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Mushroom Risoniotto (orzo risotto)

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Mushroom Risoniotto - if you are a looking for a fabulous risoni recipe this Mushroom Risoniotto is a delicious take on risotto using risoni. Click for the recipe

This week we’re doing things a little differently at Delicious Everyday. Why? Well, I’m excited because I have a fabulous prize to giveaway, but not only that, I think the prize is a wonderful cookbook for vegetarians, and to celebrate that fact all week this week on Delicious Everyday I will be sharing recipes from the book.

So what is the book? It’s [amazon_link id=”1408812126″ target=”_blank” ]Veg: River Cottage Everyday[/amazon_link] by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall!

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall River Cottage Veg Everyday Review

Whether you are a vegetarian or not I think you will enjoy this book.  I had River Cottage Veg Everyday on my Christmas whishlist and thankfully my fiance got the hint and wrapped it up and put it under the tree on Christmas day. Having perused River Cottage Veg at the bookshop earlier in the year I knew it was going to be a book I would enjoy. Not only that, I am a huge fan of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, especially his River Cottage tv show.

Hugh is passionate about good food, growing his own, celebrating producers and educating people about food.  Watching his tv show over the years has educated me about food origins and has taught me to celebrate simple produce.  In addition, to that, it’s always fun to see Hugh’s antics. He has a keen sense of humour and is a bit cheeky which only adds to the enjoyment. So much so that my fiance and I will often sit down to enjoy an episode of River Cottage just as much, if not more, than a lot of the sitcom and tv series that are on tv at the moment.

Despite having been a vegetarian for 18 years I’ve always been quite disappointed by the vegetarian cookbooks available on the market. While, obviously, I haven’t read every vegetarian cookbook (and if you know of a great one let me know in the comments), I’ve read my fair share, and owned just as many, only to feel uninspired and disappointed by the recipes contained within. Not being a tofu lover, and having an intense dislike of “fake meat” products (why not just eat meat?) I look for cookbooks that celebrate vegetables in all of their earthy glory.

Mushroom Risoniotto - if you are a looking for a fabulous risoni recipe this Mushroom Risoniotto is a delicious take on risotto using risoni. Click for the recipe

It’s quite funny to think the best vegetarian cookbook I’ve read in a long time is written by a meat lover, but this is another one of those things I like about Hugh. He celebrates ingredients and food and doesn’t care if the resulting dish is a meat lovers delight or deliciously vegetarian (unlike Mr Gordon Ramsay who once said he’d electrocute his children if they decided to become vegetarian). In fac,t Hugh has said that cooking exclusively with vegetables has made him a better cook.

The recipes contained in River Cottage Veg Everyday are varied and cover a variety of dishes with chapters dedicated to soups, salads, store cupboard suppers, pasta and rice, mezze and tapas, bready things, barbeque, comfort food and raw assemblies. In fact, there are over 200 recipes! And this week we are going to explore a couple of recipes from River Cottage Veg Everyday which will hopefully inspire you to try them.

First up it’s Mushroom Risoniotto. Essentially this dish is a version of risotto which uses Risoni (a rice shaped pasta, also called Orzo) in place of rice. Preparing this dish is really quite easy and is a matter of frying the mushrooms, adding some cream and herbs and combining with the cooked pasta. Best of all it’s so much easier than risotto!

This risoni recipe is deliciously mushroomy and comforting, which makes it perfect for all of this rainy weather we’ve had here in Brisbane the last few weeks.  If you’re a lover of mushrooms I’m sure you will enjoy this dish.

Mushroom Risoniotto - if you are a looking for a fabulous risoni recipe this Mushroom Risoniotto is a delicious take on risotto using risoni. Click for the recipe

I hope you will join me the rest of this week as I explore more recipes from River Cottage Veg Everyday. And better yet, if you are inspired to make one of these dishes I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Before I talk about the giveaway, I’d like to congratulate Fiona Rowlands who was the lucky winner of the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker giveaway. Congratulations Fiona and enjoy your new ice cream maker!

