One-Pan Greek Seafood Orzo is one of my favorite dishes to make (and eat!), so I’m excited to share it as my very first recipe. I’ve been landlocked my entire life, so anything with TWO types of seafood automatically seems super fancy to me. This dish only feels fancy though; it’s quite easy and it all cooks in one pan! Feel free to make it even easier (though less fancy) by using all shrimp or all cod and doubling the amounts.

This recipe is nearly the entirety of the MIND Diet in one dish: seafood, leafy greens, whole grains, olives and olive oil, and other veggies combine to give you a flavorful, satisfying, brain-healthy meal with minimum clean up. What can beat that?!

There are so many brain-healthy components of this recipe, I will keep the benefits brief for now. Rest assured, we’ll have plenty more recipes to go over the nutritional benefits in more detail later.

• Shrimp contains a neuroprotective antioxidant called astaxanthin.
• Cod is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for brain health, plus vitamins D and B12.
• Leafy greens are a keystone food of the MIND Diet. Daily consumption of these nutrient-dense vegetables is associated with slowing cognitive decline with age.
• Whole grains contain fiber, flavonoids, and prebiotics… whole grains = big brains.
• Olive oil and olives can “significantly reduce the risk” of developing Alzheimer’s Disease.
• Other veggies: eating a diversity of vegetables in addition to leafy greens is an important way to get brain-healthy flavonoids in your diet (the onion and garlic count, too!).

I love this whole wheat orzo by DeLallo. I highly recommend stocking your pantry with it. There are whole wheat pastas that I do not care for, but this is not one of them. If it tastes just as good and is less processed than its white flour counterparts, that’s a no-brainer, brain-healthy swap for me.

One-Pan Greek Seafood Orzo

A flavorful, satisfying, brain-healthy meal with minimum clean up

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Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 onion chopped
• 6 garlic cloves minced or pressed
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon concentrated tomato paste
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes depending on heat preference, plus more for serving
• 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 cup whole wheat orzo
• 1 cup water
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 ounces baby spinach or chopped kale
• 2 cod filets or other white fish, approximately 6 ounces each, patted dry and cut into 3 pieces each (6 pieces total)
• 1/2 pound large tail off peeled and deveined raw shrimp
• 1/2 cup chopped pitted green or mixed olives

Instructions

 

Instructions

• Heat olive oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onions, seasoning with a pinch of salt and pepper, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, tomato paste, and red pepper flakes. Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds, and stir.
• Add tomatoes and their liquid, breaking the tomatoes up with a spoon. Add orzo, water, and bay leaf; stir. Cover skillet and bring to a simmer. Cook until orzo is just al dente, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes.
• Add spinach to skillet, stirring into pasta mixture until wilted. Add shrimp to skillet; give it a good stir. Nestle cod filets into pasta and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lower heat to medium-low; cover skillet and cook until shrimp is cooked through and cod flakes (or reaches 135 °F).
• Sprinkle pasta with olives and drizzle lightly with EVOO. Season pasta with salt and pepper to taste. Serve, garnishing with additional crushed red pepper flakes if desired.

Keyword Cod, Olive oil, Olives, Pasta, Seafood, Shrimp, Spinach, Tomatoes, Whole grain, Whole wheat