WHITE ASPARAGUS VEGAN RISOTTO

another rainy day equals comfort food cravings... the desired dish? creamy white asparagus vegan risotto - yum!

how? 

1 cup of brown short grain rice (or arborio, i use brown to boost the nutritional content of the dish and enjoy the nutty flavour it gives)

1 litre of vegetable stock (i added the liquid from the asparagus to the make up the volume)

5 spears of white asparagus, cut into pieces

1/2 large brown onion, finely diced

4 cloves of garlic, finely diced

175 ml of dry vermouth (or a vegan-friendly white wine)

1 cup of cannellini beans, pre-cooked (optional, enables this dish to provide 'complete protein')

1 tablespoon of evoo

3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes

heat the evoo in a large, heavy-based soup pot. add the onion and garlic and saute until translucent. add the rice and combine with the oil, onion and garlic mix. cook for 2 minutes. add the vermouth (or white wine) to deglase the pan (cooking off the alcohol and producing a nice depth of flavour). add a 1/2 cup of the hot stock and stir, in a figure 8 pattern, into the rice until the stock has been absorbed and the rice releases its starch. add another 1/2 cup of hot stock at a time until all the stock has been added to the pot. add the asparagus and stir through the rice mix. add the beans and cook until heated through. remove from the heat and add the nutritional yeast flakes and stir to combine. leave for 5 minutes, then serve with a drizzle of good quality evoo and sprinkling with freshly ground pepper. 

serves 4