Baked Farro Risotto with Cauliflower

Baked Farro Risotto with Cauliflower

If you’ve picked up a copy of The Easy Vegetarian Kitchen, you’re probably already familiar with my love of using farro in risottos. The chewy texture of cooked farro lends itself well to the overall dish. Even when using the pearled variety, it feels a bit heartier than if using arborio rice.

Of course, time isn’t always on our sides to make regular risotto and that’s where this baked version comes in handy. No stirring and adding liquids, just throwing things in a pot a few times. The recipe from which I adapted this one calls for adding butternut squash at the beginning but I like my cauliflower to have texture. I add the chipped cauliflower part of the way through cooking. Feel free to experiment with cooking times based on your preferred tenderness. Read more and see the recipe.

The post Baked Farro Risotto with Cauliflower appeared first on Naturally Ella.

Naturally Ella

White Lentil Risotto with Mushrooms

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Eating out is a grand seduction. From the moment I step into a restaurant, I am totally open and utterly surrendered to the experience. The first thing I notice when I enter is the smell – I actually like it to hit me with an assertive thwack – like someone proudly shouting a rainbow of aromas to my face that something amazing is happening in the kitchen. I love sitting down at the table, gently touching the cutlery, unfolding the napkin and placing it in my lap, the first exchange with the server, opening the menu. It’s all very weighty, very important, very ritualistic for me.

While I was on my cookbook tour, you can imagine that I ate out a lot. Mostly out of the necessity of not having a kitchen, but also because going to restaurants is a rare privilege for me and I’ll take any excuse. During my few harried days in New York City I went to dine at a new, hip joint in the west village that came highly recommended (although I’ll refrain from naming names). The place was packed with an intimidating blend of gorgeous locals and well-dressed, in-the-know tourists. The menu looked incredibly promising with Sarah B. favourites and buzz ingredients like chia seeds, cashew cheese, baby kale, and turmeric oil. I was explosive with anticipation. I immediately committed myself to the ivory lentil risotto with peas. I’d seen ivory lentils at the market before but never bought them, and had never had the revelation to try making “risotto” with them. I could feel my expectations soar and the desire pulsing between us. Hold me back!

The dish arrived, its scent wafting up from the pristine white bowl and pools of amber oil intermingling with green globes of seasonal spring perfection. I looked at my friends with great eagerness, dipped my spoon in and took the first bite.

The lentils were raw.

No, not al dente. Raw. Crunchy. Hard. Uncooked.

I rarely, rarely send something back to the kitchen, but because I was so seduced by the idea of this dish and it completely fell flat, I just had to. The lentils had obviously been cooked, but so far from properly cooked that it baffled me – what kind of chef would send a dish out like this unless by mistake? It must have been a mistake. I could feel myself loosing trust in this impeccably designed, obviously happening restaurant, but how could all of these hipsters be wrong?

The waiter returned and said that there was nothing wrong with the dish. The chef meant it to be that way. He placed the plate of cold food back on the table in front of me, smiled, turned, and left. I was crushed. After all we’d been through.

Although it has been months since this experience, I can’t shake it – the lunch bag letdown of a genius concept failing to meet its true potential, the fact that I was served undercooked legumes, and that I paid $ 30 for them. In order to right all of these wrongs, I headed to my local Indian grocer, bought some white lentils and made a date with my stove. What manifested was not just a better meal, but a new favourite one.

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It’s pretty clear that I’m into making “risotto” out of anything besides rice, such as the Miraculous Riceless Risotto and the Inspirational Sunflower Seed Risotto, but I’m digging this new recipe for a lot of reasons. First, it’s grain-free and in my rice-loving life it’s nice to have an alternative. It’s very high in protein, something that I’m always mindful of as it is so important to balanced health. It cooks quickly so it’s perfect for a weeknight, and it’s endlessly customizable to the season simply by changing up the veggies on top. It’s divinely creamy, rich and velvety and so much like risotto (by far the closest I’ve come so far!). If you are looking for me this fall, you can find me tucked into a big bowl of this stuff. It’s like eating hugs.

