Onion Spinach Risotto

Does this happen to you? If you have not met someone in person, but have been interacting with them for long you make a mental picture about the person. You associate the person with the face that comes closest to the first impression the person makes on you.


I first came across Kalyani's blog when I participated in her Ragi special event. It marked my entry in to the blogosphere's events. She encouraged me many times later with whatever recipes I posted and linked to her events. For me, I had registered her to be a doting mother with a great knack of picking up unusual recipes and making them in a healthy fashion. 


We met early this week for a lunch date for the first time. It was exciting to catch up with her and discuss all things of common interest. Being the typical girls we were amidst a large food court in a shopping mall, we discussed all things, food, kids, hubby's and blog. We also indulged in a little shopping excursion. It was complete fun. 
About the mental picture, she fitted to the T, as it always happens, all the things associated with MomChef automatically got associated with the real Kalyani. 


On coming back home in the evening, the dish I wanted to make was risotto and as expected at my place, I did not have the basic ingredient, arborio rice.
Not getting daunted , I started looking for replacment. No I do not stock multiple types of rice grains, so I had just 2 options, basmati rice or the broken thick grained rice used for my little devil's khichdi prep.


I opted for the latter.




Ingredients
1 cup arborio rice/ thick grained rice
4 cups vegetable stock/ water*
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 tspn olive oil
2 tspn butter
1 tspn mixed italian herbs
1/2 cup / 30 gms grated parmesan cheese/ cheddar cheese
1 tspn garlic crushed
1 tspn crushed black pepper/ chilly flakes
2 tbsp Spinach chopped
salt to taste
Method
1) Boil the stock or water until it is bubbling.
2) In a large work/ pan, heat the olive oil and butter together.
3) Add the garlic and onions and stir until the onions are cooked. Add the chopped spinach and stir again.
4) Now add the washed and soaked rice and stir until all the grains are well coated.
5) Add the mixed herbs and black pepper and salt and stir again.
6)Add one cup of boiling stock and keep stirring until it is soaked up. Now add the second cup and continue stirring.
7) Repeat this for 4 cups or until the rice is cooked.
8) Add the grated cheese and stir well.
9) Serve hot with toasted garlic bread.


It turned out to be a much cheaper option with no compromise in taste.


Sending this to 
- Vardhini's New U
- Radhika's Let's Cook - Rice
- Helen's  Frugal Food Fridays
- Amy's Midweek Fiesta #11 event



Comments

Roshni said…
yummy... and interesting read about the meetup with a blogger. and also thanks for the encouragement. glad to know you and follow :-)
Unknown said…
Yumm.. Using a thick grained rice.. I was planning on making with same rice...
Vardhini said…
Good to know about the meetup with Kalyani. Risotto looks yummy and thx for linking to the event.

Vardhini
Event: New "U" - Healthy Eats
Event: Healing Foods - Cauliflower
Sravs said…
Nice interesting recipe !!

Ongoing event CC-Chocolate Fest
anjana said…
interesting and tempting recipe..loved it..
Amarendra said…
Very nice post.. Also, I was looking for a recipe without any liquor component involved and I found this... Bookmarked this recipe.
Amila said…
delicious!!Thanks for linking with Midweek Fiesta...

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