Mushroom, asparagus and spinach risotto

Risotto, everyone loves risotto right?

I haven't made risotto on the stove for a very long time and a day where all 4 kids were home probably wasn't the best but we survived (the toy box didn't!)

I went to a cafe not long ago and on the specials board was this amazing risotto filled with parmesan and topped with enough butter to feed a small army but it was delicious.
Now with our new eating style I wanted to try and recreate this recipe.
This is how I went:

Start off by chopping up your onion, mincing your garlic (or finely chop if you prefer) and chopping up your asparagus.

In a large saucepan with some coconut oil sauté these for roughly 5 minutes until the onion is nice and soft.

In the meantime slice up your mushrooms, then add to the saucepan.

Cook for another few minutes to soften up your mushroom, add a splash of white wine if you're using it, I didn't so just added a splash of stock, I also added some Italian herbs (Marjoram, Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Oregano and Basil)

Next we add our arborio rice and stir it all together, wait a minute or 2 to add your stock, you should hear your rice crackle first, then add your stock, 3/4 of a cup at a time and stir, wait a few minutes before adding the next lot, you want to make sure the stock has been soaked up by the rice first.

Don't worry that your risotto isn't creamy for a while, it will be I promise! Keep going adding the stock until you have only a little left, at this stage add your spinach, the remaining stock and season.

Cook for a further few minutes while your spinach wilts and the last of the stock is soaked up,your risotto will be nice and creamy at this stage and certainly doesn't need oodles of butter, if you don't have dietary restriction and want to use butter though that is fine!!

Nothing left to do other than serve now.

I have to admit the photo does it no justice at all, this risotto was amazing!

Recipe: serves 6 or 12 as a side dish

Ingredients:

1 tbsp coconut oil 

2 onions, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 bunches of asparagus, chopped

Splash of white wine (optional)

2 cups arborio rice

9 cups vegetable stock

500g mushrooms, sliced

A tbsp Italian herbs

Pinch salt and pepper

3 good handfuls of fresh spinach 

Method:

Melt coconut oil in a large pan and add onion, garlic and asparagus, sauté for approx 5 minutes.

Chop mushrooms and add to the pan. Cook for a further few minutes.

Add arborio rice, wine, herbs and seasoning and stir.

Wait for a few minutes until the rice crackles and add 3/4 cup stock.

Wait until stock is soaked up by the rice stirring occasionally.

Add more stock, repeat this until there is only approx 3/4 cup left.

Tear up spinach and add to the pan with remaining stock.

Stir and allow the stock to be soaked up.

Serve and enjoy with a nice glass of white wine (again the wine is optional!)

There is so much experimenting that could be done here, if you eat meat you could add some chicken, next time I'm going to use baby spinach instead of English spinach and a variety of mushrooms instead of just your standard mushroom. Or it's super yum just the way it is.

This served 2 adults and 4 children and left enough for a spare lunch and should freeze well. I will update on that when I defrost the spare lunch down the track.