12 oz beets
5 cups chicken stock*
2 onions, quartered
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups Arborio rice
1 oz Parmesan, grated
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
olive oil
salt
pepper
chèvre
Preheat oven to 400. Place onions and beets (quarter the beets if they are large)in a oven safe pan. Add the olive oil, toss with salt and pepper. Roast until just soft, about 40 minutes. When the beets are cool enough to handle, peel and cube. Chop the onions. Meanwhile, bring the broth and water to a simmer. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan you are making the risotto in. Saute the beets, rosemary and onion. Add the rice and sauté for 2-3 minutes, stirring continually. Add the broth a 1/2 cup at a time, stirring continuously, and waiting until the liquid is absorbed before each addition. This will take about 20 minutes total. When the risotto is creamy and the rice is al dente remove from heat and stir in the Parmesan. Top with a coin of chèvre.
*or use a mix of water and stock with the majority of the liquid being stock.
My thoughts:
This is my now one of my favorite versions of risotto: creamy and mild yet full of flavor. Roasting the beets and onions intensifies their flavor and keeps the risotto from being too bland. I had some lovely Lively Run chèvre that was perfect for a little texture contrast. I served with with some steamed lobster and the combination was fabulous!
Ohh, I love that color! Such drama. 🙂
i wish i could stand beets!
this LOOKS great!
What a beautifully coloured dish! I love beets so this will have to be on my list to try!!!
what a lovely colour of red! i’d love to try it when our beetroots are ready to be harvested this year. the thing is that which stage of beetroots do you use here? our beetroots often are growing really huge. I found them a little bit bitter than those much smaller and younger than the bigger ones. are the big ones alright to flavour the risotto, do you think?
I think larger ones would be okay, but the smaller ones (which I used) are generally tastier.
Interesting… you didn’t use any wine in your risotto? That was the ingredient I looked for in your recipe because I was wondering if you used red or white wine. If one did add wine to their risotto recipe, I would imagine red wine would compromise the vibrant ‘beet red’ color of your risotto. Nice photo…I heart beets! I may give this a shot! Amy @ neverfull.wordpress.com
Hey Amy! I didn’t use wine but if I had, I would have used red.
I’ve made beetroot risotto before, but I didn’t use roasted beets. I can imagine how that gives an even nicer flavour to the dish, so I’ll be definitely doing that next time. Thanks for the tip!
And what a great forkful shot!!!