Beetroot and Tarragon Risotto
If you like comfort food, arm workouts and the colour pink then this is the dinner for you.
Both beetroot and tarragon are on point in late spring early summer. Whilst it does require a bit of stirring, you can give your arms a break as it doesn’t need to be continuous, just often. Stirring the rice regularly, bumps those flirty little grains together which activates the gluten and helps to create a creamy finish. Try not to add too much liquid at a time as you don’t want to boil the rice, you just want some lovely hot stock added ladle by ladle to keep it at a gentle simmer. On a summer evening this is such a lovely dinner to have in the garden with sunshine on your face.
Beetroot and Tarragon Risotto
Serves 4
Ingredients
• 4 raw beetroot (washed and peeled but keep any leaf and finely shred)
• 1 onion (finely diced)
• 4 garlic cloves (minced)
• 1 stick of celery (finely diced)
• A small handful of chopped Tarragon
• Big splash of white wine or sherry
• 2 veg stock cubes (or 1 – 1.5 ltrs of fresh veg stock)
• About 350g Arborio Rice
• 1 lemon
• 1 giant, epic handful of parmesan or veg alternative
• Olive Oil
• 1 dollop of Crème Fraiche
Method
• Blitz the raw beetroot in a food processor until you have a bright purple mess and keep to one side
• In a large saucepan, gently heat the olive oil and add your onions
• Sweat these until soft and translucent with little to no colour
• Add both the garlic and celery and sweat these off for a couple of minutes
• Bring the kettle to the boil and stir both stock cubes into about 1.5 litres of water
• Add your rice and stir until it the outside of the grains are coated in oil and have become translucent. The riceshould just start sticking to the bottom of the pan
• Pour in your wine and stir until all of the liquid has been absorbed
• Add your beetroot pulp and cook for a couple of minutes
• A ladle at a time, add your veg stock, stirring often until the rice has absorbed the liquid before adding another ladel
• This should take about 20 minutes
• Keep stirring babes, it bashed the rice together, helping to activate the gluten and make it delicious and creamy
• Finally, once the rice has become tender but with a very slight bite left to it, the end is in sight and you can nearly finish stirring
• Add your cheese, tarragon, beetroot leaves, the zest of one lemon, a big squeeze of the juice, a dollop of crème fraiche and season with salt and pepper
• One final stir, then laxle into a bowl, drizzle over some oil a sprinkle more of cheese, herbs and lemon and you can launch the wooden spoon into the washing up bowl, sit down at the table and give your arms a rest
• Spoonful by spoonful you may now place the creamy, gloriously bright risotto into your mouth and feel elated that all the stirring was worth it.