Wednesday 18 June 2014

Summer vegtable risotto

This was going to be a meat-free dish but I found a few sad little rashers of streaky bacon lurking in the fridge and had some home made chicken stock to hand, but you could easily leave out the bacon and use vegetable stock to make a vegetarian meal. I've not added wine, saffron or any herbs to the risotto because I wanted the full flavour of the veg to shine through.

Ingredients - serves 2-3

200g Arborio rice
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 rashers streaky bacon, diced
1 tbs light flavoured olive oil or rapeseed oil
approx. 500ml stock
100-150g each of an assortment of vegetables. I used young carrots, runner beans, broad beans, asparagus and mushrooms, all prepared and cut into roughly equal sized pieces but kept separate
seasoning
small knob of butter
50g Parmesan cheese finely grated.

Put the stock in a small saucepan and bring it to a gentle simmer. Have a kettle full of water ready in case you need extra liquid.
Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole and gently fry the onion and bacon until the onion is soft and the bacon starting to crisp. Then add the rice and stir well, cook for a minute then pour in about a third of the stock. Allow to cook gently, uncovered, until the stock is absorbed, stirring occasionally. Add another third of the stock and at the same time start adding the vegetables, adding those that take longest to cook first. In my case, I started with the carrots.
Keep adding stock and vegetables until all the stock is absorbed and all the veg added and cooked. If the rice isn't tender by the time all the stock is absorbed, add a little boiling water from the kettle and give it more time to cook. This will depend on the water content of your vegetables.
Once the rice is tender and the consistency of the risotto is soft and creamy (you should NOT be able to mould it into a fancy shape but neither should it be soupy) taste and season then stir in the cheese and butter. Cover with the lid, turn off heat and leave to stand for 5-10 minutes then serve.

 


 


 


1 comment:

David Ford said...

That looks delicious and healthy too Jane, excellent pictures