Healthy Recipe: Plant Orzo

“Eat the rainbow” is a catchy way of dispensing timeless advice: Consume a wide range of colorful fruits and vegetables daily and your gut — and indeed your whole body and well-being — will thank you for it. Renowned gut expert Dr. Tim Spector’s new book, “The Food for Life Cookbook,” offers delicious, practical solutions to help us meet a goal of eating 30 plants a day. This slight adaptation is a great example. Serves 4. – Susan Puckett

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped

• 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped garlic (about 3 cloves)

• 2 bell peppers, preferably different colors, cored, seeded, and thinly sliced

• 2 medium zucchinis, sliced in ¼-inch-thick rounds

• 1 leek, white and light green part only, halved and thinly sliced

• 2 (14-ounce) cans diced tomatoes

• 1 (14-ounce) can navy or other white beans and their liquid (do not drain)

• 2/3 cup orzo

• 2/3 cup pitted olives

• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika

• 1 tablespoon miso or nutritional yeast

• 2 ½ cups lightly packed basil leaves, torn, plus a few for garnish

• Juice of ½ lemon

• Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large (12-inch in diameter) Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for about 3 minutes or until softened, then add the garlic and sauté 30 seconds more.

2. Stir in the peppers, zucchini, and leek, cover with a lid, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook gently for 5 to 8 minutes, or until just softened. Add the tomatoes, beans and their liquid, the orzo, olives, paprika, miso, basil, a big pinch of salt, and a generous grinding of pepper. Stir until the vegetables are thoroughly coated with the sauce and the orzo is evenly dispersed.

3. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to medium-low, and allow it to simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat and allow it to rest for 10 minutes, or until the orzo fully cooks and absorbs the stock.

4. Squeeze the lemon juice over it all and serve.

Susan Puckett is an Atlanta-based food writer and cookbook author.