My good friend surprised me the other weekend with an enormous bag full of goodies that she picked up for me at the local farmers market. Her kids are a little bit older than mine and she knows that I rarely am able to make it out of the house on a Saturday morning to enjoy perusing the local produce. One of my favorite goodies was a huge bag of arugula. Yum! We love to grow arugula in our backyard garden and I have been feeding it to my children forever so I think they are quite used to the taste. If you haven’t had arugula before, it has a nice little peppery kick to it – some arugula has more of a kick than others! Ask your farmer for a taste test.
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| Arugula |
As I was looking around the kitchen, trying to come up with something nice but easy for a Monday night dinner, I spied the beautiful bag of arugula and a large container of goat cheese … why not make an easy risotto? Basically five ingredients – garlic, arborio rice, broth, arugula, and goat cheese.
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| Goat Cheese from Looking Glass Creamery |
Ingredients:
4 or 5 cloves garlic, minced
Coarse sea salt
A swirl or two of olive oil
1 1/2 cups of arborio rice
4 cups broth (your favorite)
A few handfuls of arugula, chopped
1/4 cup goat cheese
Directions:
1. Mince your garlic and mash it with some coarse sea salt to create a little garlicky paste.
2. Saute your garlic in some olive oil so that it gets a little bit toasty but not burnt and bitter. You want it to look browned – not any darker.
3. Add in 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice and stir to combine the garlic and olive oil. Add about in 1 cup of your favorite broth – chicken broth, vegetable broth – any broth you like. (Side note … I tried the White Wine and Herbs Culinary Broth from College Inn recently on a whim and it was great.)
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| Arborio rice and broth … let it simmer |
4. Bring your rice and broth to a low boil. Stir well. Let it simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed and then add another cup of broth. Continue adding broth 1 cup at a time until all the liquid has been absorbed.
5. After you have added all the broth, taste test the risotto to make sure that it is soft enough for you. Sometimes you might need to add more broth! Add the chopped arugula and stir to combine. Remove from the heat. The arugula will wilt instantly.
6. Add the goat cheese – about 1 tablespoon at a time and stir to combine. The goat cheese will make the risotto nice and creamy.
We served our risotto with leftover salmon from the night before but I think that risotto can be a meal all by itself. Enjoy!!
