sheet pan shrimp orzo and a new video 🦐

plus, it's Earth Day 🌏

Hey dispatch team,

It’s Tuesday, Apr. 22nd, 2025. It’s Earth Day, and it’s an absolutely gorgeous sunny evening in New York City. Here’s all the news that’s fit to newsletter.

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No Expert returns!

We’re back with a new episode, making my “martini” salmon – that’s seared crispy skin salmon with a butter sauce made with vermouth, lemon, and olives (and it’s delish!).

This episode is sponsored by MOWI salmon and kicks off a couple months of new episodes coming your way. I’m pumped to be back after a few months focusing on my job-job and can’t wait to show you what I’ve been cooking up!

30-minute sheet pan shrimp orzo recipe

I’ve been on a sheet pan dinner kick, and this is my favorite new recipe so far. I love the simple prep and wash up, the quick cook time, and the punchy flavors of this simple but super flavorful shrimp dish. Plus, it’s perfect for this shoulder season – it balances the smoky, cozy, heartiness of a tomato pasta with chick peas and smoked paprika with fresh herbs, shrimp, lemon, and a touch of tangy dairy.

I fractured my wrist – more on that later – and the PDF versions of recipes are hard to put together, especially with limited mouse usage, so I’ll send out a PDF recipe round-up once I’ve gotten my cast off, for those of you who prefer a printer-friendly recipe! Special thanks to my friend Jenn and her family who kindly did a final recipe test on this for me when my chopping arm went out of commission.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (1 pint) grape or cherry tomatoes, halved (or 3-4 standard tomatoes, cut into 1/8ths)

• 1 15-oz. can chickpeas, drained & rinsed

• 1 medium or 2 small shallots, diced

• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

• 1/2 tsp cumin

• 1/2 tsp sumac (and/or ½ tsp coriander)

• 2-3 cloves garlic, sliced

• 1 lb. uncooked large shrimp, peeled & deveined (16 count)

• 1 cup orzo

• 3/4-1 cup unsalted stock (seafood, veggie, or chicken)

• olive oil (1-2 Tbsp chickpeas & tomatoes, 1-2 tsp shrimp)

• coarse kosher salt & pepper (1/2 tsp each on tomatoes and chickpeas + 1/4 each on shrimp) – I use Diamond Crystal (#SaltySquad, baby), if you're using fine table salt, adjust to the amount you'd usually use

To garnish:

• juice of 1 lemon

• sour cream (or plain greek yogurt or feta)

• fresh herbs (scallion, dill and/or parsley)

• fried shallots (optional – I buy pre-fried crispies, affiliate link alert)

• red pepper flakes (aleppo)

Notes:

• I use a larger sheet pan, but a half sheet should work, just push the chickpeas closer together when adding the shrimp if you need more room to spread the shrimp out.

• For the shallots, think a big onion dice (roughly 1 cm x 1 cm) – you don't want the pieces so small that they burn as they roast

• For the orzo, the big thing is making sure you add enough liquid that everything gets dampened, and then adding liquid to any dry spots when you stir. I’ve written the recipe with amounts, but it’ll vary based on the size of your pan and the natural variation in ingredients. Essentially, what I'd do is just try to cover the orzo with stock the first time and assess how much more liquid you need when you stir – I've found tomatoes inconsistent in how much liquid they give off. The first time I made this, they were juicy enough I barely needed more stock, the second time I needed a ton of stock, so follow your gut.

Method:

1. Get ready to go.

Pre-heat oven to 425° F. Arrange the tomatoes and shallots on one third of a sheet pan and make a row of chickpeas down the middle third in a single layer. Drizzle everything on the pan with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and spices (cumin, smoked paprika, and sumac or coriander). 

Pro tip: You can do this with just one bowl if you toss the tomatoes and shallots in seasoning then pour onto the pan, repeat with the chickpeas, and use the same bowl to season the shrimp!

2. Begin the first phase of roasting.

Roast tomatoes, shallots, and chickpeas for 10 minutes. In the meantime, toss the shrimp with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

3. Add shrimp and orzo.

Arrange shrimp in a single layer on the remaining third of the sheet pan. Mix orzo with the tomatoes and cover with about ½ cup of stock. Roast 5 minutes.

4. Stir the orzo and add garlic.

Stir the orzo-shallot-tomato section of the sheet pan and add the sliced garlic. The tomatoes should be soft and bursting – work to gently squish them so their juices continue cooking the pasta below and around them. Add another ¼ cup of stock (or more if it looks dry). Flip the shrimp, if you feel like it. Roast everything another 5-7 minutes, until the shrimp is completely cooked and the pasta is cooked.

If the orzo is too al dente for your taste when you pull it out of the oven, add more stock where it’s dry/undercooked and cook another 1-2 minutes until it reaches desired doneness.

5. Garnish and serve!

Squeeze lemon over the finished cooked sheet pan. Add the cooked tomato-orzo mix, roasted chickpeas, and shrimp to a bowl, and garnish with sour cream, fried shallots, and chopped herbs (or garnishes of your choice).

Add a drizzle of good olive oil, flaky salt, and pepper to taste, and enjoy!

Some thoughts for Earth Day

Right. I fractured my wrist. I tripped on a tree root and caught my fall wrist-first with the tree.

However, despite this arborous betrayal, I feel very in tune with spring this year.

I can feel my fractured bone fixing itself (a bit uncomfortable, but necessary!) just as the blossoms and leaves hit their stride. Spring isn’t usually a time I’d associate with rest, it has a frenzied energy, but being forced to slow down and accept that my best laid plans are growing in new and interesting directions has helped me really appreciate this gorgeous, short-lived season. I’m getting outside and wandering around more than usual, since I can’t cook and can’t particularly type for more than an hour or two at a time. I recommend it, minus the bone ache.

So, since the trees and I are more or less aligned right now, I thought I’d share a couple planet-friendly recommendations for this Earth Day.

• If you’re not already following her, Alexis Nikole (@blackforager on Instagram) is an absolute delight

• If you’re interested in practical strategies for reducing food waste at home, Perfectly Good Food and The Zero-Waste Chef (sorry, more affiliate links, but buy them at your local bookstore if you can!)

• For the app-inclined, Too Good To Go is one of my favorites for picking up affordable food that might otherwise get thrown out, and I haven’t used it myself but have heard from friends that they love Sidekick, the Sorted Food app for their menus that use a whole grocery list up over the course of a week

• And on a smaller scale, here’s my sausage pasta recipe I make whenever I need to use up spare salad greens and other leafy bits that get sad quickly sitting in the fridge!

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and that’s the latest dispatch from my kitchen

Here’s a spring playlist, for all you sweet birdies who love a song recommendation. It is unpruned, bursting with energy, and a little angsty.

Hope you’re springing forward more than you’re falling back and getting some sunshine. If you’re in the market for more recipes, you can grab my deviled eggs and my Easter menu on Yahoo this month.

See ya next time,

Emily xo