The Veg Risotto ALL Children Love | Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

A while back I shared our secret pasta sauce recipe that guarantees even the most veg phobic child will eat their spinach, broccoli, cabbage etc.

This risotto recipe is another fave in which veg can be hidden whilst still being great for grown ups.

We don't make it as often as the pasta as - let's be honest - risotto is a tad fiddly.

But the peas, asparagus and broad beans finally appearing in the green grocers are crying out for a lovely, buttery risotto.

If you have a child like mine who will never knowingly eat a whole piece of vegetable and hates "bits" in her food this could present a problem, but this risotto is certified bit free for fussy eaters.

The recipe is basically a simple risotto adapted from one of my favourite cook's Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. It just takes a few extra minutes to make it "veg hater" friendly.

Ingredients

50g / 0.21 cups unsalted butter
1 chopped onion
1 litre / 4.2 cups stock
50ml / 0.02 cups white wine (optional)
250g / 1 cup risotto rice
250g / 1 cup spring or summer vegetables e.g. peas, asparagus, broad beans, courgettes/zuchinni or if you're making in the autumn it's good with pumpkin. The 250g is the "prepared" weight i.e. podded, chopped, peeled, this is equivalent to about 650g / 2.7 cups of peas in their pods.
Lots of Parmesan

Recipe

Sweat for 5-10 mins the chopped onion in half the butter, melted over a medium heat
Put onion & butter in a hand blender and blend until smooth
Put back in the pan and add the rice, stirring until all the grains covered
Add the wine or first ladle of stock and stir until liquid absorbed
Keep adding more ladles of stock & stirring until liquid absorbed
After 7 or 8 mins lightly cook in some stock or steam for 5 minutes half the vegetables
Blend the cooked vegetables into smooth sauce & stir the sauce into the rice
Lightly cook or steam the remainder of the vegetables
After 15 to 20 minutes all the stock should be absorbed
Switch off the heat, dot with the rest of the butter & plenty of grated Parmesan
Put the pan lid on & leave for about 2 minutes before stirring butter & cheese in
Serve with more grated Parmesan & the vegetables on the side so everyone can add as much as they like to their risotto and if preferred keep separate on their plate or not have at all!

The risotto will take quite a bit more veg being stirred in so you could increase the amount of overall veg by a half and add the extra to either the risotto or the separate veg as desired.

This is also great served with grilled salmon if you have a child who likes salmon and likes rice but doesn't really like them all mixed up together.

All in all, it's easily prepared in under half an hour, it's loved by children and adults AND it's absolutely packed full of healthy veg!