In my quest to be eating more vegetarian food again, I starting thinking back to what I ate a lot of when I was actually vegetarian – sounds obvious doesn’t it! When I was an overweight vegetarian, I ate a lot of cheese and fries and junk. Anything that was convenient basically. When I decided that needed to stop and that I needed to get healthy and lose weight, I started cooking everything from scratch and risotto was one of the first things I made.
Although some people find it a little difficult at first (I did too), as you have to constantly watch it and add a little bit of water at a time, so it can make it time consuming, it is actually really easy as you are just throwing everything in a pot. You can pretty much use anything in it. Our risottos tend to use up leftover meats and beans we have and whatever vegetables need using before they start to look lifeless.
Risotto does make a really good vegetarian meal though and it is very filling and warming – which makes it perfect for the colder nights.
Ingredients – Serves 2:
- 150g/0.75 cup brown rice
- 2 leeks, sliced
- 8 mushrooms, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 5 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
- 1 litre/4.2 cup of homemade vegetable stock
- 4 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 handfuls of spinach
- 20g cheese (leave out if you want a vegan meal)
1) Heat some oil in a large pan and add leeks, garlic and mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes.
2) Add the rice and cook for 5 minutes
3) Add the sun-dried tomatoes and a little bit of the stock. Cook until the rice has absorbed the stock and then add some more. Keep adding a little bit at a time, letting the rice absorb it, until you have used all the stock. This will take around 35-40 minutes.
4) Stir in the spinach and parsley and cheese and stir and cook for 3 minutes, until the spinach has wilted.
5) Serve with a little more parsley on top.
Nutritional Information:
Calories: 370
Fat: 6
Carbs: 65
Protein: 14
Fibre: 7.5
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Yum!
Brilliant! I was looking for recipes to use my brown rice in.
Looks scrummy.
Wow – this is so low in calories. Thank you for the recipe
Anything with sundried tomatoes in is a hit in our house. I eat them out of the jar
I love risotto and this flavour combination sounds really nice.
Thank you for posting more vegetarian recipes. I use so many of your recipes, but I omit the meat. It is nice to have lots more veggie options and this looks wonderful.