Asparagus Pasta
Updated Feb 18, 2025
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This delicious and flavorful garlic parmesan orzo with asparagus is an easy, cheesy 20-minute pasta recipe! Tossed in savory garlic butter with freshly grated cheese, the tender orzo pasta soaks up the flavors while crisp asparagus spears add color and texture.
Easy Asparagus Pasta With Orzo
This cheesy and buttery asparagus orzo recipe is downright heavenly. I mean, smother any pasta in garlic butter sauce, and it’ll automatically taste great. But this asparagus pasta is next-level delicious. Just look at that layer of golden orzo and beautiful, bright green asparagus covered in buttery amazingness… is your stomach rumbling yet?
When I need a quick side dish that I know everybody will eat, I look to recipes like my asparagus with lemon butter sauce, or I whip up this simple mix of cheesy asparagus and tender orzo pasta. It goes with just about any meal you can think of. Chicken, steak, fish, you name it. You can even serve it by itself as a light dinner if you want.
However you want to enjoy it is just fine, as long as you give it a try. You will not regret digging into this garlic parmesan orzo with asparagus. Make it in 20 minutes!
What Makes This Asparagus Orzo So Good?
There are a lot of orzo pasta recipes out there, so why make this one? Good question. Here’s why I’m so in love with this asparagus orzo recipe:
- Cheesy and Buttery. I just can’t stop talking about how fantastic this garlicky, cheesy pasta tastes. I don’t know about you, but if I could enjoy my garlic butter sauce every day, I probably would.
- Quick. As mentioned above, you can cook orzo with asparagus in 20 minutes. Plus, most of the ingredients are probably already in your pantry or in the fridge.
- Easy greens. Look at all that fresh asparagus! This pasta side dish is a great way to encourage your kids to gobble down veggies.
Recipe Ingredients
Let’s talk about what you need to make orzo with asparagus. You can find the exact quantities for each ingredient in the recipe card below.
- Pasta – I like to use orzo in this recipe, but you could also use another small pasta like penne or longer shapes, as you’d use for garlic butter noodles.
- Asparagus – Just use the tips for this dish (cut the asparagus about 2 to 3 inches from the top).
- Butter – Salted and unsalted both work – if you use salted, just reduce the amount of salt you add in later.
- Garlic – I like to mince garlic cloves because it provides the strongest flavor, but you can use store-bought minced garlic or even garlic powder in a pinch.
- Parmesan Cheese – Grated parmesan cheese tastes best here, but you can use pre-shredded parmesan if you’re in a hurry.
- Milk – I prefer to use skim milk, but 1 or 2% milk can be substituted.
- Seasoning – Keep it simple with salt, pepper, and some fresh parsley!
Recipe Tips and Variations
- Cut the asparagus. If you snap the asparagus, you’ll lose more of the stalk than just the tough part that you’re trying to get rid of. Slicing the stalks allows you to be more precise when you cut them 2-3 inches from the top.
- Use thin asparagus. The thinner the stalks are, the easier they are to eat with pasta. That being said, you can absolutely use thick asparagus if you prefer.
- Add lemon juice. If you want some tangy, zesty flavor thrown in with this pasta, add some fresh lemon juice!
Serving Suggestions
This orzo with asparagus can be served with practically any main course or with a side salad for an easy dinner. Some of my favorite pairings include:
- Protein: These easy baked chicken breasts or juicy steaks like my air fryer steak bites and mushrooms.
- Seafood: My air fryer salmon also pairs well with this cheesy asparagus orzo.
- Mix-ins: If you want to make this pasta side dish into a light meal, you could mix in some easy oven-roasted vegetables and salmon bites.
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Orzo With Asparagus
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Ingredients
- 1 cup dry orzo
- 1 pound fresh asparagus, tips only (cut the asparagus about 2 to 3-inches from the top)
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- shredded parmesan cheese for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Cook the orzo. Prepare the orzo according to the directions on the package.
- Cook the asparagus. Add the asparagus tips to the orzo during the last 2 minutes of cooking. Remove from heat and drain.
- In the meantime, prepare the garlic butter sauce. Add butter to a skillet and melt over medium heat. Stir in garlic and cook for 4 or until lightly browned, stirring very frequently. Do not burn the garlic.
