Holiday season has officially arrived and I find this time of the year magic.
I was thinking of something different to bring this month since most of you are probably well familiar with all the Christmas recipes but still a little Christmassy.
I decided to use red bell pepper and tomatoes so we could have something red and just turned it on a risotto. I hope it looks good on your table. The green of the coriander completes the Christmas theme.
And it’s very easy and quick to make.
I bought the brown rice at the local shop at BMK village. I’ll put a link to google maps here, and you can get yours there as well. This is one of the local communities that we – Green Sisters – helped to develop the community garden and the mushroom house, so it’s always a good incentive if we continue providing help buying veggies, rice and eggs from them.
Ingredients
1 ½ cup of brown rice
1 onion
4 tomatoes
1 red bell pepper
¼ cup of white wine (*optional)
1 liter vegetable broth
½ teaspoon sweet paprika
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of dried rosemary
Fresh Coriander
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive
Instructions
Start with the vegetable broth. You can buy it ready or you can make your own. I usually keep all the peels of my vegetables (onions, potatoes, carrots and stems of broccoli, cauliflowers and kale – for example), that I would normally throw away, in a tupperware in my freezer. When I need to make a broth, I just boil them in water.
Boil the broth in a saucepan and reserve it. (*In case you don’t have the vegetable broth you can use boiled water).
In another pan, cut the onion into thin slices, add to the pan with the rosemary and paprika. Add the red bell pepper in slices and sauté in the olive oil until the onion is transparent.
Add half of the chopped tomatoes and the salt and let it cook until it releases some liquid.
Add the washed and drained rice, and toast it in the pan. Add the white wine and stir it until the wine evaporates and begin to cook, adding the hot vegetable broth a little bit at a time. Every time the broth evaporates, add a little more and keep stirring it from time to time.
After fifteen minutes, add the remaining tomatoes and cook a little more until the rice is al dente.
Remove from heat and add olive oil to taste.
Serve with freshly ground pepper, fresh coriander and chopped cashew nuts, if desired.
Hope you enjoy this meal and I wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!