Now, onto the giveaway.  Thanks to the wonderful people at Bloomsbury I have a copy of River Cottage Veg Everyday to give away to one lucky reader!  To enter simply follow the instructions below.

  1. Competition is only open to Australian residents only.
  2. You will need to log in to enter. Either using your Facebook account or name and email address (you can find this below the Facebook login button).
  3. You will receive ONE (1) entry for each task you complete below.  For example if you leave a comment using the comment form below you receive 1 entry. If you leave a comment and Follow Bloomsbury on Twitter you will receive 2 entries.  If you leave a comment, Follow Bloomsbury on Twitter and Like Delicious Everyday on Facebook you will receive 3 entries.
  4. Additionally, if you Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter every day or share this post on Facebook every day you will receive 1 EXTRA entry for EVERY day you do this.
  5. To enter select the entry option and click on the +1 Do It button to follow the entry instructions and record your entry. This step is important otherwise your entry won’t count!!!!  And don’t forget to do this for EACH task you complete!

Good luck!!!


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Mushroom Risoniotto (orzo risotto)

 If you’re a lover of mushrooms I’m sure you will enjoy this Mushroom Risoniotto (orzo risotto) dish.
4.67 from 3 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: vegetarian
Keyword: Mushroom Risoniotto, orzo risotto, Risoni, risoni recipe, Risotto recipe
Total Time: 1 hour
Calories: 682kcal
Author: Recipe from [amazon_link id="1408812126" target="_blank" ]Veg: River Cottage Everyday[/amazon_link] by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
2 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 tbs of olive oil
  • 2 tbs of butter
  • 500 g of mushrooms cleaned and sliced
  • 150 g of risoni
  • 2 cloves of garlic chopped
  • a few sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar
  • 75 ml of dry white wine
  • 50 ml of double cream or creme fraiche
  • salt and pepper
  • handful of freshly chopped parsley to server
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • Place a large saucepan of water over a high heat and bring it to the boil before salting, and leave while you cook the mushrooms.
  • Heat 1 tablespoon each of the oil and butter in a frying pan over a medium high heat. Add half of the mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until all of the liquid is released has been evaporated and the mushrooms start to caramelise. Remove from the pan and set aside while you cook the remaining mushrooms.
  • When the second batch of mushrooms are almost done add the first batch to the pan along with the thyme leaves, garlic and balsamic vinegar and cook, stirring, for a minute or two.
  • Add the wine and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated before adding the cream or creme fraiche. Season with salt and pepper and serve sprinkled with fresh parsley.

Notes

For the mushrooms I used a mixture of button mushrooms and portobello. Hugh suggests using chestnut, open-cap and field mushrooms. For the thyme I used approximately 1 heaped tbs of freshly picked thyme leaves.

Nutrition

Calories: 682kcal | Carbohydrates: 67g | Protein: 18g | Fat: 36g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 64mg | Sodium: 131mg | Potassium: 1007mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 14.4% | Vitamin C: 7.5% | Calcium: 4.5% | Iron: 12.9%
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I was given the Revive Cafe cookbook for Christmas, and I love it. Lots of great tips as well as great, colourful, fresh, tasty recipes. The majority are vegan or have alternatives within them to make them vegan (eg: date puree instead of honey). I love that the author has a whole philosophy of healthy living that extends beyond just diet.

    Reply

  2. I am trying to incorporate more veggies in my diet. I have cut off red meat and looking thru vegetarian cookbooks for ideas and inspirations sadly most of them use SO MUCH cheese.
    This recipe looks deliciouS, will give it a try.

    Reply

  3. Hello! I found your blog while searching for a recipe from River Cottage Veg Every Day! I’m blogging to record my endeavour to cook every recipe from the book, which I love (even though I’m not a vegetarian).
    I hope you don’t mind, but I have linked to your blog from my blog. If there’s a problem, please let me know and I will remove the link immediately.
    I’ve enjoyed browsiong your blog and I’m sure I’ll return.

