Spectacularly beautiful beetroot and leek risotto

The garden is just so pretty this time of year when everything is “Spring”-ing into life. Even my leeks, which spent most of winter looking like sad chives, are now strong, tall architectural works of art.

This leek survived a cockatoo attack!

I find leeks easy to grow – they prefer a nice sunny spot but will take some shade, and like nice rich soil. I start them off in a shallow tray, by sowing them thick on the surface and covering them very lightly with seed raising mix. Keep them moist and they’ll sprout in a week or so. Let them grow up to 15-20 cm tall then either plant them in a 15 cm trench that you gradually fill in as they grow, or plant normally then hill the soil up around them when they're tall enough. Either method will ensure you get a long white section of stem – this is the part you eat.

I planted my leeks in Autumn using the trench method.

They’ll reach full size in several months but can be picked at any time before then. They’re also pretty forgiving – a cockatoo snapped one of mine down to the ground only six weeks ago and it has fully recovered!

Leeks are from the onion family, and they can be used in just about anything you’d use normally onions for. They caramelise beautifully when cooked low and slow. Before cooking a leek, cut off the tough green part of the leaves, cut the leek in half length-ways and rinse upside down under running water to remove any dirt and grit. The discarded greens can be used with other vegie scraps to make a great stock.

For this risotto, I’ve chosen to pair leeks with beetroots, which have fantastic health benefits as mentioned in my pear and beetroot salad blog article. This is truly the most beautiful, visually spectacular risotto you will ever make – it’s the most vibrant scarlet colour with lush greenery peeking through. It’s also absolutely delicious, slightly sweet while still being rich and satisfying. If you love this beetroot and leek risotto, you might also like to try my mushroom risotto,or if you’re grain-free, try substituting cauliflower for the rice, like my cauliflower risotto recipe here.

Beetroot and leek risotto

1 leek, white part of the stalks only, finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 medium beetroot

Juice of ½ lemon

1 cup Arborio rice

3 cups hot vegetable stock

A small bunch of leafy greens – kale, silverbeet, spinach etc – finely sliced

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Place a medium saucepan on the stove over a low heat. Add a good slosh of olive oil, the leek and garlic. Stir then put the lid on for a few minutes to leave them to soften and caramelise. The leek will become translucent – don’t let it brown as that can create a bitter flavour.

Grate the beetroot or pulse it for a few seconds in a food processor until it’s finely chopped. Add to the leek mixture and stir through. Let it cook for a few minutes, stirring regularly, until it has a beautiful shine.

Turn the heat up to medium, add the rice and keep stirring for a couple of minutes so that the grains are all coated in oil and have started to heat up. Add the lemon juice, which should sizzle as it hits the pan, and stir through. After 30 seconds, pour in all of the stock and stir. Turn the heat back down to low, put the lid on and walk away!

Taste test the risotto after 20-25 minutes, when the rice should be starting to soften. When it’s nearly ready to serve, stir in the greens – you want to do this now so they have time to wilt but don’t lose their colour. Season with plenty of salt and pepper, serve immediately. 

Spectacularly beautiful beetroot and leek risotto

Steaming-pile-of-compost-inspired mushroom risotto

A couple of weeks ago, I headed out to a mushroom farm about half an hour from Canberra to pick up a cheap and enormous trailer load of – what else – mushroom compost! This is the stuff that mushrooms are grown in, and it’s usually made up of organic materials such as hay, straw, and poultry or horse manure.

Steaming pile of compost with a view

There’s not a lot of nutrients in the compost by the time the mushrooms are done with it, but it is a great soil conditioner as it adds organic matter, locks in more moisture, and keeps the soil cooler in warmer weather and warmer in winter. 

Swiss brown mushrooms

Anyway, so there I was standing beside an enormous steaming pile of the compost as a bulldozer scooped up a tonne and dropped it into the trailer. The smell that washed over me was almost decadent, an intoxicating, earthy, truffly scent that tempted me to tear into the nearby barn and fill my pockets with mushrooms to take home and fry up.

Instead, I settled for heading to the Capital Region Farmers Markets the next day, where I picked up a bag of button mushrooms from the same farmers that the compost came from, and some swiss brown mushrooms from another stall for a boost of that intense earthy flavour. The resulting mushroom risotto was like that compost smell on a plate – in a really, really good way. 

Mushroom risotto

Serves 3 people

Button mushrooms

200g chopped, sliced or diced mushrooms

Several cloves of garlic, crushed (or to taste)

1 finely diced onion

A couple of sprigs of lemon thyme, thyme and/or oregano

1 tsp each ground cumin and paprika

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper

A slosh of lemon juice

Two sloshes  of olive oil

1 cup Arborio rice

½ cup white wine

1 litre vegetable or chicken-flavoured stock

A few chopped leaves of kale or silverbeet, or a handful of baby spinach

(optional) a handful of parmesan

In a large saucepan, heat a slosh of olive oil to a medium temperature. Set a couple of mushrooms aside to add to the risotto later, and throw the rest in the pan, cook for a minute, then add 1-2 crushed garlic cloves, a sprinkle of thyme or oregano leaves, and the cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt to taste. Stir regularly for a few more minutes until the mushrooms have softened nicely, then slosh in some lemon juice, give a vigorous stir, and empty the mushroom mix, including any juices, into a handy bowl.

Add another good slosh of olive oil to the same pan, over a low heat. Add the onion and gently cook it, stirring, for a couple of minutes. Add the rest of the garlic and keep cooking until it’s all nicely softened and translucent. Don’t let the onion brown as that will change the flavour. Turn the heat up to medium and add the Arborio rice. Stir it so that every grain gets coated in the oil and distribute the heat evenly. After a couple of minutes, pour in the wine – there should be a satisfying sizzle as it hits the pan. Stir it in, and while there’s still some liquid in the pan, add your bowl of mushrooms and their juices and start stirring.

There’s a couple of ways you can go from here. You can pour the stock in, stick the lid on and walk away for 20-25 minutes. You can add your stock very gradually and shake the pan gently every 3-5 minutes. I like to add the stock at about a cup at a time, and stir the risotto every minute or so – it ends up creamy and doesn’t stick to the bottom and burn. The other options work fine though. You don’t have to add the whole litre of stock, so going gradually will give you more control over how dry or wet the risotto is when you serve.

After about 20-25 minutes, give it a taste and texture test – the rice should just be starting to soften. When it’s a couple of minutes away from serving, stir in the last couple of mushrooms, a sprinkle of thyme and oregano, and your leafy greens. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the rice is just right – soft but still with a little bite in the centre of each grain – take it off the heat and serve as is or with parmesan and a nice drizzle of a quality extra virgin olive oil.

Feel free to experiment with the risotto – try other herbs, spices and seasonal vegies like broccoli. I happened to pull out my pumpkin vine on the same day so the last few pumpkin flowers added some colour and sweetness to my dish. Let me know how you go!