'Clean Out the Fridge' Vegetable Risotto

August 14, 2:43 PMSeattle Sustainable Foods ExaminerPatricia Eddy

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Summer vegetable risotto

Some weekends, there are so many wonderful vegetables at the farmers markets that it is easy to buy just a bit too much and end up with a vegetable drawer full of food that you just can't eat. So what do you do? You make a special risotto that is so forgiving, it will take just about any vegetable you can throw at it.

Clean Out the Fridge Summer Vegetable Risotto

Serves 4

• 1 pound fava beans
• Pea shoots
• 3 small to medium beets
• 2-3 cups Emmer (or white rice)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 3-4 Tbsp butter
• 2 shallots
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 turnips
• 1/2 pound peas
• 1/4 cup shredded Asiago cheese

1. Prep all of the vegetables by doing the following:
   
   1. Mince the garlic and shallots.
   2. Cube the beets.
   3. Boil the fava beans, shell, and peel the skin off the shelled beans.
   4. Cube the turnips.
   5. Shell or slice the peas (shell sugar snaps, slice snow peas into 3-4 pieces each).
   6. Pan roast the beets and turnips.
2. Melt 1-2 Tbsp of butter in a large sauce pot over medium heat.
3. In a smaller pot, gently warm the chicken broth and water together over medium-low heat.
4. Add the garlic and the shallots and stir frequently for 3-5 minutes, until the shallots are translucent.
5. Stir in the Emmer (or rice) and stir to coat well with the butter.
6. Add the wine to deglaze the pan.
7. Once the wine has evaporated, start adding the chicken broth and water, a ladle at a time.
8. Check the mixture frequently, at least every 5-7 minutes.
9. As the liquid evaporates, add another ladel full.
10. Keep adding liquid in small batches, only when most of the previous ladle has cooked off.
11. When you're down to the last one or two ladles of chicken broth, add the peas.
12. When all of the chicken broth has cooked off, turn off the heat and stir in the fava beans, beets and turnips, pea shoots, and Asiago cheese. Mix well and serve.

 Patricia's Notes: You can add just about any summer vegetable to this dish. If you have leftover corn on the cob, just scrape the kernels off and add them to the risotto. Bell or hot peppers would be excellent, diced and pan roasted. If you don't have chicken broth, you can use vegetable broth or even water, though if you use water, add some salt as well. I loved the fava beans in this recipe, though I'm not sure they are worth all the effort. Not only do you need to boil the whole beans, but then you must shell them. Unfortunately, you're not yet done as you need to remove a protective sheath from each bean as well.