutes
- Substitute different pastas. Any small pasta would work here, such as acini di pepe, midolline, alphabet pasta, anelli, fideo, or pastina.
- Substitute frozen spinach. Fresh baby spinach works best in my opinion, but you can use frozen spinach if it is all that you have on hand. Just thaw and drain it before use.
- Add other vegetables. Add asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms, or any other vegetable that you prefer. Depending on the veggie, you may need to parboil it to get it to the right tenderness.
- Make it gluten-free. You can substitute gluten-free orzo for regular orzo so you can serve this to anyone with a gluten restriction. It's usually found in the pasta aisles at supermarkets, and online.
I was left with a lot of liquid - did I mismeasure?
Hi Meredith! I am not sure what went wrong there. Did you use uncooked pasta? I've made this recipe many times and I never have extra liquid.
In response to the other person:
Spinach let’s out some liquid of course … leave in pot with lid up, low heat keep stirring ‘till excess moisture is evaporated…?
the beauty of this is in its simplicity. we made this last night....and were pleasantly surprised at how good it was (we love really flavorful things - huge fans of Indian, Thai cuisines for all the flavors). Well done!
Thank you so much, Steve!
What if I do not have the yeast?
Nutritional yeast gives a cheesy flavor to the dish. You can skip it, but you'll end up with different flavor, of course. 🙂
Very quick and simple to make. I really enjoyed. Oh, I did not have the orzo so I used elbow macaroni.
Thanks for the rating, Veronica! I am glad you enjoyed the dish!
Looks delicious..can the oat milk be substituted for either 2% or whole milk..?
HI Andee! Yes, you can add whole milk instead. Since you are not vegan, you can also add grated Parmesan cheese to it. 🙂 Happy cooking!