Lemon Herb Pasta with Capers

I created a new dish earlier this week, let's call it Lemon Herb Pasta with Capers. I cannot take all of the credit though. This single-pot meal was based on a cauliflower side dish recipe, Herbed Cauliflower with Capers & Lemon, that I found on eat me, delicious. I stumbled on this blog through aimless clicking, and I've been enjoying it ever since. Great recipes and photography, and bonus (!) she often features random pictures of her cat. (oh ideas, ideas!)

This recipe has a lot of room for variation, so use your imagination on what kind of noodles, vegetables, and cheese you use. I opted for light on the pasta, heavy on the veggies, and I was very happy with the result. Here's what I did:

Lemon Herb Pasta with Capers
(serves 2-3)

1 cup orzo pasta
1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
8 stalks of asparagus trimmed and chopped into 1" pieces
2 tbsp capers, minced
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup goat cheese crumbles
salt to taste

Bring about 4-5 cups of water to boil in a large saucepan. Combine olive oil, lemon juice, basil, parsley, capers, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Add noodles into boiling water and cook according to the box directions. When there is 1 minute left to boil, add in cauliflower and asparagus. Drain and return to pan. Pour in sauce, stir, and serve immediately. Sprinkle a bit of goat cheese onto each individual serving.

You may need to adjust the amount of oil or lemon juice so that you don't have too much or too little to cover all of your ingredients. The amounts of everything in my sauce are close estimates, but not exact.