Beetroot risotto
Risotto is a dish originating from Italy, the main ingredient of which is rice. You cannot make risotto from every type of rice – you need one particular type, namely arborio rice. This type of rice has round grains that become sticky and do not fall apart when cooked. You cook the rice with the addition of stock, usually vegetable stock, but meat or fish stock and water are also often used in the preparation of risotto. The simplest risotto that you can prepare is a risotto made only from rice, served with a little Parmesan cheese and seasoned with salt and pepper. I admit that I make this type of risotto very rarely, because personally, I like when you can find vegetables or seafood in risotto.
Therefore, my recommendation for today, is a recipe for beetroot risotto, which will probably not surprise anyone. In order to prepare a risotto with beetroot, apart from beetroots, you also need onions, vegetable stock, cheese, spices and, of course, rice. I like to bake the beetroots that I add to the risotto in the oven. It takes a while, so I usually do it the day before. Instead of baking, the beets can also be boiled, but oven-baked ones taste better. My beetroot risotto is served with feta cheese. The combination of the salty taste of this cheese with the slightly sweet taste of the beetroot always works great. I recommend serving risotto for dinner or lunch, preferably immediately after preparation.
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Ingredients for beetroot risotto.
- 500 g beets (weight before baking)
- 2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 tablespoon of oil
- 100 g onion
- 250 g arborio rice
- 1,2 l vegetable broth
- 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
- 2 tablespoons of mascarpone
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- feta for serving
How to make beetroot risotto.
Wash the beets under running water, dry them and cut them into quarters. Put the beetroot pieces into a baking sleeve, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and oil. Close the sleeve, place it on a baking tray and put in an oven preheated to 190 degrees Celsius for about 2 hours. Cool the baked beetroots, peel them, grate half of them, and dice the other half.
Pour olive oil into a larger pot, add finely chopped onion and fry over a medium heat for 4-5 minutes. Then, add the rice and continue frying for 2 minutes. Afterwards, start adding the vegetable stock. Add the stock in small batches, stirring the risotto very often. 5 minutes after adding the broth, also add the beetroots, 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper. Cook the risotto until the rice is soft – it took me about 30 minutes. At the end of cooking, add the mascarpone cheese. Serve the beetroot risotto with feta cheese.
Good to know when making beetroot risotto.
You can replace the feta cheese with soft goat cheese.
The baking time of the red beets depends on their size and whether they are young or slightly older pieces. Young and small pieces bake faster, they should be soft after an hour.
If the vegetable stock that you are using is seasoned with salt, reduce the amount of salt you season the risotto with.
Do you like dishes with beets? If so, try our recipe for Couscous and beetroot salad.
