Must-try autumn recipe: Risotto with mushrooms and peas

Are you trying to make an impression on your friends and family? Show them some gratitude for all the support while you have been taking finals? I have just the recipe for you. Say hello to our featured autumn recipe: Risotto with mushrooms and peas.

Before we start, I like to add that you can make this risotto with almost any vegetables you have. I chose to use my leftover mushrooms, as I have been buying loads of them this fall. Let me know in the comments below what your favorite autumn vegetable is!

Ingredients (for a group of 4):

• 300 grams of risotto rice
• 200 grams of chestnut mushrooms
• 200 grams of oyster mushrooms
• 100 grams of white mushrooms
• 2 red onions (you can use whatever onions you have at home)
• 180 grams of peas (or any other leftover vegetables)
• 60 grams of nutritional yeast
• ½ cup of white wine
• As much garlic as you like (I used 3 cloves)
• 1500 ml of vegetable stock (or make it yourself, like I did!)
• Any sort of herbs you like (I used Parsley, ground black pepper, rosemary and thyme)
• Olive oil and a dash of butter
• For garnish: cashew nuts (optional) and/or pine nuts

What to do:

1.  Heat a dash of olive oil with a tiny bit of butter in a large frying pan and sauté the onion and garlic in it for about 5 minutes until they are soft but not brown. Once the onion starts becoming shiny, you are good to go.

2.  Add the white wine and let this simmer.

3.  Add the risotto rice and continue stirring until the rice grains become translucent.

4.  Add a ladle of the vegetable stock and stir until all the stock is absorbed. Then add the next ladle and continue in this manner until all the vegetable stock is absorbed.

5.  On a separate pan, cook the peas to your preference. You’ll add the peas just before serving to the risotto pan.

6.  Meanwhile, heat a dash of olive oil in another frying pan and sauté the mushrooms with thyme until the mushrooms are nicely browned. Season with freshly ground salt and pepper.

7.  Mix half of the mushrooms into the risotto.

8.  Then stir in the nutritional yeast into the risotto. Season with any herbs of your choosing additionally.

9.  Divide the risotto onto plates and place the remaining mushrooms on top. You could sprinkle it with some freshly ground pepper and freshly chopped parsley. As I was using what I had, I decided to garnish with some cashew and pine nuts.

10.   Enjoy!

Want to try another autumn recipe? I can recommend:

• Sweet Potato Stamppot by our reporter Jolanda
• These recipes from the BBC
• This list of autumn cocktails to try
• These recipes for autumn comfort food

And do not forget our recipes, which all can be found here. Also check out Jolanda’s article about the top 5 vegetarian products in the supermarket, here.