Orzo Soup

I was inspired by 101 Cookbooks' Orzo Soup for tonight's dinner. Heidi took very simplistic ingredients of vegetable broth, orzo, spinach, egg whites, and some roasted tomatoes for a quick lunch. The picture is absolutely beautiful, but truth be told, it looks like a lighter meal.

I wanted to beef it up some for dinner, so I threw in a half of a can of red beans, some veggies, and used 2 whole eggs, instead of just the whites.


First, I started with 8 cups of vegetable stock and a few stalks of celery and half of an onion. Once this was brought up to a boil, I threw in the orzo for about 10 minutes. We didn't have any spinach, but I had other greens on hand and double-checked with my Food Lover's Companion (FLC) to make sure I could use them. Yes, I could! I used beet greens that I cut off the top of a bunch of fresh beets in place of spinach, which was a new one for me! I tasted a bite of them raw to make sure they weren't going to be a really bitter addition and it tasted almost exactly like spinach. Really mild, but chewier because it was a heartier, thicker leaf. I threw them in, and once they had wilted a little bit, I threw in the half can of beans to come up to temperature and had Johnny slowly stir the soup while I drizzled in the beaten eggs.


I had a little bit of Parmesan on top of my soup and it was reminiscent of Italian Wedding Soup that my parents make for Easter. I found it in FLC by the name of stracciatella and straccio means "rag" in Italian - so named for the raglike strands of egg in the broth. Johnny said he's going to kill my brother for giving me this book. I look up EVERYTHING in it now! Even how to cut a fresh mango we shared for dessert, tonight.