Orzo With Celery, Cranberries And Pecans - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup yellow red onion (if desired, use red onion if you choose to prepare this as a salad)
1 1/2 cups diced celery
1 1/2 cups orzo pasta (cooked in vegetable or chicken broth and drained)
1/2 cup dried cranberries (reduced from 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup pecans (toasted) or 1/2 cup sliced almonds (toasted)
3 tablespoons fresh basil (fresh only!)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 pinch salt
cracked black pepper

Preparation

STUFFING: Melt butter with olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.
Add diced onion, cooking 4 minutes or until onions are translucent and golden brown.
Add celery; cook 4 minutes longer.
In a large bowl, combine the drained orzo, cooked celery and onion, cranberries, nuts, basil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.
Toss gently.
At this point, if desired, the orzo is now ready to be stuffed.
Variations:
As a SIDE DISH: Heat up the olive oil and butter in a saute pan on medium heat. Saute the celery, onion and UNCOOKED orzo pasta until lightly browned.
Add 3 cups water or broth and bring to boil. Cover pan, reduce heat and simmer on low for 20 minutes or until liquid has evaporated.
Remove from heat and stir in the cranberries, pecans, fresh basil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
To make it as a SALAD: boil orzo and cook until tender. Drain and rinse under cool water. Drain again. Transfer orzo to a salad bowl. Add the diced onion, minced celery and shredded basil to the pasta. In a small non-reactive bowl, whisk together about 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons lemon juice (play around with the proportion and amount of oil and lemon juice as desired), salt and pepper. Stir the vinaigrette into the orzo. FYI: the butter is omitted.