We had our first beetroot of 2020 (striped chiogga variety) for dinner last night in a risotto along with mangetout and a big bunch of parsley from the garden.

It was very tasty so we thought we’d share the recipe (adapted from The Happy Pear’s mushroom risotto recipe in Vegan: cooking for everyone)

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 onion (or three–four shallots)

1 or 2 cloves of garlic (depending on your love of garlic)

1 large bay leaf

200g veg of choice (in this case beetroot and mangetout)

1 tbsp tamari (or soy, but tamari is better)

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 sprigs of fresh thyme (we used 1 tsp of dried)

250g of risotto rice (arborio)

700ml veg stock

A few tbsps of olive oil

Fresh parsley to garnish two servings (chopped)

Salt and fresh ground black or mixed pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 180 celsius

Peel and cut beetroot into small chunks, coat in olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and roast until soft (c. 15–20 mins, depending on size of pieces).

Finely chop onion (or shallots) and garlic, and fry in olive oil on medium heat until soft (c. 3 mins). (Add chosen veg if not cooking separately and cook for another 3 mins. We cooked our veg separately)

Add rice to pan to coat it with oil for 1 min.

Pour in 500ml of the 700ml of veg stock, tamari, nutritional yeast, bay leaves and thyme.

Cover and simmer for 25 mins, stirring every now and then. If all of the stock is absorbed before the rice is cooked, add more from your reserve of 200ml stock.

We ended up using the whole 700ml in the risotto.

After 20 mins, we put the mangetout on top of the rice and recovered it, so it steamed (we prefer veg to have a bite, any longer and the mangetout would be flaccid and mushy, and lose its vibrant colour).

Then, at about 23 mins, we mixed in the roast beetroot and allowed it to heat through for one minute.

When the risotto was ready we took it off the heat and mixed the fresh parsley through, and served with a squirt of fig balsamic syrup/glaze.

The addition of the tamari and the nutritional yeast bring extra flavour to the risotto. A splash of white wine would also add another tasty layer, administered just after the rice has been added to the base vegetable (onions/shallot and garlic) and absorbed before adding stock.