One Pot Fall Vegetable Orzo with Chickpeas.
This one pot vegetable orzo and chickpeas is a cozy fall meal. All of your favorite autumn vegetables come together with chickpeas and orzo pasta to create a delicious dish, made in one pot!
This is about to be your new favorite fall meal!
Imagine this: it’s Monday night and you’re exhausted but dinner has to make it onto the table, so you throw everything into one pot and BOOM. It’s done.
It’s filling and satisfying.
It tastes really good.
Everyone loves it!
Leftovers are even better.
I mean, doesn’t this sound like the most perfect scenario?
This butternut squash and chickpea orzo comes together in one pot, takes about 30ish minutes to make and is lovely for any meal. Dinner! Prepped for lunch! Cold for breakfast?
It could happen. It wouldn’t be wrong.
One of the meals we absolutely adore is my one pot garlic butter shrimp orzo. It’s so easy and so delicious – a hit with everyone. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t eat almost all the orzo from the pot, especially the crispy bits on the bottom.
This is like that, but loaded with all the fall flavors. So many veggies too!
This fall orzo can be a great clean-out-the-fridge meal. You really can add in anything you have on hand. Any sort of vegetables, beans, any cheeses – anything! You can stir in shredded chicken or shrimp. It can be a side dish or a main dish, which is one of my favorite things to make in our house.
When it comes to a meal like this, I often eat it as my main entree. Eddie may prefer it as a side to something else. We both will eat the leftovers for lunch. The kids eat it too, in a variety of ways.
Really, a dish like this is so incredibly versatile, popular and and practical for a busy weekend. AND!
It becomes even easier if you chop some of the vegetables ahead of time. Then it’s super easy.
This what our fall orzo looks like:
- Onions and garlic of course, as our building blocks of flavor.
- Butternut squash! The buttery, nutty cubes that I love so much this time of year.
- Mushrooms, because they add so much flavor and a meaty texture to the orzo.
- Kale, or any other greens that you love. Toss them in and cook them down. They are so easy to throw in a meal like this.
- Orzo! It’s like rice’s cuter cousin. Sure, it may be pasta and not rice, but that’s even better. It’s satisfying and so good.
- Vegetable broth, which the orzo will soak up. It makes the orzo plump and flavorful.
- Chickpeas, for extra texture, protein, fiber and everything else they bring to the table.
- Parmesan! More than is necessary, I’m sure.
I cook all the vegetables in the pot first. Then add in the orzo and the chickpeas. Next comes the vegetable stock (chicken stock is fine too!) and then you cover it and let it simmer for 15 minutes or so.
The result is not a dry pasta at all. The result is a cozy, creamy bowl – loaded with parmesan. The ultimate one pot dish. Comforting, but not heavy. Light and filling, served however you would like. Head to instagram to see me make it step-by-step.
See?! Total new favorite!
One Pot Vegetable Orzo
One Pot Fall Vegetable Orzo and Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 cups cubed butternut squash, in about ½-1 inch cubes
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, chopped
- 2 cups chopped kale
- kosher salt and pepper
- ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 cup orzo
- 1 (14 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2 ½ cups vegetable stock
- ⅓ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
- fresh herbs, like parsley, for topping
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or dutch oven over medium heat. Stir in the onions and garlic with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir in the butternut squash with another pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes, until the squash is beginning to get tender.
- Stir in the mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes, until soft. Stir in the kale, cooking for another few minutes until it wilts. Stir in the nutmeg and if you think it needs it, another pinch of salt and pepper.
- Stir in the dry orzo pasta. Stir in the chickpeas. Pour in the vegetable stock and let the minute come to a boil. Reduce it to a simmer, cover the pot, and cook for 15 minutes, until the orzo absorbs the stock and is plumped up. If the orzo isn’t finished, cook for a few minutes more. The mixture still might be “wet.” If it seems too wet and the orzo is fully cooked, cook it for 5 minutes, stirring often, with the lid off.
- Stir in the parmesan cheese. Top with fresh herbs and serve!
Did you make this recipe?
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Cozy cozy comfort.
36 Comments on “One Pot Fall Vegetable Orzo with Chickpeas.”
Recipe does not list the amount of chickpeas to be added.
I read one can
This looks sooo good! A local restaurant (now closed) used to make something similar and I’m been craving it! I would add cranberries to make it even better. Thank you so much – I cannot wait to make it this week.
Oddly, the “print” version of the recipe does not include the can of chickpeas that is actually listed in the recipe that is part of the post.
