Citrus Risotto
Why I Love This Recipe
When you're in the mood for some comforting food that isn't too terrible for you try risotto! Delicious, creamy, kind of like an Italian mac-n-cheese and the best part is drinking wine while you cook it! This recipe was kind of thrown together haphazardly, but I’m taking a crack at writing it out because the flavors melded really well with eachother and provided a yummy meal.
Ingredients You'll Need
1.5 cups arborio rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups vegetable stock
1.5 cups dry white wine
1 cup orange juice
1 bunch of asparagus, cut into small pieces
1 cup brocoli florets
7 mushrooms, chopped
zest of one lemon
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Heat up 1.5 tablespoons of the oil in a large pot and add onions and garlic. Turn the heat down and let the onions and garlic get golden, stirring occasionaly - about 7 minutes. Add the rice and stir it around to get it completely coated with the oil. Let it hang out for a minute and then start adding your liquid.
The key to risotto is adding about a half a cup of liquid and then stirring the rice until the liquid gets completely absorbed, and then adding another half cup, continue the process until you’ve used up all of the stock, wine and organge juice. [This makes for a lot of time standing over a pot and stirring, but if you pour yourself some of that extra wine and put on some good music, the time flies by and you get a meal at the end of it! ] I mixed up the order a bit - first, I used some stock, then wine, then a bit of the orange juice and just kept repeating the process until all the liquid was gone.
In the meantime, steam the brocoli and asparagus and saute the mushrooms with the rest of the olive oil. Add the brocoli and asparagus to the mushrooms and give it a good stir.
When the risotto is just about done and looking creamy, add the lemon zest, vegetables and salt and pepper. Stir it up a couple of times and taste. The rice should have a bit of bite to it, but if it’s a bit undercooked, just add some more liquid - wine, stock, orange juice, whatever! All you have to do is keep stirring.
Place in bowls, grate some parmeson and add some more lemon zest to serve. I like having some crusty bread along the side.
