Prawn Risotto (serves 4)

February 21, 2018August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Prawn Risotto by The Fat Foodie

Although I enjoy most fish, my favourite seafood is prawns. I just love them because they’re so ‘meaty’, but at the same time they taste so light and fresh and they’re also delightfully low FODMAP. However, for all that prawns could be categorised in my top 10 list of favourite foods, I don’t cook with them very often. Part of this is due to their cost because they’re not exactly cheap to buy, but also it’s due to the fact that I don’t have many recipes at hand which call for prawns. This may have to change though, now that I’ve created this cracking prawn risotto recipe.

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Mediterranean Risotto (serves 2)

July 5, 2017August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Mediterranean Risotto by The Fat Foodie

I never used to be a fan of risottos, thinking that a dish made out of rice simply soaked with stock must be stodgy and bland, but then I made a gorgeous mushroom risotto one day and realised how tasty risottos actually are. Risottos must be made with arborio rice because it’s a particular type of rice that steadily absorbs the liquid you’re soaking it in, becoming infused with a multitude of flavours until the plump little grains of rice are ready to be eaten.

One of the great things about risottos is that you can make them with loads of different flavour combinations. You can make them based on meat or fish, but I think they’re particularly good when made with vegetables because the fresh vegetables add lots of crunch and texture to the soft risotto rice. Plus, there are so many types of vegetables you can make a risotto with, you’ll never get bored!

Making this Mediterranean risotto doesn’t involve a huge amount of ingredients, but it tastes fantastic. It’s thick, gooey, cheesy and satisfying and only takes about 20 minutes to make. A traditional Mediterranean risotto would ask for onions and garlic in the base ingredients, but they’d make my tummy hurt so I’ve just left them out. I used oyster mushrooms in my risotto because they release a great deeply-flavoured stock as they cook and they’re the only low FODMAP mushroom.

If you haven’t tried making a risotto before then please give this one a go, but feel free to change the ingredients to your heart’s content (pancetta and fresh petit pois peas is a particularly gorgeous risotto combination) and let me know how you get on. You won’t regret it and I guarantee you’ll be making it again within a couple of weeks. It’s that tasty!

Ingredients:

100g of diced red and green bell peppers

A generous handful of parsley (finely chopped)

160g oyster mushrooms (diced)

2 vegetable stock cubes

1 litre boiling water

150g arborio rice

75g grated dairy-free parmesan (normal parmesan isn’t vegetarian/vegan)

150ml vegan-friendly white wine (optional, just add more stock to make up the liquid volume instead)

2 tsps capers

Salt and pepper

1 tbsp non-dairy butter

1 red chilli (finely chopped, but entirely optional)

Method:

Place a risotto pan or large frying pan over a medium heat.

Dissolve the vegetable stock pots into the litre of boiling water.

Add the butter into the risotto pan and once it’s melted add the rice and stir.

Add the white wine and let it be absorbed by the rice, stirring all the while. Once it’s absorbed add the mushrooms and the vegetable stock and keep stirring.

Once the rice has thickened a bit add the chopped peppers, parsley and capers and keep stirring until all of the stock has been absorbed and the rice is soft.

Remove from the heat and stir the grated parmesan through the risotto. Taste for seasoning, add chopped chilli if you like, and serve.

Mediterranean Risotto by The Fat Foodie

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Vegetable Risotto (serves 4)

August 29, 2016August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Vegetable Risotto by The Fat Foodie

Although I like most Sundays to be quiet, restful affairs involving such tasks as pottering in the garden and performing small chores around the house, from the moment I opened my eyes yesterday didn’t feel like it was supposed to be one of those days. So, in order to blow off the cobwebs and embrace our itchy feet we took a slow meander along to our local Lidl to pick up some fruit and veg for the forthcoming week.

I really like Lidl’s produce selection and I love their prices too, so it wasn’t a surprise that we came home with a little bit more veg than we’d intended to buy, but this doesn’t cause me concern because I know I’ll use it all in meals throughout the week.

When I was thinking about what I was going to cook for dinner I figured I’d use up last week’s veg that was left in the fridge, topped up with a bit of the fresh stuff we’d picked up that day, so a vegetable risotto seemed the way to go. I used to be wary of risottos, thinking that they were difficult to make and that they required constant stirring, but that’s not the case at all. As long as you use decent quality stock cubes and a good quality non-dairy parmesan cheese you can’t go wrong. My risotto was supposed to include the large glass of crisp white wine that was left in a bottle in the fridge from the night before, but my partner decided that it would be better used as an apéritif to sip on while watching me prepare the risotto. Top tip: keep your wine hidden out of reach until you’ve used what you need in the risotto.

