Brown Rice Vegetable Risotto

I love risotto.  I have been craving some lately so I went on a search to find a recipe that uses brown rice after noticing that our market carries short-grain brown rice.  I found this great recipe from whole foods and made a few modifications to use items I had in the house and vegetables that we found in-season at the farmer's market.  I used zucchini, carrots, and yellow squash, substituted homemade chicken stock for the vegetable stock, omitted the butter, and substituted Manchego for the Parmesan.  It was really delicious along side our shrimp wrapped in prosciutto.  The kids were excited enough about having their "cheesy rice" (which is what they call risotto) that they were willing to try all three veggies in it and they ended up loving the veggies. Definitely a success!



A word of warning though, while regular risotto can be made in 20 minutes, because of the brown rice this takes a good hour from start to finish.

Brown Rice Vegetable Risotto
(serves 6)


1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
5 cups water
2 T olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups short-grain brown rice
2 carrots chopped
1 large or 2 small zucchini chopped
2-3 small yellow squash, chopped (the original recipe called for blanched asparagus but we didn't find any)
2/3 c grated Parmesan (I used Manchego)
salt and pepper to taste

Place stock and water in a pot and bring to a boil, simmer, and keep warm.

Heat oil over medium heat in a medium to large saucepan.  Add onion and garlic and saute about 5 minutes.  Add rice and saute another 5 minutes.  Add a couple big ladle-fulls of stock (mine holds about 1/2 cup) to the rice, stir and let cook until liquid is almost absorbed.  Keep adding stock 1 ladle-full at a time and cook until liquid is almost absorbed and repeat. (Important: you must keep it going at a simmer to be cooking the rice, so turn up the heat if needed).  When the rice is starting to get tender add the carrots.  When the rice tastes just about done add the zucchini and squash and cook about 5 minutes more adding more stock if needed.  Add the cheese and season with salt and pepper and stir until well combined.