Homemade Gluten-Free Egg-Free Orzo Pasta

I will be sharing the recipe for the Orzo Stuffed Delicata Squash in a guest post I that will be doing on Thursday, November 11th over at The Gluten Free Homemaker, for Linda’s awesome Squash Fest series.  In order to make it though, you will first need to know how to make homemade gluten-free orzo pasta (at least in theory anyway).

I’ve only made one attempt at this so far and it was a definite learning experience for me, so I will share with you the inspiration behind this *crazy* adventure, as well as my notes on what I would do differently next time…ya know, just in case you want to “cross over to the glutadoodle side” with me, LOL! 😀

I used to love orzo pasta in my former gluten-eating life and it is one of the few things I still miss from time to time.  Orzo is the perfect accompaniment to sauteed spinach with olive oil and garlic and there is a recipe I have been itching to make for Sauteed Shrimp with Orzo, Spinach, Feta and Dill, yum!

Several years ago I found a company that sold GF orzo pasta made from lentils, but I was still stuck in my black hole of wanting GF foods to taste identical to their “gluteny” counterparts, so I did not care for it .  I think I would like it much better today, but when I went to try and order some, I found out the company is no longer in business.

Back to the drawing board.

I queried the almighty Google on an orzo pasta maker thinking I could just make it myself using gluten-free pasta dough, but no such luck.

I did however, come across a video on YouTube of a blogger named Cat from Having Fun in the Kitchen, demonstrating how she makes homemade orzo pasta (of the gluten variety).

Brilliant, I can do that!

Right?

As you can see in the video, it just shows Cat cutting the orzo with a knife, but it isn’t clear what size/shape of pasta dough she is cutting it from.  A logical person would have gone to her website for further research before attempting this on their own.  I, on the other hand, am anything but logical.

I’m a “dive right in and sink or swim” kind of girl and it drives my logical husband absolutely nuts, especially when he has to finish all the home improvement projects I impulsively start from ideas I get on HGTV, thinking I can complete them in the same half hour or less (no, you cannot refinish your kitchen cabinets in 30 minutes). 😉

Anyhoo, I added way too many incorrect steps and ended up losing an entire afternoon to small, thick pieces of cut up pasta instead of gluten-free orzo, so do yourself a favor and learn from my mistake.  Visit Cat’s blog by clicking here to see exactly how she made her nearly perfect looking homemade orzo (only be sure to use a gluten-free pasta dough such as the gluten-free, allergy-friendly pasta dough recipe I recently shared). 😀

Or, if making homemade orzo doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time, you might also try using a tiny shaped gluten-free dry pasta such as Le Veneziane’s Ditalini.

Lastly, if you weren’t aware of the Squash Fest going on over at The Gluten-Free Homemaker, just click on the image below to start at the beginning, there are some yummy looking recipes being shared that would be perfect for Thanksgiving!