Recipe: Nadiya's Creamy Mushroom And Peas Risotto

Weekend dinners need to be special and speedy, because no one wants to spend hours in kitchen, sweating it out in this weather.

Let Nadiya Sarguroh tempt you with her creamy Mushroom and Peas Risotto, a rice dish cooked in soup stock, that will bring back memories of your last holiday in Italy :))

Meat and seafood lovers can skip the peas and add shredded or boiled chicken or prawns to the risotto.

Nadiya's recipes are the result of many rounds of experimentation with everything from dessert, snacks, Western cuisine and Indian dishes.

Mushroom and Peas Risotto

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 800 ml or 3 ¼ cups vegetable broth (please see the Editor's Note below)
• 1 onion, diced
• 2-3 garlic pods, crushed
• 100 gm frozen or fresh peas
• 1 cup uncooked rice, preferably an Italian short-grain variety like arborio, washed and drained
• 1 tbsp melted butter
• 30 gm cheese, grated
• 250 gm mushrooms, roughly chopped
• ½ tsp mixed herbs powder
• ½ tsp black pepper powder
• Salt to taste, about 1 tsp
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Water

Method

• Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil and the chopped mushrooms in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and cook until soft, for about 3 minutes.
  Take off heat and keep aside.
• In the same saucepan, add the remaining olive oil, crushed garlic, diced onions.
  Cook until soft, for about 1 minute.
  Add the washed and drained rice and stir so it mixes well with the garlic-onion mixture and cook for a few minutes.
  The rice will turn pale yellow in colour.
  Add few tbsp of water and stir until it is absorbed by the rice.
  Add the vegetable broth, little at a time, and keep stir.
  Add the salt.
  Cover the saucepan and let the risotto cook in the broth for around 20 minutes over low heat.
  Keep stirring so the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the saucepan.
  Once the rice is cooked, add the fresh or frozen peas, and stir.
  Give it a few minutes to cook.
  Stir again, add mushrooms and take off the heat.
  Stir in the melted butter.
  Add the pepper and the mixed herbs powder.
  Serve warm, topped with the grated cheese.

Editor's Note: Liquid broth is available in some gourmet food stores. Or substitute the vegetable broth by combining 2 vegetable soup cubes or 2 vegetable broth/bouillon cubes or 2 tsp vegetable broth/bouillon powder with 4 cups boiling water and freeze the excess for future use in another soup or recipe.<

Make vegetable broth from scratch by boiling 4-5 cups water with 1-2 large roughly chopped carrots, 3 stalks roughly chopped celery with leaves, 2 medium onions chopped in chunks, 5-6 whole black peppercorns, 2 tsp salt, 4 tbsp chopped parsley with stems, 2 lavang or cloves, 5 pods garlic, 2 tej patta or bay leaves till vegetables are tender and the water is steeped with the flavour of the vegetables and spices.

Strain and use 3 ¼ cups for the recipe. Freeze the excess for future use in another recipe.

Nadiya Sarguroh lives in Mumbai and publishes the food blog HautePot.

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