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This One Pot Orzo is such a simple recipe that is creamy, delicious, and perfect for summer with fresh herbs and tomatoes. Add this to your weekly rotation for a quick meal on a hot, busy, summer night.
Why You’ll Love One Pot Orzo
- Quick: This recipe will only take 30-minutes to whip up
- Fresh: The freshness from the herbs and tomatoes make it perfect for summer
- Versatile: Top or add your fav veggies to this recipe to make it your own
Ingredients
Orzo: Orzo is a type of short-cut pasta that resembles rice. It is great to add to soups and salads.
Maria Koutsogiannia
Maria is the creator of FoodByMaria and your go-to Greek food expert for cozy, flavor-packed recipes. Inspired by her Mediterranean roots, she brings traditional Greek flavors, feel-good ingredients, and a whole lot of joy to everyday cooking.
Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt: For this recipe, I used Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt. This salt is of great quality, great flavor, and it’s what I always have on hand to add to cooking.
Greek Yogurt: Greek yogurt adds a nice creaminess to this one-pot orzo but it also adds some added protein alongside the shrimp.
How to Make One Pot Orzo
- Add defrosted, cooked shrimp to a bowl and add 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Stir and set aside.
- To a large high-sided skillet add 2 tbsp olive oil and set to medium heat. Add shrimp and cook for 1 minute per side. Remove the shrimp and set aside.
- Keep the pan on medium heat and add the onion. Cook for about 5 minutes to soften and then add the minced garlic. Cook for another 1-2 minutes and then stir in lemon juice and lemon zest.
- Add half of the halved tomatoes, vegetable stock paste and orzo. Stir to combine and then pour in 2 cups water. Bring to a boil over high heat and then turn to medium-low once simmering. Keep at a simmer and cover with a lid most of the way while the orzo cooks, removing the lid to stir once or twice so it doesn’t stick.
- Cook until the orzo is al dente, about 8-9 minutes and then add shrimp back in for 1-2 more minutes just to warm. If you find the orzo isn’t quite done and there isn’t a lot of liquid left, add another half cup of water and cook for a few more minutes.
- Remove the orzo from the heat and serve topped with a dollop of yogurt, the rest of the fresh tomatoes and a mixture of fresh herbs.
Substitutions
- Vegetable Stock Paste: You can use a vegetable stock cube instead
- Shrimp: Swap the shrimp for your other fav kind of seafood or protein. If you want to use uncooked shrimp, make to sure cook them fully at the beginning of the recipe. Then follow the rest of the instructions, adding the shrimp back in at the end of the recipe
Other Orzo Recipes You’ll Love
How to Store Leftovers
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Common Questions
You can cook orzo the same way you would cook any pasta as you would drain the water from it when it’s cooked. However, you can generally use about 1 cup of orzo to every 2 cups of water.
1 cup of dry orzo that is cooked will give you about 2 cups in the end.
It entirely is dependent on if you are using orzo for a main course or a side dish. One cup, cooked, will usually equal about 4 servings if you are serving about 1/2 cup each.
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Ingredients
- 1 lb cooked, peeled frozen shrimp (defrosted)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small yellow onion
- zest of one lemon
- juice of one lemon
- 1 pint baby tomatoes, halved
- 1 tbsp vegetable stock paste
- 1 cup dried orzo pasta
- 2-2 ½ cups water
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- Fresh basil, mint and cilantro for garnish
Instructions
Start Cooking- Add defrosted, cooked shrimp to a bowl and add 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Stir and set aside.
- To a large high-sided skillet add 2 tbsp olive oil and set to medium heat. Add shrimp and cook 1 minute per side. Remove the shrimp and set aside.
- Keep the pan on medium heat and add the onion. Cook for about 5 minutes to soften and then add the minced garlic. Cook for another 1-2 minutes and then stir in lemon juice and lemon zest.
- Add half of the halved tomatoes, vegetable stock paste and orzo. Stir to combine and then pour in 2 cups water. Bring to a boil over high heat and then turn to medium-low once simmering. Keep at a simmer and cover with a lid most of the way while the orzo cooks, removing the lid to stir once or twice so it doesn’t stick.
- Cook until the orzo is al dente, about 8-9 minutes and then add shrimp back in for 1-2 more minutes just to warm. If you find the orzo isn’t quite done and there isn’t alot of liquid left, add another half cup of water and cook for a few more minutes.
- Remove the orzo from the heat and serve topped with a dollop of yogurt, the rest of the fresh tomatoes and mixture of fresh herbs.
Notes
- If you don’t have vegetable stock paste, just use vegetable broth instead of water to ensure you get the same flavours.
- If you want to use uncooked shrimp, make to sure cook them fully at the beginning of the recipe. Then follow the rest of the instructions, adding the shrimp back in at the end of the recipe.
10 people are discussing this recipe. Join in
do you ever include a grocery shopping list for the weeks recipies?
I don’t but this is sort of something we do with our Sunday Dinner Club email!
Wow! The blend of flavors was Phenom! Everything cooked so perfectly together. Another amazing recipe from Maria. Happy home over here!
thank you so much for the love, Alicia!!
So good and easy. Saw/followed you on Tiktok and love all your Greek recipes and love being able to show my students who are Greek these recipes whenever I cook them.
Aw thank you so much Will!
This was so good! Made it for dinner tonight and the only think I did differently was throw whole cherry tomatoes to sauté with the onions and garlic. Would definitely make again and pass along to friends.
this makes me really happy! Thank you Stacey!
This was super yummy and SO. QUICK. I added ouzo to deglaze pan after I blanked and forgot to add enough oil to pan before tossing in shrimp but that was my fault and can confirm the ouzo pairs nicely! Ouzo+tomato+shrimp is from a few other Greek dishes (namely shrimp saganaki also garidomakaronada) and I love both so it was a happy accident and I’ll probably continue adding ouzo when I remake this :). BUT this recipe is phenomenal and I doubled it for easy meal prep! Start to finish done in 30 min and it was actually done in 30 min—I feel like most recipes say that but it’s after all the prep and chopping they end up being >1 hour and leaving tons of dishes. This was super quick, absolutely delicious, and had really easy cleanup!
Thank you so much for the love hun!