Creamy Beetroot Risotto with Goat Cheese, Wild Garlic and Walnuts is a delicious and colorful way to combine winter and spring flavors. Ready in 30 minutes! Gluten-free, vegetarian, healthy.
Beetroot and goat cheese is a foolproof pairing. They share sweet and sour notes, that taste great with a pungent touch of wild garlic. The taste is balanced by rather neutral rice and umami-intense parmesan and walnuts. By the way, if you are interested in combining flavors, download my free e-book called "How To Cook without a Recipe". I share information about a simple flavor formula, which you can use to combine different tastes to make your dish more flavorful. My hope is to help you improvise in the kitchen and create mouth-watering dishes on your own without being dependent on recipes. That's basically the secret that all famous chefs and food bloggers keep and use to develop their recipes.
Back to the beetroot risotto, not only it is delicious, but also very easy and quick, which makes a nice weeknight dinner. If you pre-roast the beetroot in aluminum foil, it will take you no longer than 30 minutes to make the risotto! I highly recommend you to roast a big batch of beetroot and use it later in different dishes. It saves a lot of time and encourages you to eat healthy 😉 Here are some recipe examples featuring beetroot that I really love:
Beetroot Towers with Goat Cheese
Beetroot Carpaccio with Orange Mustard Vinaigrette
Beetroot Salad with Persimmon, Kale and Goat Cheese
Russian-Ukrainian Borsch
Wild Garlic Soup with Carrot and Beetroot Chips
As for the risotto, if you know the procedure, you can basically make it with everything you have at hand. It's really simple: sautée onion and garlic in a lug of olive oil. Add rice and stir well until translucent. The best rice for risotto is arborio, as it contains more starch, which is important for creaminess.
Now it's time to add warm stock, one ladle at a time. It's useful to keep it warm on the stove while you are making the risotto, as you will add it gradually until the rice is cooked. You can choose whatever stock you like/have. It sets the overall background flavor. I usually use homemade vegetable stock, that I freeze and use whenever I need for risotto, soups, sauces, etc.
When the rice is done, add other ingredients; diced roasted beetroot, goat cheese, grated Parmesan, chopped wild garlic and walnuts. Other examples can be caramelized pears and blue cheese, roasted pumpkin and chick peas, mushrooms, dried tomatoes, beans, spinach, artichokes, asparagus... You can basically put anything you want in this dish. I like that risotto is so versatile and easy to make. You can also experiment with grains: quinoa, buckwheat or even cauliflower "rice" instead of starchy arborio. Risotto is a very easy dish to master and use as a go-to dinner. Check the full recipe for my beetroot risotto with goat cheese, wild garlic and walnuts below:
Beetroot Risotto with Goat Cheese, Wild Garlic and Walnuts
Ingredients
- 600 ml or 2 ½ cups vegetable stock
- 2 roasted medium-sized beetroots I used one yellow and one red
- 1 medium-sized yellow onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 180 grams arborio rice
- 80 grams or ⅓ cup soft goat cheese
- 3 tablespoons chopped wild garlic
- 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 5 tablespoons ground walnuts
- 50 grams or ½ cup grated parmesan or any other hard cheese for vegetarians
- salt
- black pepper
Instructions
- Set a pot with the vegetable broth on medium-low heat. Peel the beetroot and add the scraps to the broth to give it more color. Finely chop onion and mince garlic. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté for about 2 minutes or until translucent. Add the rice, increase the heat to medium-high and stir fry for 2 more minutes until the grains are coated with oil and translucent.
- Add the first ladle of warm vegetable broth. Let the liquid evaporate before you add the next one. Cook for around 15-20 minutes until soft but not mushy, adding one ladle of stock at a time.
- Dice the beetroots and crumble the goat cheese. Add them to rice together with chopped wild garlic and parsley, ground walnuts and grated Parmesan. Season with salt and back pepper to taste. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
What is your favorite risotto? Leave a comment below!
Cheers,
Elena
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