A new (for me) twist on risotto

I made a cauliflower risotto this evening using a recipe from an Australian food magazine. The recipe involved taking chopped cauliflower and simmering it for five minutes in chicken stock. The cauliflower was removed and set aside and the stock used to make a typical risotto. The reserved cauliflower was then mashed with cream (I pureed it in the blender) and added into the risotto to finish it.

I've made a lot of risotto over the years and I've never been happy with the results when I've used vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower. I'd never heard of pureeing the parboiled vegetables in cream and adding them in at the end of the process. This resulted in a very rich and flavorful risotto. (It was also visually interesting as I used purple cauliflower.)

Good stuff - I'll be trying this out with other vegetables in the future.

[Robin Garr]

That sounds GREAT, Mike! Gotta try it.

That said, I've been pretty happy with broccoli risotto made by simmering broccoli (small-cut florets) until just blanched, then using the strained liquid to cook the risotto and adding the florets back in for just the last five minutes of cooking. Lots of onions and garlic and maybe some celery in the base risotto can make it interesting.

Similar principle works for spinach: Wilt, use the spinach water to flavor the risotto; chop the spinach and stir it back in at the very end. Lots of onions in the risotto make a nice addition here as well.

I like your idea, though. Never mind the calories, what doesn't cream improve?

I have a terrible confession. Simply stated, the only vegetarian based risotto that I enjoy is one with truffles. And that's not entirely vegetarian for I use a concentrated chicken stock in which to cook the rice. On the other hand give me a calamari or a crabmeat based risotto and I'm as close to heaven as I will probably ever get.

Robin - I hadn't run across the idea of simmering the veggies a bit and using the resulting broth for the risotto. Your practice of adding them in at the end of the process would work better than what I've tried in the past. I'll give that a try one of these days.

Rogov - If it weren't for the "giving up meat for Lent" thing, I would not have been allowed to make a veggie risotto as anything but a side dish, and even that would have resulted in a couple of raised eyebrows!

I love the sound of this Mike...going to try it soon. That is a great way to get some a few more veggies in the diet. We often have two veggies as sides instead of high carbs.

Mike,
It does sounds delicious. Also, if one were to oven roast the cauliflower with some EVOO and then puree them into the risotto and compensate for the liquid with some chicken stock w/ saffron..it might make for an interesting variation.
-Shaji

if one were to oven roast the cauliflower with some EVOO and then puree them into the risotto and compensate for the liquid with some chicken stock w/ saffron..it might make for an interesting variation.
-Shaji

Yes, but then the color might get a little murky from the roasted cauliflower.

The two main risottos I make with vegetable purees are beet and pumpkin/winter squash. In each case I add the puree towards the end so it doesn't melt away and retains flavor (and color) vibrancy. But all the better if there is some cooking liquid from the vegetables to incorporate flavor earlier in the process.