Lazy Risotto a la Rice Cooker

I plan to be posting more frequently for the next while, so stay tuned for plenty of tasty gluten-free goodness… starting with this risotto.

This is by far the easiest way to make a good risotto. Ahh, sweet sweet (salty) laziness.

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup of arborio rice
440g (15oz) canned diced tomato
1/3 cup cooking wine
3 cups vegetable stock
3-4 handfuls of spinach/silverbeet, chopped
6-12 black kalamata olives, pitted & sliced
4 (or so) medium-large button mushrooms, sliced
1 small carrot, grated
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon dried mixed Italian herbs
salt & pepper to taste

Method
1. Turn the cooker on with lid open, heat up oil, saute onion and garlic for 1-2 minutes.
2. Add rice, stir until coated with oil.
3. Add the vegetable stock, canned tomato, wine, mushroom, dry herbs. Stir until evenly distributed. Close rice cooker. Set to cook. Stir once during cooking.

4. When the rice cooker clicks from cook to warm (finishes cooking), stir through the olives, grated carrot, spinach, and nutritional yeast. Close the rice cooker and let sit on warm for 5-10 minutes, or until spinach is wilted and nutritional yeast dissolved.
5. Add salt pepper to taste. Eat up. Yummo.

Other/alternative ingredients you could add:
+ At the start of cooking: frozen green peas, asparagus, leek instead of onion; to stir through at the end: sliced zucchini, kale, any other leafy greens you might like, cooked pumpkin chunks, pine nuts (toasted is best!). You could also try adding some quinoa to replace a little of the rice in step 2 if you’d like a bit of extra nutrition. yes, a terrible sacreligious suggestion, I know, but it works and it still tastes great.
+ Massel’s chicken-style vegetable stock is good for this recipe.
+ I use Chinese cooking wine because I rarely have anything else on hand… naughty! But then again, this is a lazy risotto. (It’s probably sweeter than other cooking wines.)
+ Instead of mixed dry herbs, you could use your specific favourites, like oregano. You could also stir through a handful of chopped fresh herbs at the end. I usually like to add some fresh basil, but it’s winter and my garden is a little bare.
+ I use Lotus brand nutritional yeast. I find it tastes the best, and it contains B12… Some nutritional yeasts are stronger/weaker in flavour than others. If you use another brand, taste-test… If you aren’t as obsessed with nutritional yeast as I am (you weirdo) you could reduce it or leave it out… or you could just learn to love it like every sane person should… and remember to sprinkle it on popcorn. Mmm… But if you do leave it out of this recipe, add some extra salt, herbs/spices, or whatnot.

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