If you are going to go all out and eat a cheesy, carby, buttery feast like risotto, you may as well balance out your culinary karma and do some good for the environment and your health with fresh, seasonal vegetables.
Right now a huge selection of greens are in season, including runner beans, spinach, peas, spring onions and courgette/zucchini, so it is a great opportunity to harness all the vitamin goodness they have to offer. It also means they will be available locally grown so you won’t have to rack up any air miles getting them to your plate.
But since it's almost the weekend and all, why not compliment their sweet flavours with a deliciously cheesy risotto. What’s more, this recipe is relatively quick and easy, so will leave you plenty of time to get on with enjoying a cool, crisp glass of white wine in the weekend sun.*
Ingredients (serves two)
250g of Arborio Risotto Rice (believe it or not, this is quite easy to come by in supermarkets. If you can’t find it though, look for Italian Rice, Risotto Rice, or something with a short grain)
1 bunch spring onions/scallions
1 leek
1 courgette/zucchini
1 clove garlic
A selection of summer beans such as sugar snap peas, runner beans, broad beans, mange tout and peas.
A handful of chopped baby spinach
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 generous knob of butter
1 litre of hot stock (if you are not vegetarian, use chicken as it will give the dish more flavour. Vegetable stock works nicely for the herbivores amongst you though)
100-150g Cheddar or Monterey Jack Cheese (or 75-100g parmesan if you’re a purist)
Black pepper
Directions
Place hot stock in a saucepan and keep on a low simmer throughout cooking.
In a thick bottomed, wide frying pan, heat the olive oil, then add chopped garlic, spring onions and leek. Allow to colour for 1-2 minutes on a medium heat, then add the butter and sweat on a low heat for a further 5mins.
Add courgette/zucchini and fry on a medium heat for a further 5 mins adding a little more olive oil if it begins to stick.
Add the dry rice to the pan and stir into leek mixture to coat the grains.
Add in a ladle of stock, allow to boil and absorb into rice and repeat until rice is cooked. If stock runs out before this point, just make more, or use hot water.
In terms of adding the vegetables, this depends on what you are using. As a rule of thumb, if you can eat them raw, they won’t need to be cooked for long, so add things like spinach, sugar snaps and mange tout about 5 mins before rice is cooked, and broad beans, runner beans and peas towards the beginning of the rice cooking allowing them 10-15 mins to soften up.
When rice is cooked, and the stock has soaked up, add all the grated cheese and stir in until it is melted.
Served with a green salad such as rocket or watercress.
*This last part is for the benefit of our American readers, we don’t get sun here in England. Seriously.
Image via Je Mange la Ville