Monday, February 15, 2010

Salmon, Lemon, and Dill with Orzo



The making of this dish was a long time coming.  My pal Michelle was telling me about seeing this on Everyday Food one day, and we set out to find the recipe.  Wouldn't you know, it wasn't on Martha Stewart's site?  Luckily, fellow blogger Melissa has it posted on her blog, so I passed it along, and Michelle made it for dinner.  She reported back that she loved it, but that her husband suggested using salmon instead of chicken - genius!

So that very weekend, I used salmon in place of chicken, made a few other changes, and voila!  An incredibly easy, fairly healthy, delicious dinner!  I made several changes to the recipe, and my version is posted below.  I have since made this using chicken, and it is quite tasty that way as well.

The orzo bakes in the oven, and it gets nice and creamy, almost like a risotto.  Salmon, dill, feta, and lemon are a natural pairing in my opinion, and I served this with Greek salad.  Joey and I both really enjoyed this dish, and even Caroline gobbled it up - that's  certainly a victory in our house!

Salmon, Lemon, and Dill with Orzo
significantly adapted from Everyday Food, via Lemons and Love
  • 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
  • 3/4 water
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 Tablespoon butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1 pound orzo
  • 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
  • 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • zest of 1/2 lemon
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 pound salmon, skinned and cut into 1-inch chunks
  • 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 400.

In a medium saucepan, combine the chicken broth, water, salt, and pepper, and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a 3 quart baking dish, combine the orzo, feta, dill, parsley, shallots, wine, garlic, lemon zest, and lemon juice.  Pour the chicken broth over the orzo mixture and stir to combine.

Bake for 25 minutes, stir, and add the salmon.  Stir again to combine.

Cook an additional 10-15 minutes, or until salmon is cooked through and orzo is al dente.

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and let stand 5 minutes before serving.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds fabulous! Just to be clear, you combine the orzo uncooked? Just wanted to be certain before I give this a try :) Thanks!

-Allison
Huntington Beach, CA

Josie said...

Hi Allison! Yes, the orzo cooks in the oven. There will be a lot of liquid in the casserole dish before baking :-) Hope you enjoy!
Josie

Samantha said...

Josie, this looks great. We love orzo and I'm always looking for new salmon recipes. Thanks! :)
-Sam

Anonymous said...

This sounds delicious! The dish looks so pretty as well. I don't have any orzo in the house but I have quite a bit of arborio rice so I may try this as a risotto recipe. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Josie! Made it tonight and it turned out great - even my 2 year old liked it! May add a few capers next time (my husband's suggestion:)

-Allison

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