I used to shy away from making risotto assuming it was too complicated but it really isn’t. This mushroom risotto is great for meat-free Monday, uses only simple wholesome ingredients and with a little patience when cooking, you can have a fabulous rich and creamy dinner in about 30 minutes. You need a great quality stock for this so I would suggest my award winning free range chicken stock.

Ingredients
250g Arborio Rice
3 shallots chopped finely
300g mushrooms (if you can get a mixture of different types, that works well)
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 cup of grated Parmesan
1 litre – 1.5 litre of Carol's Stock Market Chicken Stock
Splash of white wine (optional)
2 Tablespoons of butter
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
1 Tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme

Serves
4

Method
In a large pot or deep sided pan, sauté your shallots over medium heat in the olive oil until translucent (about 5 minutes). Meanwhile add your stock to another pot and bring to boil turning down to a simmer – keep the stock hot as you will need to add that to the risotto. Add chopped mushrooms to the shallots and add the butter and cook until soft for another 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic, half of the fresh thyme and add the rice. Stir everything until it is well coated (about 2 minutes). If you are using the wine, then go ahead and add that as well. Now start to add your hot chicken stock, one ladle at a time. Stir constantly until each ladle of stock has been absorbed. Don’t add too much stock at a time. Patience is really the key here. Keep adding the stock and stirring until absorbed until your rice tastes al dente. This should take about 20 minutes in total. Finally, add in your grated parmesan for extra creaminess. Top with the rest of the fresh thyme and dig in. Enjoy.