Is There A Vegetarian Version Of Chicken In A Pot With Lemon And Orzo?

Our answer

Nigella's Chicken In A Pot With Lemon And Orzo (from COOK, EAT, REPEAT) poaches chicken in a cast-iron pot in the oven and then cooks orzo in the stock created during this time. You may well be able to make this just using vegetables. However, we would instead suggest looking at Nigella's recipe for Greek Squid And Orzo.

Squid freezes well and many supermarkets will sell frozen (and already cleaned) baby squid, or you could use frozen squid rings. Thaw the frozen squid overnight in the fridge before using. If you still need to omit the squid then instead you could use two large bulbs of fennel and add around 90ml/⅓ cup of extra water to the pan at step 2 to help the fennel braise a little and not colour too much. In this vegetarian form the dish is more likely to serve 4 people (rather than up to 6) and please note that as we have not tried the dish as a vegetarian version, we are unable to guarantee the results. Another alternative is to try one of the guest recipes Caramelised Fennel With Orzo And saffron ~Water from Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things. This has slowly roasted fennel that is then cooked with orzo and perfumed with saffron.