It’s getting to that time of year when you want lovely warm hearty meals. Like risotto! Now to be honest, I don’t tend to stick to the “seasonal” style of eating – if I want a salad in December I’ll have it, or a stew in July. Perhaps that’s because we don’t get any of the weather extremes here – I think last winter it snowed for all of five minutes! We did have a few good weeks of sunshine this summer though, but reading a lot of the other MoFo blogs, well, they seem to still be in the middle of summer! I wouldn’t mind swapping the greyness we have for some sunny heat.
But risotto is a lovely warm comforting meal. Usually you wouldn’t make it when the weather is at all hot, because it involves standing over a hot stove, stirring and stirring until it’s done. But this one, aptly titled “no-stir” is much simpler. It won’t win any culinary rewards – I imagine if I went to a proper foodie forum and talked about “no-stir risotto” they would scoff me off the internet. I’m not too fussed though, because this meal is super tasty, easy, and one we do again and again. It’s also really easy to adapt. Any vegetables you want can be added in instead of the peas, and you could add spices, herbs, whatever you like to make it to your taste!
You start by melting some vegan butter (I like to use Vitalite) and a bit of olive oil in a pan, and adding chopped onions and garlic. Saute them off for a bit with salt and pepper, and add in the risotto rice. Once again, saute this for a bit, and add in some passata, vegetable stock (I use Marigold) and dried basil.
It looks kinda like soup…
Pop the lid on and cook for 15 minutes! If you want to stir a little, to stop it getting stuck, go for it, but you don’t have to stir it constantly!! After the 15 minutes is up, add in the peas, pop the lid back on, and cook for another 5. Take the lid off, stir, and there you have it!
If you have any vegan cheese (I’m using Tesco’s free from cheese) this also goes great on top. Makes for a lovely comforting dinner!
No Stir Pea & Tomato Risotto
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegan butter
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 150g arborio rice
- 500ml tomato passata
- 250ml vegetable stock
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 200g frozen peas
- Salt and Pepper
Directions
- Melt the butter with the oil in a large saucepan (that has a lid!).
- Add in the onion and garlic, and salt and pepper, and saute until translucent.
- Stir through the rice and cook until the grains are “glistening” – basically until they look shiny.
- Add the passata and stock and the teaspoon of dried basil, stir, and bring to the boil.
- Put the lid on the pan, turn the temperature down, and set the timer for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, take the lid off and stir through the frozen peas.
- Put the lid back on and cook for a further 5 minutes, or until the rice is soft.
- Stir, and serve!
Thank you to thehipinfant.com.au for the recipe inspiration.
Walks, Talks & Eats 