And I’m back! Happy Monday everyone! Thanks for your patience while I got everything transferred over to this new format, I ran into a few more difficulties than I originally anticipated. For your wonderful patience I give you Beet Risotto with Blue Cheese… or Cotija cheese or any soft, salty cheese really.
Beets are super colorful and in season, so I thought, why not? Honestly, before I made this I could not remember the last time I actually ate a beet. But after my dear friend Haley telling me how her mama had made Beet Risotto over Easter, I was eager to try something with beets.
You’ll need:
1 bushel of fresh beets
half of a large white onion
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 can or about 14.5 ounces of chicken broth (or vegetable broth if you’re a vegetarian!)
1 cup of Arborio rice
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2-3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar or week old red wine
Blue Cheese or another soft, salty cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Wash the beets.
First, slice the stalk off the head of the beet.
Slice the outside, rough skin off.
Beets with all the skin peeled off.
After the beets are peeled, I cut them just like I would an onion. Here are the chopped beets and onion.
In a large pot, add the tablespoon of olive oil, beets and onions and cook on medium heat. Cook until the onions are translucent, about 5-6 minutes.
Stir the beets and onions every few minutes.
While the onions and beets are cooking, mince up the garlic.
All minced up.
Add the garlic to the pot with the beets and onions. Stir in and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Be careful not to burn the garlic!
Add 2-3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar or in my case some week old red wine! You will know when red wine has gone bad by the smell. It will have distinctly pungent or vinegar fragrance. While this wine would not be good for drinking, it works wonderfully in place of red wine vinegar in this dish!
Add the cup of Arborio rice. Stir in.
Stir the Arborio rice into the beets and onions over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
Now, add in the chicken broth a little bit at a time. Add a few ounces at a time, stirring until completely absorbed by the rice. Then add a few more ounces and repeat until all the chicken broth has been absorbed by the rice.
All combined.
After all the chicken broth is absorbed, cover the pot and let cook over low heat for about 10 minutes to let the rice soften. If your stove is pretty hot, you can turn the heat off to avoid burning.
After the arborio rice has soften, it will have a creamy consistency. Place the beet risotto into a bowl.
Immediately top with blue cheese or whatever cheese you choose.
Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!
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