Vegetable Risotto

This was great. Am in Mongolia so have to improvise. I used black fungi dried mushrooms and subbed broccoli for lettuce and fennel. It was delicious! Also sushi rice subbed well for arborio.

This recipe was a great base for taking some liberties with vegetable risotto. I used fresh shiitake mushrooms, a shallot (not an onion), and instead of lettuce I used swiss chard. Swapped one half cup of water with 3/4 cup dry white wine. Lastly, went for about 3x fresh parm because what else am I supposed to do?

If you want more filling risotto, use carnaroli rice.

I almost always make risotto with the pressure cooker: 7 minutes cooking from beginning of whistle (or rocking) to pressure release. 7 minutes is for most large-grain risotto rices (Arborio or Carnaroli), 6 minutes for Vialone Nano, which is smaller. 1 part rice, 3 parts liquid (by weight, not volume), e.g. 5 oz dry rice, 15/16 oz of broth.

Always takes me at least 45 min to make risotto -- constant stirring -- pain in the rear. It's always good -- never made a bad batch -- but I consider it a weekend meal. I agree with the last poster that the mushroom broth should go in for flavor

Switch to Carnaroli rice from Italy. It is the preferred rice in Italy for risotto.

For some added flavor I poured in a splash of white wine after the onions had turned transluscent

We didn't have dried mushrooms so we used fresh ones and chicken stock. Aslo, fearfully, we used an entire small head of lettuce rather than just five leaves. It was delicious. No one knew that they were eating lettuce. The flavor and texture of the sauteed greens was fantastic. Like others we did use a mix of butter and olive oil in the cooking but otherwise followed exactly as written. Will absolutely make again.

Risotto with water? No, it should be cooked it broth. E.g. the mushroom broth from step 1. Why does this recipe say to reserve that mushroom broth for "another purpose", and then proceed to cook the risotto with water? Absurd. Cooking a risotto with water will produce only a anemic, bland result.

Why wouldn't you use the mushroom liquid as some/all of the cooking liquid instead of just water?

Definitely needs more than the four cups of water mentioned here. I would also consider adding some tougher leaf vegetables than lettuce for texture (e.g., Kale, spinach). Also consider increasing amount of fennel - flavor didn't really come through.

I found this to be bland and wish I'd used olive oil and more vegetable. I used ice berg because I had it on hand and am cleaning out the refrigerator. Maybe it was too bland. I will use more fennel in the future, too.

I had a hard time getting a sense of what the flavor was to be. I often read recipes and know what they will taste like and that was not the case here.

Thanks for helpful comments. I used 2 cups of arugula instead of lettuce, and entire bulb of fennel, and added roasted chestnuts in the end. I found the Annette's comments helpful regarding using olive oil to cook the onions, fennel, and arugula, and to finish the dish with butter.

I grew up on Risotto....my family comes northern Italy. they never used that much butter.....only enough to coat rice. I have changed to half butter & half olive oil. I usually make 2 cups rice.

olive oil to start 1 to 2 tbsp and 1 to 2 tbsp butter when risotto is finish...just before adding the parmesan.