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Yum, Yum, Molybdenum
Chances are you haven’t heard of molybdenum, but I will wager that you had to sound it out a couple times (let me help you: “muh-LIB-duh-num”). Moylbdenum is an essential trace mineral and happens to be wildly abundant in our pal, the lentil. It is found first in the soil where we grow our food and water, so healthy soil and groundwater is essential for healthy plants that contain good amounts of this stuff. In our bodies it is stored in the liver, kidneys, adrenal glands bones, and skin, but it is present in some amount in all of our tissues.

Molybdenum is important because it is part of several enzyme systems, the most notable being that of xanthine oxidase. Xanthine oxidase (XO) helps the liver mobilize iron for use in the body and aid uric acid metabolism. Molybdenum also helps us digest and assimilate carbohydrates and detoxify the body from exposure to sulfites.

Besides lentils, other sources of molybdenum include dried peas and beans, oats, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, cucumber, celery and eggs.

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A few notes on the recipe.
First, white lentils are available at Indian grocery stores, but I’ve also seen them at Middle Eastern markets and online. If you can’t find white lentils, it’s good to know that they are also called urad daal or urid daal. To confuse you a little, the unhulled lentils themselves are called black lentils or black gram since their skins are completely black. It should be obvious, but I’ll advise against buying the unhulled kind or you will have a very different result – a black one to be precise. Because someone will inevitably ask if they can make this with any other colour of lentil, I will say a half-hearted yes, but I wouldn’t recommend anything other than red lentils due to their properties.

Second, you can definitely make this a vegan recipe by leaving out the cheese rind, but good golly, it really makes for some delicious eating. I also like a grate a bunch of pecorino over the top right before serving, but I’m pretty wild like that. Oh baby.

Third, I got pretty fancy and bought (not foraged – the shame!) wild mushrooms for this because I just love them so, but when I originally tested the recipe I used good ol’ brown button mushrooms and portobellos. Whatever mushrooms you choose the biggest secret to cooking them is not moving them too much. Like pancakes, grilled cheese, and I would imagine, a steak, don’t stir them for crying out loud. Get the pan pretty screeching hot, melt some ghee (or coconut oil), throw in the mushrooms, toss to coat, then just back away. Sure, you can watch them sizzle, talk to them, Instagram them, but do not touch them. The secret to really great mushrooms is a caramelized crust and that only happens with high heat and no mucking about. You are allowed to check the bottom of one (one!) after 3-4 minutes, but if there is no colour yet, flip it back until you have some serious golden going on. Also, don’t crowd the pan too much – this causes the mushrooms to steam instead of fry – an important distinction.

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Show me your risotto on Instagram! #MNRwhitelentilrisotto

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Hey Danes!
I’m doing three events this month and I would love to see you there.

First, I will be the guest chef at the organic and hyper-local food restaurant Mad Mad Mad Bodega cooking and serving a total pumpkin orgy, giving a talk and signing books as well. Click the flyer for a link to learn more.

Secondly, I am giving two lectures on Nutrition Fundamentals (way more rad than it sounds!) with a Q&A at Books & Company. You can come to one of the talks or both. Click the flyer for a link to learn more.

Hellerup-Lectures-flyer

madmadflyerfinal


My New Roots

Inspirational Sunflower Seed Risotto

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Inspiration is a perplexing creature. As someone who relies on a constant stream of ideas to do what I do, having an endless supply is rather essential.

Of all the questions I am asked, the most common of them all is where my inspiration comes from.

The funny thing about this is, I can’t really give a straight answer because I get ideas from everywhere. Literally. Yes of course there are the obvious places like cookbooks, the farmer’s market, my vegetable garden, but I’ve had ideas strike me like lightening while listening to music, smelling a certain scent wafting on the breeze, the colours in a particular vintage dress. My main motivation for writing a cookbook actually came from a postcard I found randomly, which pictured a faceless girl picking wildflowers. Nothing to do with food. At this point I’ve learned that the most important thing for me is to put myself in the way of beauty as often as possible, keep an open mind, and not do discount any sources or ideas as weird, because the best things most often come out of the seemingly strange.

