Roasted Veggie Orzo

Mid-July. The heat is here and the apartment is warm and I am cooking at six AM again, the way I did last summer, the early-morning kitchen mine and quiet and the dashi steaming in the dark. The repetition of last summer's routine is eerie — same kitchen, same heat, same dashi, same marriage dying by one more degree — but this summer the direction is clear. Last summer I was wondering. This summer I am planning. The wondering and the planning look the same from the outside: a woman in her kitchen, making soup, at six AM. The difference is on the inside, where the wondering has been replaced by resolve, and resolve is a harder material than wonder, and it holds weight differently.

I made tofu dengaku — broiled tofu with miso glaze, the vegetarian version of the nasu dengaku I made last August. The tofu is cut into thick slabs, pressed, and broiled with a layer of sweet white miso paste until the top caramelizes. It is simple and sustaining and exactly the kind of food I need right now: food that requires minimal effort and provides maximum comfort. I am conserving energy for the conversations ahead. The conversations will require everything I have. The food is the fuel.

I found an apartment. A small one-bedroom in Southeast Portland, ten minutes from the preschool, with a balcony big enough for shiso and a kitchen big enough for one person and a child. The rent is more than I should pay and less than I feared. I stood in the empty apartment during the showing and imagined my life in it: Miya's room would be the bedroom, my bed would be in the living room, the kitchen would hold Fumiko's bowls and the tamagoyaki pan and the chipped bowl that holds the miso soup that holds me. The apartment was sunny. The apartment was possible. The apartment was the future, standing empty, waiting for me to walk through the door.

I signed the lease the next day. The lease starts August 1st. The conversation with Brian needs to happen before then. The conversation is the wall between the life I have and the life I am building, and the wall needs to come down, and I am the one who has to swing the hammer. I have never been good at hammers. I have always been good at dashi. But the hammer is required now, and dashi cannot solve this, and the woman who makes soup every morning needs to become the woman who also breaks walls, and the becoming is the hardest thing I have ever done.

The tofu dengaku I made that July morning was mine alone — born from a specific kitchen, a specific grief, a specific hour. But the principle behind it is something I can share: the idea that food during hard seasons should ask little of you and give back everything. This roasted veggie orzo lives in that same spirit. It’s the dish I turned to on the mornings after, when the resolve was still there but the bandwidth was thin — vegetables in the oven, pasta on the stove, hands free to sit with whatever was coming next. It won’t taste like miso or dashi, but it will hold you the same way.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups orzo pasta
1 medium zucchini, diced into 1/2-inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small red onion, cut into thin wedges
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper.
Season the vegetables. Spread zucchini, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and red onion on the prepared pan. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and toss with garlic, oregano, smoked paprika, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a generous grind of black pepper.
Roast. Roast for 20–25 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until the vegetables are tender and beginning to caramelize at the edges.
Cook the orzo. While the vegetables roast, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the orzo and toast, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes. Pour in the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 10–12 minutes until the orzo is tender and the broth is absorbed.
Combine. Transfer the cooked orzo to a large serving bowl. Fold in the roasted vegetables along with any pan juices.
Finish and serve. Add lemon juice and fresh parsley. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Top with crumbled feta if using. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Roasted Veggie Orzo — Simple Food for the Mornings You’re Building Something Harder