Archer Farms Southwest-Style Orzo

For those of you not familiar with orzo, it's basically the illegitimate love-child of pasta and rice. It's wheat-based, but it's tiny like little grains of rice. It's usually cooked with some kind of oil, and it winds up tasting and feeling like something in between an actual grain and a small piece of pasta. One tasty brand to check out: Delallo 89508-8pack Delallo Orzo Whole Wheat Pasta - 8x17 oz. (Google Affiliate Ad).

The powder/sauce for this stuff is pretty much the same as the sauce on the Southwest-Inspired Couscous that we reviewed recently. The southwest sauce was my favorite part of both of these dishes—it has kick and good taste—though the orzo itself impressed me a bit more than the couscous did.

The orzo came out soft, with just the right amount of sauce to flavor it. Since it's being cooked and stirred on the stove top, it was easy to manually distribute the sauce evenly. It would be very hard for me to distinguish Target-brand orzo and another gourmet brand in a taste test. I think Archer Farms did this one pretty well. No major complaints. 

The price was something like $2. Unlike the couscous, it doesn't come with its own preparation bowl, and it's not supposed to be microwaved. It might take a bit longer to make, and you might dirty a pot and a dish, but in my opinion, it's worth it. If you're having something at home, I'd go with the orzo over the couscous. But if you need something for the break room at work, you might have to look for something else.

I give this product 7 out of 10 stars.