recipe serendipity, sort of

A few weeks back I read this post on Sprouted Kitchen. Sara had posted a recipe from Heidi Swanson of 101Cookbook’s latest cookbook, Super Natural Every Day and it called for broccoli, avocado and orzo, all things I had on hand. It also called for pine nuts so instead of subbing in the almonds or hazelnuts that I had on hand, I stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up pine nuts, along with a few other things and ended up with the very expensive but tasty pine nuts. I didn’t serve this as a salad as the recipe indicates, as my Skinny Man is not a big fan of pasta salad, but served it hot. It was very good. Worth the price of expensive pine nuts!

Broccoli Pesto Orzo
(Adapted from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson via Sprouted Kitchen)

1 c orzo
5 c  broccoli, cut into small florets
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2/3 cup pinenuts, toasted
1/3 c grated parmesan cheese
juice of one lemon
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c sour cream (as I didn’t have crème fraiche)
zest of one lemon
1 avocado, sliced

Cook the orzo in salted water according to the package instructions. In a separate pot, cook the broccoli for a couple of minutes until al dente. Drain the broccoli. Combine 2 cups of the cooked broccoli, garlic, most of the nuts, parmesan, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp. of the lemon juice and pulse in a food processor. Drizzle in the olive oil and sour cream and pulse until smooth. Toss the orzo, remaining broccoli, pesto and lemon zest and season with salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the avocado and top with the rest of the pine nuts and a bit more grated parmesan.