Lemon and Asparagus Risotto

One of my favourite things about being Vegan is that I get to chow down on as much risotto as I can handle (which happens to be alot). I am obsessed with risotto's, if I was on death row, the last meal I would eat would be a perfectly cooked risotto. I like to think I have risotto cooking down, its a labour of love for this meal but if you put the time and love into it, it will always taste amazing.
Below is my standard GO TO risotto recipe that is easy to make and tastes amazing.

• 500g Arborio Rice
• 4 Cups Vegetable Stock
• 2 Lemons
• 1 Bunch of Asparagus
• 1/2 Cup White Wine
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 2 Cloves of Garlic
• 2 Shallots
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• Pepper to season

1. In a large sauce pan heat the vegetable stock over a low to medium heat.

2. In a large pan add the olive oil, bay leaf, crushed garlic and diced shallots and stir until fragrant and the shallots are starting to brown.

3. Add the rice and stir for around 2 minutes or until all the excess oil has been absorbed then turn the pan down to a medium heat.

4. Add the white wine and stir for a minute whilst the alcohol cooks down.

5. Add the juice of both lemons and the rind into the rice mixture and stir.

6. Begin to add the heated stock into the rice mixture one ladle at a time ensuring that you continuously stir the rice, when you can drag your spoon through the rice and it doesn't immediately slide back together it is time to add another ladle of stock.

7. Continue slowly adding the stock until the rice has released its starch and become quite creamy, if you bite a grain it should still be slightly Al dente but not hard.

8. Add the diced asparagus and stir for 2 minutes then season with pepper.

9. Divide evenly between 2, garnish with extra lemon rind and enjoy.

Cheat's Mediterranean Risotto

It is a really cold winter this year and I seem to be craving comfort foods hardcore, thankfully being vegan means that mean high fat comfort food is still readily available (HELLO HOT CHIPS!) unfortunately I really really want to try to eat high carb low fat plant based dinners so that means that when it comes to comfort food it means making the real deal that normally takes a little bit of time.
Monday night I was craving risotto more than I though humanly possible but CBF standing at the stove for a couple hours and cooking so I came up with this sneaky little recipe that took me about 1/2 to cook and most of that was leaving a pot on the stove cooking.
Here is one of my new favourites.......

So my cheat's Mediterranean Risotto is really just baked veggies with pearl barley instead of rice but hey it gave the desired effect and filled my risotto craving without standing around WIN!

• 1 Zucchini chopped
• 1/2 Eggplant chopped
• 1 Onion chopped
• 1 leek chopped
• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• 2 Cloves Garlic crushed
• 1/3 Cup Pearl Barley
• 1 Cup Salt Reduced Vegetable Stock
• 1 Bunch Broccolini
• 1 tsp Mediterranean spices

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Chop the Eggplant, Zucchini and Broccolini into cubes and place on a baking tray, drizzle the veggies with half the olive oil and Mediterranean spices then place in the oven for 15 minutes or until crispy.

3. In a large pan place the other half of the oil, the crushed garlic, chopped leek and chopped onion then allow to sweat down on a medium heat for around 5 minutes or until translucent.

4. Once the onions, garlic and leek have cooked down add the vegetable stock and 1/4 cup of water. 

5. Place the pearl barley into the pan, bring to the boil then reduce heat and leave to simmer for around 15 minutes.

6. Once the pearl barley has absorbed most of the vegetable stock turn the heat back up to high and stir continuously until the stock has completely cooked down.
7. Add the roasted vegetables to the barley mixture and toss to combine, then serve.

• Servings: 2
• Calories: 248
• Fat: 3 g 
• Carb: 51 g  
• Fiber: 11 g 
• Protein: 8 g 
• Sugar: 11 g
• Sodium: 562 mg 

Well there you have it, a cheats way at achieving a high carb low fat plant based comfort dish which doesn't take hours to make. 
Do you have any recipes I should try? Did you try this recipe? What did you think?