Slowly cooked risotto is deliciously creamy and comforting especially on a crisp cold day in January. After the costly pinch of Christmas its great to have a few dishes that are easy on the pocket yet packed of flavour.
This is a plant based version, made with plant based butter and cheese.
Sweet Irish leeks are one of my favourite vegetables and they are the perfect partner to vitamin D rich Irish mushrooms in this one pot meal.
Gradually adding hot stock to the rice will create a perfect bowl of risotto. It’s always worth the effort.
Let us know if you try it we love to hear from you.
1 litre of hot vegetable stock (substitute 100ml stock for dry white wine if you wish)
juice 1/2 a lemon
A big knob of butter (30g), use dairy or non dairy
1 tbsp. Nutritional yeast
Salt, pepper and olive oil
grated firm cheese to finish, use dairy or non dairy
optional topping: a handful of chopped fresh parsley
Method:
Method: Step 1: Heat 1 litre of stock in a pan and bring to a boil.
Step 2: Meanwhile, in another pan, sautè the diced onion for 5 minutes in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and then add in the diced leeks and cook to soften. Next add the grated garlic and mushrooms cook for a further 10-15 minutes until cooked through.
Step 3: Stir through the rice. (If you want to add white wine add it now) Pour in a ladle of stock, stir gently and once all the liquid has been absorbed, pour in another ladle and repeat until the rice is al dente, or cooked to your liking. Continue stirring the rice so the starch is released and it becomes creamy.
Step 4: Stir through the nutritional yeast, butter, grate in some firm cheese and finish with lemon juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Serve with fresh chopped parsley, black cracked pepper and a good extra virgin olive oil.
Bake your next risotto in the oven to save yourself from standing over the stove and constantly stirring a pot. I promise, the results are just as delicious. We are obsessed with this parsnip and hazelnut version right now as the new season parsnips are just being pulled from the ground. Hazelnuts and parsnips are a match made in heaven and the rosemary in the recipe really rounds off the flavours. Did you know we stock organic risotto rice and hazelnuts (and many more great groceries) in clever compostable bags?
Liz x
Ingredients (serves 4)
1 onion, diced
3 sticks of celery, diced
400g parsnips, diced
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
250g risotto rice
600ml water, just boiled
200ml white wine
2 stock cubes
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp chopped rosemary
100g hazelnuts, chopped
Method
Turn your oven on to 200C and find a deep baking or casserole dish with a lid. Put the parsnips, onion and celery in the dish along with the oil and butter. Season well with salt and pepper, give it a mix and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the veg is soft.
Meanwhile, in a heat-proof bowl, measure out the rice and top with the just-boiled water, stock cubes, garlic and rosemary. Stir to dissolve the stock cubes and then add the glass of white wine. Let the rice soak while the veg cooks in the oven.
Remove the dish from the oven and pour in the rice and all the liquid it has been soaking in. Stir to combine the rice, stock and vegetables and then put the lid on the dish. Place the dish back into the oven to bake the rice. It should take around 20-30 minutes. Check on it after 20, when the rice has absorbed the liquid, it is done.
Once the rice is cooked, remove the lid and stir, add a splash more wine or water to stop it from drying out, then top with the chopped hazelnuts and return to the oven with the lid off for just 5 minutes or so to toast the nuts. Serve in warm bowls and enjoy!
When we have a glut of tomatoes, this is one of our family favourite, summer suppers. The kids especially love this risotto and I love giving them a generous spoon of pesto. It’s so full of goodness – healthy fats and protein from the seeds and olive oil, antioxidants and vitamins from the fresh greens. Make your own pesto (follow one of our recipes here) or buy a handy jar (here). Tomato and basil is an unbeatable flavour combination. Did you know we sell organic risotto rice in compostable bags?
