Vegetable Risotto

A brown rice dish chocked full of veggies.  

Sounds like a healthy dinner to me!  We greatly enjoyed this recipe; using brown rice in place of the traditional Arborio rice used in risotto {because, hey, that's all we had in the pantry}.  

When we make it again, I'll either (a) increase the liquids and cooking time, (b) use Minute brown rice {as I do in my other risotto recipe}, or (c) actually use the recommended Arborio rice.  These simple changes will help to make sure that the rice is gooey and not still crunchy.     

Vegetable Risotto - Inspired by Pioneer Woman

6 C chicken broth*
1 C water*
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 C chopped carrots
1 C chopped broccoli
1 C chopped cauliflower
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 T minced onion flakes
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 C brown rice {Minute or Arborio Rice recommended}
1/2 C dry white cooking wine
1 C frozen peas
1/2 C Parmesan cheese
Sea salt, to taste


Begin by melting the butter in a large skillet. Add olive oil.

Add in the chopped carrots and cook about 5 minutes.

Add to the mix all the other yummy chopped veggies. I chopped these all in my food processor.

Cook for about 5 minutes, until zucchini is crisp-tender. Then, set the veggies aside {cover them to keep warm}.

In the same skillet, add in the risotto.

I used brown rice because that's what we had... and you can use it too, just know the cooking time is much longer than with risotto. *If you use risotto, use 5 C broth. If brown rice, up that to 6 C chicken broth + 1 C water.

Add in the white wine and cook rice over med-low heat until the wine is absorbed.

Meanwhile, bring the broth and water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Using a ladle, add in hot broth to the rice in the skillet and cook until almost all the liquid is absorbed... then add in about 1 more cup of broth.

This is a time consuming process -- taking about 1 hour to fully cook with brown rice -- but it's well worth it. If you wish, speed up the process by using mintue brown rice.

When the rice is just about done, add the veggies back into the pan.
Add in the peas, cooking until warmed throughout.

Mmmm.

Sprinkle on and stir in the Parmesan cheese.

Allow the heat from the dish to melt the cheese. Trust me, it's better that way.

Season with salt and pepper.  Serve warm.

We enjoyed this as a stand-alone dish, but it would accompany grilled chicken wonderfully too.

Linked to: Your Recipe, My Kitchen