I hit the “print” link before I read the recipe and read it as I was setting up to save it. So I went back to the post and noticed the chickpeas are included. It is like the chickpeas were somehow eliminated in the print version
This looks amazing! We are a GF household, could we use Quinoa or some other GF grain instead of orzo?
i do think you can use a GF pasta for sure. with quinoa, you probably have to change the proportions of water to quinoa in order to make sure it cooks up enough!
Absolutely delicious! Made tonight for my hubby and I and we loved it. Can’t wait to taste the leftovers tomorrow!
Would sweet potato work instead of butternut squash? Thanks for the recipe.
I used sweet potato instead and it was great
One of the best tasting recipes I’ve ever made. I used sweet potato instead of squash (it’s what I had on hand) and subbed bratwurst for the chickpeas and it was absolutely delicious 10/10 will be making a regular appearance at my dinner table.
Any recommendations for a nutmeg substitute? Thanks!
you can just leave it out!
Perfect, hearty meal for fall. Great flavor combo and easy to follow recipe made it a joy to prepare. Omitted the cheese and added a touch of thyme and cumin. Delicious and required only one pan! New favorite!!!
I made this today, and I accidentally grabbed the basil instead of black pepper, but it turned out fine. I also accidentally picked up whole wheat orzo, but it was okay, too. This is a really quick one pot meal that gets better overnight. I will make it again.
Hi! This recipe was great and comforting. I made the orzo separately (in vegetable broth) because I normally don’t have luck with one pot pasta dishes (texture wise), so wanted to ask if you had any recommendations for how to season the veggies if making the orzo separately. Thanks so much!
I made this recipe, and it was wonderful. It also made a ton of food! Do you think this would freeze well?
Whoa – this is DELICIOUS!
Made this recipe exactly as instructed and it is simply amazing!! I love this like I love mac and cheese (which is SAYING something). Seriously, heaven in a dish. Thank you!
Was a great hit tonight! Loved letting the dry orzo soak up the juices. I didn’t have butternut squash so I subbed zucchini. I had a tomotoe that needed to be consumed soon and added that without the seeds.
This was a definite win- healthy and delicious! I changed one thing- I tossed my butternut squash in the slow cooker earlier in the day and just mixed in cooked squash instead of cubes (cutting up raw butternut squash is one of my very least favorite kitchen activities). When I make this again, I think I’ll plan to cut up some of the veggies in advance- I found all of the washing/cutting to take a bit too much time for a weeknight. Thank you so much for this recipe!!
Hi Jessica! I am due with baby #1 in 2 months and trying to plan ahead with some freezer meals. I’ve already got your freezer meal posts booked, but was wondering if I could make this through step 2 and then freeze the veggies? That way I’d just have to cook the orzo when I’m ready to make it after baby is here. Or would you recommend freezing it a different way?
Perfect fall dish. We had this tonight with some honey Dijon chicken breast. Delish!
So delicious! I added sausage.
Can you use frozen butternut squash?
yes
My family and I absolutely loved this dinner! I love that it was a healthy one pan meal! It came together and cooked quickly. Every ingredient worked together so well, I omitted the mushrooms because they went bad before I made the meal, but it worked out because it was delicious without and my picky eaters would have complained about it anyway, haha Hands down the best recipe I’ve ever found on Pinterest! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
Any suggestions on chickpea replacements?
Turned out delicious! I only had white beans on hand and no mushrooms, but still tasted wonderful! Thank you!
Thinking of making this for our “o” letter dinner…sounds amazing! What would be best way to keep warm (crockpot) or reheat if made day ahead? thanks!
I really love all veggies…. Except KALE! I just have the hardest time getting it down my throat! Ok to sub spinach?
I love your posts and recipes!
I used spinach instead of Kale and it worked out great.
Wonderful recipe- I add in thyme and sage during cooking because I like the flavour combination with squash and use pecorino as the cheese but it’s so adaptable!!
I am cooking this for dinner tonight. I have made a couple of,your recipes and liked them enough to repeat them. My only suggestion is to add weight measurements for everything, it makes cooking, and most of all, tracking food so, so much easier. Thanks for the delicious recipes.
Do you suggest reheating it on the stove? I am thinking of making this as a side dish for Thanksgiving and would love it if I could make it the day before!
Fabulous! I cut the recipe in half and added dried some dried thyme near the end to add more flavor. I also used a delicate squash cut in half rounds since I didn’t have a butternut squash and I loved the flavor it added. Highly recommend this lovely fall dish!
Delicious and easy! I left out the mushrooms as no one in my house will eat them, and added more squash and kale to compensate. Definitely going into the dinner rotation!