It’s up to you to choose what your additional flavourings will be because the possibilities are endless: baby summer vegetables; crispy pancetta and oyster mushrooms; chicken, mangetout and white wine; or a seafood risotto packed to the gills with king prawns, mussels and squid. There’s a risotto for everyone’s taste buds, you’ve just got to find it, but I can highly recommend the one below.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

100g red bell pepper (cut into bite-sized pieces)

6 cherry tomatoes (halved)

1/2 a courgette (cut into bite-sized pieces) – no more than 120g in total

60g mangetout (cut into bite-sized pieces)

100g oyster mushrooms (cut into bite-sized pieces)

100g large leaf spinach (English spinach)

300g arborio rice

3 tbsp chopped chives

A 150ml large glass of crisp white wine (vegan optional)

3 vegetable stock cubes

1 litre of boiling water

75g finely grated dairy-free parmesan (normal parmesan isn’t vegetarian/vegan)

Method:

Prepare the vegetables as directed in the ingredients list and then add the stock cubes to the litre of boiling water and stir to dissolve them.

Put a large frying pan over a medium heat and add the olive oil. Once hot, add the red pepper, courgette, mangetout, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes to the frying pan and cook until they are tender. Add the spinach and cook until it is wilted.

Put the vegetable mix in a separate pan and leave to one side.

Put the frying pan back on the heat (don’t bother washing it, life’s far too short) and add the arborio rice. If you’ve managed to keep hold of the white wine add it to the frying pan now and let it be absorbed into the rice, stirring occasionally.

Once the wine’s been absorbed add a little bit of the vegetable stock and 2 tbsps of the chopped chives and let the stock be absorbed, stirring occasionally.

Keep adding the vegetable stock a little at a time until the rice is plump and al dente (has a slight bite to it). You might not need to use all the stock so it’s okay to have some left over if you’re happy that the rice is cooked to your taste.

Stir the grated parmesan into the rice (feel free to add more if you like, but I thought 75g was plenty). Then stir your precooked vegetables from earlier into the rice and heat through.

Serve sprinkled with the last tbsp of chopped chives and more parmesan.

Vegetable Risotto by The Fat Foodie

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Mushroom Risotto (Serves 4)

May 22, 2016August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Mushroom Risotto by The Fat Foodie

On Friday night I cooked what could possibly be described as one of the most decadent meals I’ve ever made. The ingredients were simple enough, with the exception of black truffle infused rapeseed oil, but the combination they created when melded together into a mushroom risotto was absolutely delicious.

In all honesty, I’ve never really seen the attraction of risotto. To my mind, rice should either be the accompaniment to a curry or found in the form of a creamy rice pudding, not as a stodgy savoury pile of starch mixed with meat or vegetables. However, after cooking this mushroom risotto I will happily admit that I now stand corrected.

Although there is, by my own admission, a very generous amount of butter and truffle-infused oil in this recipe, it never feels oily or overly fatty on the tongue. Instead, the flavour-infused swollen little grains of arborio rice just carry the creamy, earthy taste of mushroom in each forkful. So, if you fancy treating yourself to a bowl of something which feels like well-earned self-indulgence, this mushroom risotto is the one for you.

Ingredients:

1 vegetable stock cube (I use Casa de Sante’s low FODMAP Vegetable Stock Powder)

1 litre boiling water

3 to 4 tbsps. truffle oil (or olive oil instead)

Juice of ½ a lemon

250g pack oyster mushrooms (sliced)

300g risotto rice, such as arborio

1 x 175ml glass white wine

60g butter (or non-dairy version)

A handful of chopped parsley leaves (you could use chervil or tarragon if preferred)

3 tbsps. of chopped chives

50g grated dairy-free parmesan (normal parmesan isn’t vegetarian)

Method:

Prepare your lemon, herbs, parmesan and mushrooms as directed in the ingredients list.

Dissolve the stock cube in a jug filled with one litre of boiling water.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the mushrooms, add salt and pepper to your taste, and continue to cook until the mushrooms have softened.

Add the rice into the pan and cook for 1 min.

Pour in the white wine and lemon juice and stir until it is absorbed into the rice.

Pour in a quarter of the stock.

Simmer, stirring often, until the rice has absorbed all of the liquid. Add the same amount of stock again and continue to simmer and stir. It will start to become creamy and the grains of rice will start to look plumped up and tender.

Add the remaining stock and once it’s been absorbed the rice should be cooked. Taste the rice and if it’s still too al-dente for your taste, then just add a bit of hot water to it and continue to cook.

Once the rice is cooked, take the pan off the heat and stir in the butter, chives and half of the parmesan.

Divide into your serving bowls and scatter with the remaining parmesan and parsley. Then drizzle with a bit more truffle oil because what’s life without indulgence?

Mushroom Risotto by The Fat Foodie

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The Fat Foodie

Making Low FODMAP Food Good!

Tag: #risotto

Prawn Risotto (serves 4)

Mediterranean Risotto (serves 2)

Vegetable Risotto (serves 4)

Mushroom Risotto (Serves 4)