Valentines Dinner at Home: Orzo with Grilled Asparagus

Yesterday it was snowing (finally!) and although my hubby and I had plans to go out for an early Valentine's Day dinner we decided to stay in and enjoy a cozy winter evening at home. This winter hasn't been much of a winter and it was actually a welcome surprise to have a night where all we wanted to do was hole up on the couch and watch movies.

We were both in the mood for steak, but were too hungry to wait for potatoes to bake, so I decided to make a pasta salad using the asparagus I found at the store today.

Here are the ingredients that I used in the pasta salad:

Sun-dried tomatoes, orzo, oil olive, balsamic vinegar (not shown), feta, garlic (not shown), basil (not shown), asparagus and an onion. Sorry for missing so many of the ingredients, but that's what happens when I decide to add things in along the way :)

I started by boiling some salted water and adding the orzo (this took about 9 minutes to cook). While the water was heating up, I chopped up the onion and garlic and cooked them over medium heat.

 While that was cooking I chopped up the asparagus and tomatoes.

Once the onions were cooked, I added the asparagus to the pan along with a few generous drizzles of balsamic. I left this cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes so that the balsamic could reduce and get all syrupy. It looked something like this:

When the pasta was done, I drained and rinsed it under cold water.

Then I threw the orzo, asparagus mixture, tomatoes and cheese into a big bowl and drizzled it all with olive oil. 

I finished up by tossing everything together and adding some basil, salt and pepper until it tasted right.

Served alongside the steak that my hubby had been preparing, this made for a perfect cozy valentines dinner night in!

Recipe Recap:
8 oz orzo
3 oz sun-dried tomatoes
5 oz feta cheese

1 bunch asparagus cleaned and chopped

1 medium onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup balsamic

1/4 olive oil

2 tablespoons basil

salt and pepper

Cook the pasta. In the meantime, cook the onion and garlic over medium heat until translucent. Add the chopped asparagus and balsamic to the pan. Cook for about 10 minutes, until the balsamic reduces and becomes syrupy. Drain and rinse the pasta in cold water. Roughly chop the tomatoes. Throw the pasta, asparagus mixture, cheese and tomatoes into a large bowl. Mix with the olive oil, basil, salt and pepper. Serve.