Risotto with Carrot

This makes a hearty sidedish or maybe even a main dish for a vegan/vegetarian diet. I used short grain brown rice to make it a bit healthier than white rice but I've tried it both ways and it truly comes out better with white rice. So you pick. If you make this with brown rice, you can plan on your cooking time doubling, or about an hour. You can choose vegetable broth and non-dairy parmesan to keep it truly vegan, or skip the cheese altogether.


Ingredients

• 14 oz chicken or veg broth
  
• 2 TB olive oil
  
• 1 med red onion finely chopped
  
• 6 med carrots grated
  
• 1-1/2 cups short grain brown or long grain white rice
  
• 1/2 dry white wine (I used apple juice instead)
  
• 1/4 cp grated parmesan (substitute or omit for vegan)
  
• salt and pepper to taste

First, heat the broth to boiling, then turn down to very low simmer. Clean and grate the carrots. The first time I made this, I hand-grated the carrots. Yikes, what a chore. So this time I pulled out my food processor from the depths of my cabinet. Ahh, much easier.

Heat your oil in a large pot on med-high and add carrots. They should sizzle when they hit the oil! Saute, stirring constantly for 2 minutes, then add onion. Season with salt and pepper (1/2 tsp each salt and pepper). Continue to cook for 5 minutes.

Add your rice and 1/2 cp apple juice (or wine). This should be really boiling, you want evaporation taking place, but not too hot to burn. Cook another 2 minutes until juice is absorbed. Now you are going to continue adding liquid (the hot broth) about 1 cup at a time, continuing to stir until all that liquid is absorbed. As you near the end of the broth, the rice should be thickening up and getting very sticky.

If you are using brown rice, you want it to cook another 30 minutes or more after you are done, so you will leave it somewhat liquid and turn the burner to low and cover. If you are using white rice, you will test for tenderness after all the liquid is absorbed. If you find the rice is still not done, add a 1/2 cp juice or water and continue to cook until done. Remove from heat and add parmesan. You brown-rice folks need to keep checking for doneness and add more liquid as necessary, continuing to simmer until done and all liquid absorbed.