Garden risotto with crushed mint and pea pesto
3 years ago
Nutrition
Flavours straight from the allotment: sweet peas, crunchy courgette, fragrant leek. We make risotto easy with a brown rice base – yet still rich with silky cashew cream, and a lemony mint and Brazil nut pesto.
Serves: 4
Cook time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
150g fresh peas
160g brown rice
160g mini portobello mushrooms
1 lemon
1 vegetable stock cube
200ml cashew cream
2 leeks
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp oil
300g courgette
30g Brazil nuts
4 garlic cloves
Medium handful of fresh mint
Method:
1. Boil a large kettle. Dissolve the vegetable stock cube in 250ml boiling water.
2. Bring a pan of lightly salted water to the boil. Rinse the brown rice and place in the pan, simmer for 15-20 mins (until the rice has a slight bite as it will be cooked for more time later). Once ready, drain and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, thinly slice the leeks, removing the root ends, and thinly slice the mini portobello mushrooms. Thinly slice the courgettes into half moons and finely chop or crush the garlic cloves.
4. Heat a large pan with 1 tbsp oil on a medium heat and cook the leeks for 5 mins, then add the courgettes for a further 3 mins, add the mushrooms and the garlic and cook for a further 3-5 mins until softened. Stir in the cooked rice and add the vegetable stock and the cashew cream. Cook for 10 mins until the rice is cooked. Add more water if the rice becomes too dry.
5. In the same pan the rice was cooked in, add the peas and cover with boiling water. Simmer for 2-3 mins, then drain. In the last few mins of cooking the rice, stir in the nutritional yeast, and two thirds of the peas and a squeeze of lemon juice, to taste. Season with sea salt and black pepper.
6. Make the pea and mint pesto: in a bowl roughly crush the remaining peas with the back of a fork. Roughly chop a handful of mint leaves and the Brazil nuts and add to the bowl of peas. Stir in 1 tbsp olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice, to taste. Season with sea salt and black pepper.
7. Serve the garden risotto in four warm bowls and top with the pea and mint pesto.
612 calories, 22g protein, 36g fats, 50g carbs
Allergens: Celery, Nuts
Recipe courtesy of Mindful Chef
