Serves 4
Fresh from the garden: beetroot, red onion, basil, parsley
Ingredients:
8 cups vegetable stock
1 large red onion, finely diced
1 large beetroot
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups arborio rice
¼ cup of verjuice
½ cup nutritional yeast (optional)
A handful of flat-leaf parsley
A handful of basil leaves
Extra parsley, to garnish
Place stock into the medium sized pot and heat to a gentle simmer.
Trim the leaves from the beetroot and set aside to use in another dish. Scrub the beetroot, and peel if needed. Dice into 1 cm cubes.
Heat the sauté pan to a medium heat and fill the small jug with some water. Add a small dash of water (a couple of tablespoons) to the pan, along with the onion and garlic. Sauté for a few minutes until the onion has softened, stirring occasionally and adding another splash of water to deglaze as needed.
Add the beetroot and cook gently for a few minutes.
Add the rice to the large pot and stir with the wooden spoon until all the rice is coated is a lovely pink colour. Add the verjuice and stir through.
Use the soup ladle to add a ladleful hot stock at a time, stirring continuously, until all the liquid is used up and the rice is creamy. This will take around 20 minutes.
While the rice is cooking, roughly chop the parsley and basil.
Test if the rice is cooked by using a teaspoon to taste it. If the rice is still hard in the middle, keep adding more stock until it is al dente. Stir through the nutritional yeast if using.
Add the chopped herbs to the risotto and gently mix well with the wooden spoon to combine. Sprinkle with extra parsley and serve at once on warmed plates.