Welcome back to Tuesday's recipe series, where each week I share a new recipe. When there is a collection on the blog, I will be showing you how to use them to create weekly, fortnightly and monthly meal plans. Today's recipe is a super-simple oven-baked risotto.
I have always loved a good risotto, but could never be bothered standing over the stove stirring it for 40 minutes. Ain't no-one got time for that, especially when you've got a hungry toddler at your toes in the kitchen! So now I only do risottos 2 ways - in the oven or in the microwave. Both methods do not require constant stirring, so it becomes one of those quick 'leave-and-forget' meals that I totally love! The recipe I've written today is an oven-baked version, but getting yourself a great microwave dish too is a really worthwhile investment.
The other great thing about risotto is that once you know how to make a delicious flavour base, you can mix and match different vegetable combinations to create unique dishes. You can easily have a different risotto every week in your meal planning. If you were doing a monthly meal plan like I do and wanted to include a different weekly risotto, it might look like this:
Week 1 : Chicken, mushroom and spinach
Week 2: Oven-baked vegetable
Week 3: Bacon, leek and goat's cheese
Week 4: Asparagus, pea and mint
And bam! You've got 4 meals of the month sorted, all with pretty much the same method but different flavours. Meal planning and cooking shouldn't be over-complicated. It's all about finding a good recipe and tweaking it to suit your personal tastes. I hope you enjoy this risotto recipe as much as we do!
Oven-baked vegetable risotto
Ingredients
1 tbs olive oil
2 leeks, finely chopped
2 - 3 rashers bacon, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 red capsicum, diced
1/2 butternut pumpkin, diced
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 cup Arborio rice
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus extra to serve
Salt & pepper to taste
Method
Preheat oven to 180º C
Heat oil in a medium-sized pan. Add onion and bacon, and cook for 2- 3 minutes
Add all the other vegetables and cook until the onion is translucent (approx. 3-5 minutes)
Add rice and stir to coat in the oil
Pour the chicken stock into the pan, and gently bring to the boil, stirring regularly
Cover the pan with a lid or foil and place in the oven for 15 minutes.
Remove the dish from the oven and add peas. Return to the oven for 3 minutes.
Remove from the oven, stir in parmesan, and season with salt and pepper. Allow to sit for 3-5 minutes then serve with extra parmesan sprinkled on top
(Serves 4)
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