Liz x
Ingredients (serves 4)
2 small or 1 large white onion, finely diced
3 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
6 large tomatoes or a bag of cherry tomatoes, roughly diced
6 sundried tomatoes, sliced
1 mug of risotto rice
1 large glass of white wine
2-3 mugs of vegetable stock/bouillon
salt and pepper to taste
pesto to serve
fresh basil leaves to serve
Method
In a large, heavy bottomed pot, sauté the onion with the olive oil until soft and golden. Over a medium heat, this should take around 8-10 minutes.
Now add the garlic, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes and a big pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté and cook down for another 5 minutes.
Add the mug of rice and the glass of white wine. Stir until most of the liquid has been absorbed.
Then add a ladle of the stock, stir and cook until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Keep repeating this step until the rice is cooked through. Taste a grain every now and then and stop adding stock when you are happy with the consistency. Adjust the seasoning as needed at the end too with some extra salt, pepper or maybe a squeeze of lemon?
Serve in bowls and top each bowl with a generous spoon of pesto and some fresh basil leaves. Enjoy as it is or with a simple salad
Halloween is long gone but pumpkins are still very much in season. Want some extra-flavoursome pumpkins? Add a few of our kuri squashes to your next order. But, if you’ve got some decorative pumpkins with tough skins that still need eating, cut them in half, scoop out the seeds and roast until soft. Then scoop out the flesh and make this tasty risotto. Risotto is the perfect one-pot, soothing, feed-a-crowd, mid-week-meal don’t you think?
Liz x
Ingredients (serves 6)
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
2 onions, peeled and diced
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp thyme
400g risotto rice
the juice of a lemon or a large glass of white wine
700g roasted pumpkin
2 stock cubes dissolved in 1 lite of just-boiled water
salt and pepper to taste
nutritional yeast, pumpkin seeds and more olive oil to serve
Method
Heat the oil and butter in a wide, heavy bottomed pan/pot.
Add the diced onion and cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon until soft and starting to turn golden brown.
Then add the garlic, bay leaves and thyme and stir until fragrant.
Pour the rice into the pan and stir to coat it in the flavours and fat. Then add the lemon juice or white wine. Stir for a minute or so until the pan is nearly dry again.
Start adding the vegetable stock, a ladle at a time, stirring pretty constantly until the stock is nearly all absorbed before adding the next ladle.
Once half the stock is used up, add the roasted pumpkin and stir it in with another ladle of stock. Use the back of the wooden spoon to smoosh the pumpkin into a rough purée as you go. Keep adding stock until the rice is cooked through and creamy. You may run out and need to add water.
Taste the risotto and adjust the seasoning if needed with salt and pepper. Then serve with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast and pumpkin seeds and a drizzle of good, peppery olive oil.
Brr! Spring is here but there are still some pretty chilly spells. Who got that day of blazing sunshine interspersed with freezing hail storms the other day? These erratic-weather days call for a steaming bowl of comforting risotto.
You can’t go wrong with risottos, they are the best way to celebrate and capture the essence of a season. Oozy, umami-rich mushroom risotto is perfect in Autumn, but in Spring I want verdant green colours and bright herby flavours! So here’s my latest creation, an asparagus, courgette and cherry tomato risotto with pesto stirred through just before serving. Light and bright enough to shout ‘Spring!’ But cosy and comforting enough to make you forget about being caught in that hail storm earlier.
Add the ingredients to your next order from Green Earth Organics here. We deliver to every address in Ireland. Liz x
Ingredients (serves 4)
2 sticks of celery
1 courgette
3 handfuls of cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 mug of risotto rice
1 stock cube
1 bundle of asparagus
1 lemon (zest and juice)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 heaped tbsp pesto
toasted nuts/seeds to serve
Method
Dice the celery and courgette and soften in a large pot with the olive oil over a medium-high heat. (You could also add diced onions and garlic for extra flavour).
Halve the cherry tomatoes and add them to the pot along with the mug of rice and stir well.
Snap the woody ends off the asparagus and pop them in the compost bin or in a freezer box to make stock with another time. Then slice off the asparagus tips (a couple of inches from each spear) and put to one side to use at the end. The middle part of the asparagus spears can be sliced into slim rounds and added to the pot now.
