Roasted Spring Vegetable Risotto

Roasted Spring Vegetable Risotto (from AllRecipes, Servings: 8, Total Time: 1 hour)

Ingredients

·         1 lb. asparagus, cut into 2-inch lengths

·         2 cups whole baby carrots cut in lengthwise quarters

·         6 green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces

·         3 medium assorted peppers (yellow, red, green), cut into 1-inch strips

·         2 medium zucchini or yellow squash, cut into diagonal slices (I used zucchini)

·         1 cup halved fresh medium mushrooms

·         2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary leaves

·         3 ½ cups vegetable broth

·         1 Tbsp. olive oil

·         1 1/3 cups uncooked Arborio rice

·         ½ cup shredded Italian Five Cheese

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray 17x11-inch roasting pan with cooking spray.

2.       Mix asparagus, carrots, onions, peppers, squash, mushrooms, rosemary and ¼ cup broth in prepared pan.

3.       Roast 20 minutes or until done, stirring once. Prepare risotto while the vegetables are roasting.

4.       Heat oil in saucepot. Add rice. Cook and stir for 2 minutes.

5.       Add ½ cup broth and cook until broth is absorbed. Add remaining broth, ½ cup at a time, stirring until all broth is absorbed before adding more. (Total cooking time: 25 minutes)

6.       Add vegetables and cheese. Heat through. Serve immediately.

First off, I love this dish! Yum, yum, yum! My husband enjoyed it too.  With that said, I think that the recipe needs to be tweaked slightly.  If you use the size of veggies recommended, you need to roast for more than 20 minutes – maybe even up to 30 minutes.  The next time that I make it, I will probably chop all of the veggies smaller, more of a rough chop.  That is just the size that I would prepare in this risotto dish.  There are a lot of veggies, and I actually only put in about half because I knew that my husband would want more of the rice part.  I used the remainder as a “base” for my risotto!  More veggies for me!

Now, for the taste – even though there is only ½ cup of cheese, this was creamy and I could see the stringy cheese each time I brought a forkful to my mouth.  The rice was cooked through with only a slight crunch to it. The veggies were really crunchy (see above recommendation), a little too much for my husband, but I liked them that way.  Overall assessment – I cannot wait to make this again!

Le Shio - Wilmington, DE

http://www.leshio.com/

Le Shio is a very unassuming restaurant from the outside.  It is in a strip mall in Wilmington, DE, stuffed between a Radio Shack and a Dress Barn.  Even though you could pass right by and not realize it is a restaurant, I strongly urge you not to.  The food is worth a stop at this Asian Fusion restaurant.  The décor has a modern/industrial feel to it, one large room with white walls, a sushi bar at back before kitchen (with some available seats), a bar to the right after you walk in, and a number of booths and tables spread throughout the large room.

I ordered the Vegetarian Sushi Set (a selection of 24 pieces of maki sushi) that came with a cup of miso soup or a house salad.  I opted for the salad and also ordered Edamame as an appetizer.  The edamame was served in a small bowl and was enough for my husband and I to share.  Nothing special about it, just your standard edamame pods.  The salad was in a very small dish and consisted of a bit of lettuce and a tomato slice.  It was served with an aged ginger dressing – which was creamy and delicious, pretty sweet.

My sushi set consisted of three rolls cut into eight pieces each.  Asparagus, Oshinko (a pickled vegetable), and one with Avocado and Carrots.  Each one was rolled in seaweed and covered in rice.  They were tightly rolled and easy to pick up with chopsticks – they also held together well when dipping them in soy sauce.  The sushi was, of course, served with ginger and wasabi.  I added a bit too much wasabi to my soy sauce, but that’s OK.  Nothing too bad happened!  Overall, I really liked the sushi set, the Avocado and Asparagus rolls had a crisp texture because of the fresh vegetables.  Quite enjoyable!  I don’t remember ever having Oshinko before – it was good!  At first I thought it was Yellow Squash, but the texture was a little creamier.  I definitely recommend trying it.

I like Le Shio, though not quite as much as my sushi-loving husband.  If you are looking for vegetarian sushi, I recommend it go to the top of your list.