- Combine. Add the cooked orzo and asparagus to the skillet; stir in the cheese, milk, parsley, salt, and pepper. Cook for 1 minute or until heated through.
- Finish and serve. Remove from heat. Garnish with parmesan cheese and serve.
Notes
- To Store. Keep any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
- To Reheat. The best way to reheat this pasta is in a skillet with a touch of oil over medium-low heat, because this will help the asparagus crisp up a little. If you’re not worried so much about the texture of the asparagus, though, you can just use the microwave.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
How to Make Orzo With Asparagus
This pasta recipe is one of those side dishes that forces me to go back and steal just one more bite (make that TEN) while I’m packing it up to put away in the fridge. But before that, here’s how it all comes together:
- Prepare the pasta. Cook the orzo according to the package directions, adding the asparagus tips in for the last 2 minutes of cooking time. Then, remove everything from the heat and drain.
- Add butter to a skillet. Next, stir in the garlic and cook it for 5 minutes. Continue to stir so that the garlic doesn’t burn.
- Combine the ingredients. Then, stir in the prepared orzo and asparagus stalks, along with the cheese, milk, parsley, salt, and pepper.
- Enjoy. Cook everything for 1 more minute, garnish with parmesan cheese, and finally, serve!
Store and Reheat Leftovers
Should you have any leftover pasta, go ahead and save some for later – it makes a great lunch for school or work! Here’s how to do that:
- To Store. Keep any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
- To Reheat. The best way to reheat this orzo pasta is in a skillet with a touch of oil over medium-low heat, because this will help the asparagus crisp up a little. If you’re not worried so much about the texture of the asparagus, though, you can just use the microwave.
More Easy Asparagus Recipes
Ready to try some more asparagus side dishes? These are some of my favorites!
I have made this so many times. It’s delicious. Thank you!
Mine did not have as much flavor as I expected. I will try again and see if I DoD something wrong…I like the little bit I did have.
Yummy!!! And you weren’t lying when you said quick and easy. I’m that person who takes 45 minutes to make mac n cheese. Lol. This took me 5 minutes to prep and another 10 to cook. And it was so good. I paired it with a nice caprese chicken breast but this easily could’ve been a full meal for me. Thanks for this easy, delicious recipe.
Could I use whole wheat pasta and mozzarella cheese in place of the orzo and Parmesan cheese?! Trying to see if I can work with what I already have…
This is a wonderful, easy side dish. Made tonight and so pleased with the results. Easy, tasty, nice enough to serve as a side at a dinner party. I didn’t have a full pound of asparagus so added frozen peas. Thank you so much for sharing!
I really wanted to save this but it looks like the “print” option isn’t working?
Hi! I just tried in both chrome and safari, and it worked for me. If you have a minute, could you please let me know what device you’re using and what browser so that I can fix the issue? Thank YOU!
I’ve tried on both my Chromebook and Chrome on my iMac, but it’s still no good. Here’s what I see on the ‘print’ page.
Tired of reading all these white people stories when I just want a fucking recipe. Cut the crap
Didn’t your mother teach you “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything “?
WOW your comment is rude, tasteless, racist and unnecessary. Take your hate some place else.
Then don’t read it…just go straight to the recipe…DUH!
The world needs LESS people like you! Rude! You are just trying to stir up drama! You had to pass by the recipe to get to these comments! You knew what you were doing and shame on you!
Vulgar language, rude, racist, & unnecessary. Please get yourself to some anger management classes. Learn how to be kind & considerate to others.
Could this be made with wild rice instead and do you think it would freeze well?
Hi! I think wild rice would go great with this recipe! While I always freeze cooked asparagus, I have never done it with this recipe because it just comes together in no time, but I think it would definitely be OK. Both, rice and asparagus, freeze well, so why not. 🙂
I made this today…delicious!! The only thing I did differently was roast the asparagus while the orzo was cooking and I was making the sauce. I cut them into three pieces, tossed them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese and put them in a 425 degree oven. After that I folded them in with the orzo and sauce.
Yup, I need that garlicky butter sauce in my life right now!!
Love easy simple recipe. I love asparagus!