Bowl of Berries

Sunday nights can be tricky when you are  coming home from a weekend away.  I am usually frantic to unpack, tidy up the house (because I never get a chance to before leaving) get groceries for the week, prep lunch for the next day and maybe do a couple loads of laundry.  Somewhere in there dinner needs to be made and I always try to start the week off on a good foot and make a really yummy meal.  Luckily all of the ingrediants for this meal were already in the house (love that!) including some mushrooms that I was so hoping would still be good after the weekend since I decided not to use them in last week’s stir fry.  I have the paper bag they were stored in to thank.  I also used the last cup of arborio rice, one less box in the pantry I was so excited!

I have honestly never made risotto on the stove top, I have made it a couple times in the microwave, yes sacreligious I know!  I don’t know why I was freaked out, maybe it was all of the stirring.  And yes this does involve a bit of stirring and I was a bit tired from our morning 9 mile run but I whipped out my kitchen step stool to sit on and that made life a bit easier.  I also always thought of risotto as a rich and calorie laden dish but it doesn’t have to be!  I found a recipe on About.com that was for a low fat mushroom risotto so I used that as a guide.  I tweaked it a bit based on what I had on hand and was very happy with the results.  Even more ingenious was the addition of the bleu cheese, and while not low fat/calorie it added great flavor and complimented the earthy mushrooms so well!

This risotto had a very clean taste too, wasn’t too salty or cloying, it was quite perfect if I do say so myself.  Scottie even liked it!  We paired this with some grilled beef tenderloin steaks we had in the freezer and dinner was served!  I would certainly entertain with this or serve it as a main dish, it has such great flavor and is quite impressive on the plate.

Bleu Cheese and Mushroom Risotto
Adapted from About.com

3 1/2 cups fat-free chicken or vegetable broth
2 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp Herbes de Provence
8 ounces baby bella mushroom, sliced
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup marsala wine
2 cups fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup crumbled bleu chees

Empty broth into a 2 quart saucepan and heat until simmering. Keep warm.

Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Sauté onions and garlic until softened and fragrant. Sprinkle dried herbs, followed by mushrooms; sauté until they release their juices.

Add rice and stir quickly to prevent sticking. Add marsala and stir. Once the wine has been mostly absorbed, add the broth, one cup at a time, waiting until each cup of broth has been absorbed before adding the next. Before adding the last one and half cups, add the spinach. Sprinkle bleu cheese before serving.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Healthy, Veggies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.