Vegetable Risotto

Firstly, my apologies for not having posted a recipe for a while. I have just moved house, and until recently my kitchen has born more resemblance to a wardrobe than a place for cooking. But I've finally managed to sort myself out, so I thought I'd share a favourite recipe of mine: vegetable risotto. The beauty of this dish is that you can completely adapt it to your liking (or to whatever vegetables you have lying around in the fridge). It does take a little bit of time to cook, but I think it's totally worth it.

Ingredients:

Risotto rice

Stock cube/pot

Olive oil

White wine

Onion

Garlic

Your vegetables of choice

Soft cheese or philadelphia

Parmesan cheese

Step 1: Prepare the vegetables.

I chose to use courgettes, baby sweetcorn and carrots. I sliced and fried the courgette, and left it to drain on some kitchen towel. The baby sweetcorn and carrots I blanched in a saucepan - be careful not to overdo this or the vegetables won't be nice and crunchy.

Step 2: Finely chop the onion and garlic, and fry gently in olive oil.

Step 3: Add the rice and fry gently until it turns translucent.

Step 4: Pour in some white wine and turn up the heat a little to burn off some of the alcohol.

Step 5: Make your stock (I used a stock pot) and pour in a little at a time - just enough to cover the rice. Stir from time to time to encourage absorption.

Step 6: Once you are happy with the texture of the rice, add the vegetables back in to warm.

Step 7: Add your soft cheese of choice. I used the new pourable Philadelphia, but goat's cheese or Boursin would work equally well.

Step 8: Serve up, season, and sprinkle a good amount of parmesan on top.

Et voila! And it tastes as good as it looks too - promise.