Cheddar gorgeous mushroom risotto -- Mummy Barrow

Last week the youngest teen cheerfully announced that she was being challenged by her best friend to be a vegetarian for a week.

Oh.

Great. This means that muggins here needs to now cook three meals every night as I do one for her, one for Jonnie, and then one for Mr B and I. Marvellous. Or we all go veggie.

Hmm. That might be do-able actually. Especially since Netmums asked me to get involved with a campaign to love mushrooms. Not too difficult a task even for a hardened steak lover such as me.

I picked this recipe from the selection they sent me, as it sounded tasty, nutritious, and above all, dead simple for a “can’t cook, won’t cook” such as myself. It is also a great way to get children to eat vegetables as you throw in lots of other things you might have in the fridge, such as brocolli, green beans, baby carrots etc.

Cheddar Gorgeous Mushroom and Leek Risotto

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

45 mins

A delicious vegetarian risotto, made with risotto rice, dry white wine, leeks, mushrooms and peas – with grated mature Cheddar

Recipe type: Supper

Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
300g risotto rice
1 pack baby leeks, or 2 medium leeks, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
200g chestnut or closed cup mushrooms, sliced
150ml dry white wine
900ml hot vegetable stock
100g frozen peas, thawed
100g mature Cheddar cheese, finely grated
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan or saucepan. Add the rice and cook gently over a low heat for 1-2 minutes, stirring all the time until it looks glossy but not browned.
Add the leeks, garlic and mushrooms and stir for another minute or two. Pour in the wine and allow it to bubble up, then pour in about half the hot stock. Stir well.
Cook over a medium-low heat for 20–25 minutes, stirring often and adding the remaining stock a little at a time, until the rice has absorbed all the liquid. Check that the rice is tender. It should have a nice creamy texture, though the rice should retain a little ‘bite’. If it needs cooking for longer, add some extra stock or hot water.
Add the peas and most of the cheese, stirring gently to mix them in. Check the seasoning, adding some pepper if needed. Serve, sprinkled with the remaining Cheddar.

Now as we have a whizzy risotto maker, I threw all the ingredients in there in one go and made it from start to finish in half an hour with no faff whatsoever.

And do you know what? It was flipping amazing. But if you don;t have a whizzy risotto maker you can make it with that recipe in about the same time, it just needs a bit more of a careful eye on it. But I think you will agree, well worth the effort.

The mushrooms give the rice a really nutty bite that I love with this sort of cooking.

I have been compensated for my time in writing this post, and for buying ingredients