Spring roasted vegetable risotto
This post is brought to you by Blue Diamond Almond Breeze (aka my favorite almond milk). I’m working with them to create monthly recipes on the blog, and am planning to do only vegetarian recipes. You can check out last month’s vegan banana pudding here!
Risotto is one of those things you can file under “things Liv has had before the age of three that I didn’t try until my 20s.”
Also on the list:
-chia seeds
-goji berries
-artichokes
-quinoa
-Indian food
-Thai food
Risotto isn’t anything extraordinarily fancy or “out there”; it’s just something I didn’t really experience until later in life. Therefore, please don’t count on me for your expert on all things risotto.
The only things I know:
-you need to use short grain rice. (I tried it once with jasmine rice and BOOM! Rice soup.)
-butter and white wine make it especially lovely
-you can totally use almond milk for the liquid and yield a gloriously creamy creation.
It tastes fancy, and is totally something I’d make to share with dinner guests, but it’s also extremely simple to put together.
Here’s the recipe:
Please let me know if you give it a try!
Spring roasted vegetable risotto
A decadently creamy and healthy side dish for your spring dinner parties! Pair with a protein of choice, or feel dress to enjoy atop some fresh greens as a large salad.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 45
- Total Time: 60
Ingredients
- 1 shallot, finely minced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 cup white wine (or vegetable broth)
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- 2 cups Blue Diamond Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
- 1 1/2 cups short grain brown rice (you can also use white, but I enjoy the nutty flavor the brown rice provides)
- 1 cup grape tomatoes
- 1 bunch of asparagus, washed and chopped
- 2 bell peppers, sliced
- Optional: 2-4 oz crumbled goat cheese
- Salt, pepper, olive oil
- Fresh chopped parsley for garnish
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a standard cookie sheet with olive oil or nonstick spray.
- 2. Add your asparagus, tomatoes and bell peppers to the cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper.
- 3. Place in the oven to cook for 30-40 minutes, until roasted and glorious.
- 4. Start your rice. In a large saucepan on medium-low heat, add the butter, shallot and garlic. Heat for 3-5 minutes, until translucent, turn the heat to low and add the wine to scrape up the bits from the bottom of the pan.
- 5. Next, add the broth, the milk and the rice.
- 6. Bring up to high heat, then reduce to a simmer and cover.
- 7. Make sure to stir frequently and that there is always enough liquid to prevent the rice from burning. This will take about 45 minutes, so grab a magazine and stay close to the kitchen so you can occasionally stir! (It’s worth it, I promise)
- 8. When the rice is fully cooked, stir in the goat cheese (optional), the roasted vegetables and top with chopped fresh parsley.
Notes
- Feel free to use any short grain or Italian rice you enjoy (like arborio, carnaroli or violone nano).
- This reheats beautifully, so don’t be afraid to make it in advance and heat up for lunch the next day.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6
Any foods that you didn’t try until later in life and loved? I feel like I’m still making up for lost time with the Thai food 😉
xoxo
Gina
This post was sponsored by Blue Diamond Almond Breeze.
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I adore risotto is love to try this!
I have honestly never tried risotto! Something about it has always put me off…. however…. I will try my best to stomach trying this haaha!
Growing up in a half Dominican, half Greek household, I ate a lot of yummy foods growing up, but I also never had Thai food, Japanese food or Ethiopian food until I went to college, which I now crave constantly.
Also, I need to try this risotto!
I loooove risotto, but I always make it with wine, butter and lost of Parmesan cheese. Never thought about using almond milk in a warm dish! So I adore this idea, thank you Gina (and Almond Breeze ;-))
I never thought about cooking risotto with almond milk before! That sounds delicious!
I didn’t try gnocchi until I was an adult and now I love it! Unfortunately I’ve never tried making it on my own!
Starbucks Frappuccinos. I’m lactose intolerant (really really badly) and they didn’t have the option to make them dairy-free until a couple of years ago. Can I just say: yum!
I’m new to Thai food! I’ve only had it two times, but I love it! I’m also not that adventureous with it yet, but I’ll get there. I love trying new things.
I am with you, I had never tried risotto before until I had it one time at a vegan restaurant, crazy right! Thank you for the beautiful recipe, this would make a lovely dinner dish! Lots of Love C
Serves 6?! I know I would pound the whole recipe for a meal!
haha! i probably could, too 🙂 as a side dish though, i’d say 4-6 since it’s 6 servings of rice
maybe a typo? it only says 1/2 c rice in the recipe 🙂
oh no. that’s supposed to be 1 1/2 cups. #fail
fixing it now
haha, thanks! sounds delicious – can’t wait to make it!
