Broad bean and brussels sprout spelt risotto

Christmas time is starting to show everywhere you look, and I am also starting to be better and better prepared. Only the weather here has taken a turn to much warmer, today it's actually 12 C, which is plenty warm for December. Anyway, I'm trying to stay in the seasonal mood nevertheless.

I was thinking of green vegetable dishes for Christmas, partly because of Eat Your Greens and partly because it's nice to eat green vegetables at the Christmas table. I though that I definitely wanted to go with sprouts, as they are so seasonal and I really like them. I added additional greenness through broad beans to this recipe, and combined both in a simple pearled spelt risotto. Oh this was a savoury and hearty meal, so filling and tasty. This can also be prepared in advance before the big day, as it almost gets better through re-heating. Have a look at my recipe below, if you got curious.

Broad bean and brussels sprout spelt risotto

Ingredients

500 ml vegetable stock

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

25 g butter

1 cup pearled spelt

100 ml dry white wine

½ cup cooked split fava beans

1 cup frozen broad beans

Sea salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

50 g grated vegetarian pasta cheese

200 g baby brussels sprouts

1 tbsp butter

Method

Heat the vegetable stock

Chop the onion and garlic finely and start cooking the onion in the olive oil until soft. Add the garlic and cook for some moments more.

Add the butter to the pan followed by the pearled spelt and stir in for couple of minutes.

Then pour the white wine into the pan and let absorb.

After that make the first vegetable stock additions. Always just add a few ladles at a time and let simmer under lid.

Once the spelt is nearly cooked, add the cooked split fava beans and the frozen broad beans.

Season, add the cheese and let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely.

Prepare the brussels sprouts in the meanwhile by cutting them in halves and steaming them. I like to leave them fairly firm, so only very short steaming is needed.

Then fry them also very briefly in butter in a pan so that they get a little bit browned.

Serve the sprouts with the spelt risotto and enjoy!

So of course I'm sharing this recipe with this month's Eat Your Greens cooking challenge that I'm hosting myself in December, and always taking turns hosting with Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen, who created this challenge. There is still plenty of time for you to take part as well, have a look through the link how to do it.

Your VegHog