Tuesday, October 26, 2010

risotto for dinner: a variation on soup night

Last Wednesday. I tried the Mixed Vegetable Risotto from Apples for Jam for a slight change of pace on soup night. I was looking through the book earlier in the week, searching for soup inspiration, when I came across this recipe, which the author describes as a somewhat soupy risotto, so I thought it was the perfect thing. We really liked this and it made wonderful leftovers too. I was happy to find two very tender baby zucchini, a decent tomato, and some nice basil in our garden (which is looking fairly sad these days--the heat of the early fall, and now the cold nights seem to have taken their toll on the annuals).
I've been thinking about how nice it is sometimes to take a little longer to make a weeknight recipe. Both with this one and the bean dish I made recently, Faith came out and helped a bit, we had a little dance party in the kitchen with the boys, and just generally had a relaxing-ish time while the meal came together (I say relaxing "ish" because there is always that weeknight busyness to some extent). But the benefit of taking a longer time to cook dinner is that it promotes hanging out together in the kitchen while things bake or simmer and the food tastes better too. That said, this was still pretty easy and basically it was just a matter of chopping vegetables, sauteeing everything, and then stirring every now and again after you add the water (yes, water! That is one of the things I really liked about this recipe--no broth, and the water is added mostly all at once and the stirring is not constant).

9 comments:

gardenmama said...

your home always exudes such warmth, coziness and togetherness. i appreciate your photos of home and your recipes. the food you are creating is always so nurturing to your family, so very lovely.

Joy said...

The soup looks lovely, and it sounds like a wonderful evening. :) I need to pull my Apples for Jam out again...it's been a while!

PS. I have a giveaway going on right now if you'd like to enter. ;)

Unknown said...

I love reading your blog and am inspired daily by your efforts as a wife and mother to create such a warm environmet. Is the bread in that picture one that you made? my son and I made the bread sticks to posted a while ago and loved them.
Sarah

Anonymous said...

yum! there is something so special about family dinner. I hope that we can get the kids in the kitchen more and more.

Mary Beth said...

Sarah--sometimes we make a quick yeast bread, but this loaf was from Trader Joe's. Thanks so much for the nice comments, everyone!

Andrea said...

Mmm...looks delicious...another recipe to add to the "try it out" list. Maybe a winter vegetable variation.

Anonymous said...

I love risotto - it is so simple and yet tastes amazing. Lately we had pumpkin risotto to die for - so good!

Lisa Renata said...

I totally love that cook book. I've loved just about every recipe I make from it.

Lisa Renata said...

Que preciosidad! Algún día cuando regrese a Guadalajara tendré que visitar tan lindo lugar y tomarme algún tequilita y muchas fotos!

Saludos.