Mmm yum! I love risotto and this looks delicious!
I didn’t try most foods until I was 18. Before that I lived off fast food and hated fruits and vegetables. Craziness! Now there’s very few things I won’t try!
So that’s how you make risotto … very interesting. I may have to try it. 🙂
I avoided nuts until after college because I didn’t like the taste of peanuts. Fast forward to today and I can’t get enough of them.
Great recipe, and I’m a fan of Blue Diamond too.
I love risotto so much! I never considered adding almond milk before but it must add a great flavor to the risotto.
Olivia has such an advanced palette for a little girl. Tell us your secrets! 🙂
I have never actually had risotto. Can you believe that? Well probably since you said you hadn’t tried it since your 20s. Recipe looks so fresh and yum!
I love risotto and make it all the time. I didn’t know you could use any short grain rice. I always buy arborio rice for it, usually also labeled as ‘risotto’. It’s starchy and makes the risotto creamy. I’ll try it with brown rice. I do need to use it up!
This looks delicious and a perfect side as the weather is starting to warm up!
love risotto. will try the recipe for sure.
Yum this looks delicious and FRESH!
I’m sure I never tried kale or avocado (?!) until my 30s. My mom just never had them in the house. There were also many fruits I had never tried. My mom isn’t a big fruit eater (veggies for her), so we always had boring basic fruit like bananas, oranges, apples & grapes. We never had berries, mangoes or other more exotic choices. I was missing out!!
I thought you had to use risotto rice in order to make risotto! I always prefer brown rice over white, so I probably would have been making risotto more often if I’d known I could do it with brown. Definitely gonna have to do this soon. Btw, I just saw a recipe on One Ingredient Chef (one of my fave blogs!) for a coconut strawberry risotto. Um, yeah. Sweet risotto. I’m sure Liv would love something like that! You should create a similar recipe with almond milk! 🙂
Yum! Love all the fresh vegetables that are popping up now!
This looks amaaazeee. Can’t wait to try it 🙂 I never knew you could use Almond milk for risotto. Speaking of, Almond Milk is something I never tried until a few years ago and I wish I ‘d known about it WAY sooner.
This risotto looks amazing!! I love to a
Add in veggies to lighten up the dish.
Now that I own a vitamix I’m all about the homemade almond milk. Sorry, nothing against your sponsor, just so much better fresh.
I’m so excited for more veggie recipes!!! 🙂 I buy almond breeze by the case at Costco (2 at a time!) because we go through it so fast. I do make homemade almond milk for Tripp, but he drinks it so infrequently at this point.
That risotto looks amazing!!
This looks fantastic!!! You’re not alone, I didn’t try risotto until I was in my mid-20’s and I’ve yet to perfect it!
If I come visit you in San Diego will you make me some? 🙂
How weird! I’m literally in the middle of making mushroom & kale barley risotto. What a coincidence! I’ve made it a million times but never considered using almond milk! I only have vanilla on hand right now, which probably wouldn’t taste awesome in risotto, lol. Risotto is my favorite dish of all time and I never had it until I was 22. Crazy. I’ll definitely try the almond milk version sometime.
Love love love risotto and love making it, it’ so relaxing.
I usually make mine with barley, I love the nuttiness of it.
I just started cooking brussels sprouts for us for the first time this year and have no idea why I never did before. I had them randomly over the past few years, but not much. Maybe because I never had them growing up?
Most risotto is so time intensive! I can’t believe this only takes 15 min! Maybe because I’ve only used arborio rice? And risotto in Italy is unlike anything we have here. I had that for the first time last year (three cheese) and it was hard to pull myself away from the bowl!
so excited you’re doing vegetarian recipes!!! 🙂
isn’t there some bad press with Blue Diamond? I don’t know anything about it but I read on another blog a while ago that it has carceenogeen (sp?) so I only buy other brands without that now… would love to hear your thoughts on if this is just one of those things that are blow out of proportion.
it’s carrageenan in general. it’s an additive that’s derived from red algae, and in high doses has been suggested to cause health problems. it’s added to a LOT of natural foods (commonly in yogurts and milk substitutes) and while i don’t think a tiny bit is going to have horrific effects (really, in this world it seems like anything could be considered bad for you), it’s something that almond breeze is working to eliminate form their products. in small amounts, i don’t find it to be a big deal
thanks for the response. I figured it was something like that. I like that they are working to eliminate it though!
Didn’t try Thai food until I moved to California about 5 years ago, but I’m making up for it by going to Thailand next week!!!
It’s so crazy to me all the things that my kids have had even before age 1 that I didn’t eat until much later in life. Even simple things like kiwi and mango!