Blue Cheese, Mushroom, Walnut & Leek Risotto

This is the perfect dish for a cold, wet and windy night, when you just want to snuggle up with your loved ones (and a glass or two of red wine). Although this recipe is slightly involved and requires a decent amount of preparation and forearm strength, it’s a one pot wonder that will delight your taste buds and warm your soul. Best of all, you can get the arborio rice, veggie bouillon, walnuts, parsley, thyme and black pepper with one easy trip to Another Weigh.

We recommend having everything prepped and ready to go before you turn the burner on; this will make everything flow much more smoothly and quickly and will also spare you any unnecessary headaches.

Serves 3-4 hungry people with potential for leftovers.



Ingredients

Ingredients:
2-3 tbsp butter or veg oil
1½ cups arborio rice
4½ cups veggie stock (4½ cups of hot water mixed with 4½ teaspoons of veggie bouillon)
1 large onion (chopped)
2 cups mushrooms (chopped)
1-2 cloves garlic (chopped)
1-2 leeks (chopped)
1 cup chopped walnuts
150g blue cheese (stilton, St. Agur, gorgonzola etc.)
Parsley, thyme, black pepper

 







Method

Heat the butter or oil in a large saucepan. On medium to high heat, saute the onions until translucent, then add the mushrooms and saute until they’re looking and smelling delicious.

Stir in the garlic and then add in the arborio rice and stir well. (Have your veggie stock at the ready, though, as you’ll be adding this in incrementally.)

Once the rice is thoroughly mixed in and heated through, pour in a cup of stock and stir constantly. You might want to turn down the heat a bit here and make sure that the rice doesn’t get stuck to the bottom of the pan. This part requires some elbow grease.

Once the water from the first cup has been mostly absorbed into the rice, go ahead and pour in another cup of broth, stirring constantly. This is also a good point to add in your chopped leeks and walnuts, as well as any spices or herbs.

Keep stirring until the water is absorbed and then add another cup of broth. Repeat this process until all the water has been absorbed and it looks like you’re making a big pot of risotto.

Now you’re ready to add in your blue cheese of choice. But only add in about 100 grams, saving the remainder to crumble over individual bowls once served.
Once the blue cheese has been stirred in and melted, you’re ready to serve.

Serve with crumbled blue cheese on top. Our Hodmedod dried peas also make an excellent topping for this dish, or if you fancy more cheesiness (without more cheese) engevita yeast flakes are always a good option.