    Reply


  5. I’m a vego but my other half definitely prefers meat. I’m always on the look out for tasty new ways to get him to eat more vego 😀

    Reply

  6. I can’t exactly commend on my favourite recipe as I haven’t got any of his cookbooks – but if I win this one then I will surely let you know.

    I know what you mean about veg cookbooks usually being very ordinary. I tend to find that a lot of vegetarian cookbooks lean heavily on cream and cheese as if vegetables aren’t lovely enough to stand on their own. Similarly, I’m always disappointed by the number of vegan cookbooks that just have ordinary recipes but they use fake meat instead of meat. What I really want is dishes which celebrate how beautiful vegetables are as the main aspect of a dish! So, at your recommendation of this one I really hope I win it!

    Reply

    • I agree, a lot of veg cookbooks do tend to rely a lot on cream and cheese. While I do love cheese, I don’t want to eat it all the time. Good luck in the competition 🙂

      Reply

  10. It never ceases to amaze me what Gordon Ramsay comes out with!
    This recipe looks very delicious. I can never resist mushrooms as, I know you cant either. I never really watch Hugh but hes a stunningly good chef…

    Reply

    • It really is amazing the things Gordon Ramsay does come out with. Talented he may be, polite, courteous and understanding of others he’s not.

      I agree, Hugh is a wonderful chef, and I think it’s his passion for food, all foods, that makes him so wonderful. 🙂

      Reply

  12. Would love to own this book… always looking for another inspiring veg cookbook!

    The last really good veg cookbook I got was World Vegetarian Classics by Celia Brooks Brown, now well-used and covered in food smears. All the recipes are great, except possibly some duds in the Armenian section! Well worth checking out if you haven’t already seen it.

    My fav episode of River Cottage was when HFW made the elder flower champagne… it’s been a while since he’s been on the telly though, well the ABC anyway… wish they’d repeat the series!

    Glad to have discovered your blog today… and in time to enter the comp too! Thanks! Wish some of your lovely rain would come down south…

    Reply

  13. SO excited about this give away -lots of fantastic ideas to get more veg in your diet and a great compliment to your recipes 🙂

    Reply

  14. I’ve heard great things about this book – and not eating soy I am always on the lookout for recipes celebrating vegetables instead of ones trying to replace meat! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the posts this week!

    Reply

  15. I’m a huge fan of Hugh’s too and absolutely loved his latest veg-based series on TV. I would be sad that I don’t live in Australia so can’t enter the competition, but I already have a copy of the book! Your risoniotto looks wonderful too – just the kind of dish that convinces meat eaters that they could happily be vegetarian 🙂

    Reply

  17. FAntastic giveaway – I’ve been eyeing off this book a little while now too as I’m wanting to cut down the meats we eat every week, we currently eat a vego dinner twice a week, but I’d like to mix it up a little with our choices of what those vego meals are and the number each week. PS So making that risotto, that mushroom hatin’ fiance of mine will just have to deal with it 😉

    Reply

    • My fiance was like your fiance and used to hate mushrooms. Nowadays he actually enjoys mushroom dishes as I just kept getting him to try them because I couldn’t give up mushrooms. They are too delicious! 😀

      Reply

  18. I’ll have to say his Chocolate Orange Truffle cake, contains no flour so gluten free, (we all love that) and full of chocolatey goodness. A real winner, Hugh 🙂

    Reply

  20. I must say I love all the sweet dishes, as much as I shouldn’t be eating any of them, but they are too hard to resist!

    Reply

  23. Ah yes, veg everyday was also on my Christmas wish list amongst a few others. Sadly I didn’t get it & it seems to be out of stock everywhere here in SA. I’m on the list for when it comes in at Borders but am getting rather impatient! River Cottage is a definite ‘go to’ program in my household too.

    I love your pictures – stunning!

    Reply

  24. I love Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall. His recipes and programms are awesome. This book is also on my wishlist…

    A fancy recipe and dish! Really mouthwatering.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    Reply

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