I will say that one thing that consistently brings me a lot of inspiration, is just talking to other people who really love food. Sometimes getting out of my head and into someone else’s, or at least hearing about their experience with a particular dish or special ingredient can help jumpstart a flood of ideas. For instance, the last time I was in Amsterdam teaching cooking classes, one of the attendees came up to me at the end of the day and told me about a very exciting meal she had eaten in Copenhagen, of all places. It was a risotto made out of sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds! At first this sounded totally bizarre, but then again, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this seriously inspiring idea ever since. I knew that sunflower seeds were about the same size and shape as grains of rice. They were nearly the same colour. But how would they taste? How would they become creamy? What is it like to boil them?

When I googled it, all the recipes called for a pressure cooker, which makes sense for those that aren’t familiar with the awesome power and health benefits of soaking. I knew that that spending the day in a warm bath would make the sunflower seeds totally relaxed and willing to tenderize in a sultry spa of caramelized alliums for dinner that evening. Also, I don’t own a pressure cooker.

So setting out to make this, I anticipated a week’s worth of trial-and-errors, a pile of dirty dishes and a lot of semi-edible sunflower seeds. But I treated the seeds very much like I would treat rice in a risotto and after one (one!) attempt, it was pretty darn near perfect. And pretty darn inspiring.

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To say that this recipe is totally surprising is an understatement. The sunflower seeds are tender and chewy, with just the slightest bit of tooth still left – not unlike the real deal. It’s remarkably simple to make with just a few common ingredients, truly delicious and deeply satisfying. You can make it suit any season as the seeds create a foundation to build upon no matter what time of year you’re enjoying. Since we are finally getting some lovely fresh spring produce here in Denmark, I chose to go that route. I found some beautiful young rainbow carrots, peas in their pods, white and green asparagus and some super fresh watercress. This would be equally lovely with sautéed mushrooms, roasted root vegetables, pumpkin or squash.

I am sure you’re wondering how the seeds get creamy from cooking, and the truth is they don’t – you’ll need to help them out a little. When cooking a rice-based risotto, starch emerges from the grains as they cook, and magically melds with the broth to create a velvety texture. To mimic this I simply blended some of the soaked seeds with equal parts water and added it back into the mix at the end of cooking, the results astounding. This makes the risotto rich and creamy without any starches or carbohydrates.

But what shocks me most of all is how darn flavourful the dish is with such minimal ingredients. The caramelized onions and garlic are really all you need (in this dish, as well as life, I wager) although herbs would be a welcome addition; dried ones during cooking or fresh ones stirred in at the end. My version uses watercress as a finishing touch and is totally lovely with its peppery bite, but I will leave the brilliant blank canvas for you project your own inspiration on to.

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Everyone Loves the Sunflowers
Easy-to-find, inexpensive, and nutrient-rich, sunflower seeds are one of my favourite additions to a number of dishes that I make, from breakfast to dinner and snacks in between. They are delicious toasted or soaked, blended up into seed butter or even milk!

Sunflower seeds are one of nature’s highest sources of vitamin E, the body’s primary fat-soluble antioxidant. Vitamin E is important for overall health, as it functions as a free-radical neutralizer and prevents damage to fat-containing structures and molecules, such as brain cells, cholesterol, and cell membranes. When the fats in cell membranes become damaged, the function of the cell itself can be compromised. This is why researchers have studied whether diets low in Vitamin E are associated with many diseases associated with aging.

Sunflower seeds are so high in vitamin E, that just one serving of this risotto contains over 100% of your daily recommended intake!

Because sunflower seeds have such a high (and healthy!) fat content, it is best to store them in a tightly sealed glass container in the refrigerator. Keeping them cool will help preserve their delicate, nourishing oils, which can then in turn nourish you! They will also last much longer stored this way. If you purchase shelled sunflower seeds in bulk make sure to sniff the bin first: it should smell fresh and nutty, without any traces of sourness, which can indicate that the fats have become rancid. And always have a good look at the seeds to ensure that they are not discoloured or damaged.

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Where do you get your inspiration from? How does it come to you? What have you been inspired by lately? Tell me! Especially if it’s about food…

Wishing you an inspired day! Love always,
Sarah B


My New Roots