30 Minute Sausage Pasta & Rice

Some weeks you really just need a cabinet clearing, quick and easy dinner. Cooking rice and pasta together is a great way to build flavor and texture in a single dish. This creamy one-pot meal is going to make everyone wish you made two pots! 30-minute Sausage Pasta & Rice is an quintessential weeknight meal loaded with protein and flavor.

I used a chicken and garlic smoked sausage (look for Hillshire Farms). You can use any smoked sausage (beef, pork, turkey or chicken). Whatever sausage you choose, just make sure it is smoked or precooked, as you need to cut it into chunks so that it heats through but doesn’t over cook in this dish. If you do not like to use precooked or smoked sausage, you will need to cook it before cutting it up and putting into the this recipe. Please do not put raw sausage into this dish as it may not cook through entirely.

For this recipe, I opted for cannelloni beans – a simple white bean. You could use a navy bean or garbanzo (chickpea) in its place. A kidney bean would also work with a slightly different flavor but still delish! This recipes is one of those “what do we have on hand” meals. So variation is a welcome change to this great recipes. I used orzo but you could also use ditalini or fideo (cut up spaghetti).

When I say one Pot meal, I mean it. This is an all inclusive fulfilling dinner. You really won’t need any sort of side dish or filler, unless you want to create leftovers or spread it out at all for a weeks worth of lunch meal preps. This one really holds well, so if you do have any leftovers, definitely keep them for lunch later in the week.

Now Let’s Get Cookin’!

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30 Minute Sausage Pasta & Rice

Rice, Pasta, Beans, and sausage all come together in a flavorful one-pot weeknight dinner

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword 30 minutes, beans, cannelloni beans, chicken sausage, orzo, quick meals, rice

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp Oil
• 2 cups Orzo
• 1½ cup Long Grain Rice
• ½ Yellow Onion diced
• 3 Garlic Cloves minced
• 1 tsp Celery Salt
• 1 tsp Pepper
• 1 tsp Parsley plus more for garnish
• ½ tsp Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 15oz can Cannelloni Beans drained
• 1 lb Smoked Chicken Sausage cut into ½-inch chunks
• 1½ qt Chicken Broth
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 1 cup Parmesan Cheese grated

Instructions

• In a large saute pan over medium high heat, add oil, garlic, and onion. Let cook for 2 minutes then add rice and orzo. Saute for 3 minutes then add beans, sausage and broth.
• Bring just to a boil, reduce heat to medium and cover pan. Let cook for 20 minutes.
• Remove lid and stir in cream and parmesan cheese. Return lid and let cook another 5 minutes. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley, if desired.

Estelle Forrest’s self-published first cookbook – Homemade on a Weeknight: A Family Cookbook – was created after a lot of playing around in the kitchen. You can purchase your own copy here:

AVAILABLE IN PRINT OR KINDLE eBOOK VERSIONS