Crumble in the stock cube and add a mug of water to the pot. Stir and simmer until the water has been absorbed by the rice.
Add the zest and juice of the lemon and another mug of water. Stir and simmer agin until the liquid has been absorbed. Then add more water, half a mug at a time, until the rice is cooked through but still retains a little bite.
Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed. Then add the asparagus tips and simmer for just 3 minutes or so until they are just cooked through, bright green and still crunchy.
Just before serving, stir through the nutritional yeast and pesto to add brightness, herby flavour and cheesy richness to the dish.
Serve in warm bowl with toasted nuts/seeds scattered over each bowl. Enjoy under a cosy blanket on the sofa watching your favourite film!
Celebrate spring with some bright fresh flavours, have an Easter feast and bake some treats with the kids. There are loads of ideas up on the blog now. Let me point you in the direction of some delicious dishes which will work perfectly this Easter. Liz x
My courgette risotto is a celebration of this delicate green vegetable – there are silky soft, slowly simmered pieces and fresh raw ribbons to tantalise your tastebuds. Swirl through some of my low waste salad bag pesto and scatter over some crunchy toasted hazelnuts…heaven!
After something Easter eggy with out the egg? Try these fun little devilled ‘eggs’ made with quick picked mushrooms and a vibrant yolky chickpea mixture.
Make an egg shaped batch of my easy as 1,2,3 shortbread and have fun decorating. I added the zest of a lemon to the dough and used the juice for icing. Just stir in enough icing sugar to make a thick paste, then split the icing into two bowls and add turmeric to one for a natural food colouring – make chicks, eggs, daffodils, daisies… Allow the icing to harden and set before storing in a biscuit tin.
Forgo the sacrificial lamb and make this hearty lentil pie instead? It’s packed full of flavour and veggies and is a satisfying family friendly meal. Serve with seasonal greens. I always make a big batch and pop one in the freezer for a rainy day.
To me a risotto should elevate a single vegetable. It should celebrate it. Add too many ingredients to your risotto and the flavours will mingle and become indistinguishable in the long simmer. Courgettes are incredibly versatile. Fantastic cooked down low and slow into a silky mush, griddled and seared, battered and deep fried, raw… So for interest and texture in this dish I’ve cut each courgette differently. One diced and simmered with the onions into a meltingly soft sauce, one sliced into rounds for texture and body in the risotto and the last one peeled into raw ribbons to go on top. Serve with a swirl of pesto (try my salad bag pesto here), a drizzle of good olive oil and some toasted hazelnuts. Heaven.
Leave a comment if you tried this recipe or show us your photos on Instagram or our Facebook group. We love seeing your amazing recreations. Liz x
Ingredients (serves 4)
1 onion
1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil
2 sticks of celery
4 cloves of garlic
3 courgettes
1 mug of risotto rice (or however much you like to serve 4)
1 lemon
1 stock cube
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp (or more to taste) pesto
extra virgin olive oil to serve
toasted, chopped hazelnuts to serve
Method
Dice the onion and put it in a wide pan with the butter and oil over a medium high heat. Add a pinch of salt and sauté and soften for around 6 minutes.
Dice the celery sticks, garlic and one of the courgettes and add them to the pan to soften too. Cook, stirring often until soft and golden. Around 10 minutes.
Rinse and add the risotto rice to the pan with the zest and juice of the lemon (or a glass of white wine). Crumble in the stock cube and add a generous grind of black pepper. Stir well to coat the rice in the seasoning then add a mug of warm water.
Slice the second courgette into rounds and add it to the pan. Simmer and stir until all the water has been absorbed then add another mug of water. Keep simmering and stirring.
Meanwhile use a vegetable peeler to slice as many ribbons from the third courgette. Chop up the middle bit and add it to the pan. Keep simmering and stirring and add another mug of water. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt, pepper or lemon once the rice started to swell up and become softer.
Once the risotto is cooked (the rice should be soft and creamy but still with a little bite) turn off the heat. Stir through a few tbsp of pesto, pile on the raw courgette ribbons, drizzle everything with extra virgin olive oil and scatter over the toasted hazelnuts.
