Green Herb Risotto with White Wine and Lemon Recipe

This is a light and fragrant vegetarian risotto, which can easily be prepared from left-overs and a few fresh garden herbs.

Because it's big on flavour but not heavy, this makes an excellent light lunch or supper dish. However, the creamy texture and blend of citrus and herbs in this dish also make it an useful accompaniment for fish dishes, particularly if you are looking for something different.

It's even good cold the following day!

Green Herb Risotto with White Wine and Lemon

Serves: 4–6

Ingredients:

1.5l (6 cups) hot vegetable stock
125g (5 oz) unsalted butter
8 spring onions, finely chopped (both green and white parts)
150ml (3/5 cup) dry white wine
finely-grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
500g (1 lb) risotto rice
4 tbsp freshly-chopped mixed herbs (eg parsley, basil, marjoram, thyme, chives)
75g (3 oz) grated Parmesan cheese
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

Place the stock in a saucepan and keep on a gentle simmer.

Melt half the butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan. Add the spring onions and fry gently for about 4 minutes, or until soft but not coloured. Pour in the wine and add half the lemon zest. Bring the mixture to a hard boil and cook until the wine has almost all evaporated away.

Add the rice and stir until coated in the butter. Now add a ladleful of the hot stock, stirring until the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. Add a second ladleful and continue cooking in this way until the rice is tender and creamy, but the grains are still firm (about 18 minutes' coking).

Season liberally with plenty of black pepper. Stir in the remaining butter along with the lemon zest, lemon juice and the Parmesan cheese.

Take off the heat, cover and set aside to rest for 2 minutes then serve immediately.