Take the pan to the table and serve with the jar of pesto handy to add extra swirls through the bowls of anyone who wishes for more.
I’ve been cooking so much with the gorgeous, super-fresh carrots from the farm recently. Carrots are one of those staple vegetables that often get overlooked as ‘boring’ and sent to the side of the plate or the base of the meal. I love elevating these humble vegetables and making them the star of the show. Once you taste the difference between watery, bland supermarket carrots and the real deal from the farm, you’ll see why I bang on about showcasing each vegetable in its own right.
Root to Shoot
I’m sure most of you already know that the carrot tops are edible too. In this recipe, and in many of my recipes, I show you how to make a meal using the whole vegetable, root to shoot! I hate waste, not just because I don’t have the cash to splash, but also because of the environmental impact. Did you know that reducing food waste has been identified as one of the most effective ways to fight climate change? According to Stop Food Waste, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted each year. This directly contributes to food shortages, water stress, biodiversity loss and increased greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, more than one quarter of food produced is wasted: with food loss and waste contributing 8-10% of total emissions. So we should all do our part in reducing food waste by learning how to use the entire vegetable and putting as little as possible in the compost bin (and certainly never put food waste in the general waste heading for landfill). Apart from the environmental issues regarding food waste, it is surprising how much important dietary fibre and incredibly powerful nutrients are found in the peels and other parts of vegetables we often throw away. Good for your body, your pocket and your planet, what’s not to like?
Ingredients (to serve 4)
12 carrots and their leafy tops – carrot scrubbed and tops well rinsed
1 glass of white wine or a splash of vinegar or lemon juice
Method
Start by removing the leafy tops from the carrots. Roughly chop them and put them in a food processor with the blade attachment. Then slice the carrots lengthways into halves or quarters, put them in a roasting dish, dress them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and pop them in a hot oven (180C) to roast while you get on with the barleyotto/risotto.
Peel and dice the onion and start sautéing it in a heavy bottomed pan with a little olive oil. You could also add a knob of dairy free butter to the pan for extra flavour at this stage.
Dice the celery and garlic. Add 3 cloves to to the pot (along with all the celery) and one garlic clove to the food processor where you’ll make the carrot top pesto.
Season the onion, celery and garlic with a little salt and allow it to cook down and soften a little. Then add the mug of barley grains, the glass of wine (you can replace this with a small splash of cider/white wine vinegar or the juice of a lemon), the stock cube/bouillon and 3 mugs of water. (If you are using risotto rice, add the liquid gradually, stir often and allow it to soak in before adding more). Add the drained butterbeans and let the barleyotto simmer until the grains are cooked through. Stir regularly and keep an eye on the liquid levels, you may need to add more.
While the carrots and the barleyotto/risotto are cooking, focus on the pesto.
Toast the sunflower seeds in a hot, dry frying pan until they are fragrant and start to pop and colour. Then add them to the food processor with the carrot tops and garlic.
Add the juice of half a lemon or a tbsp of cider or white wine vinegar, a few tbsp of nutritional yeast (this brings an irresistible, rich, cheesy flavour to the pesto), a pinch of salt, some freshly ground back pepper and enough olive oil to blend the pesto into a bright green sauce. If you don’t have very many carrot tops you can also add some chopped kale or spinach to the blender.
Pulse the pesto until it comes together into a loose green sauce. Then taste it and adjust the seasoning if needed with extra salt, pepper, lemon juice or olive oil as you like and blend again until you are happy with the flavour and consistency.
When the barley or risotto is cooked through, taste it and check the seasoning, adjusting it if necessary. Then serve in bowls topped with roasted carrots and carrot top pesto. Any spare pesto can be kept in a jar in the fridge for up to one week. Use it in sandwiches, to top crackers or dip vegetables in, stir it through pasta or drizzle it over steamed greens or roasted vegetables.
Enjoy! 💚 Liz
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