Spring Risotto with Fresh Asparagus and Edamame

Spring has finally sprung after a LONG, VERY LONG, LONG winter! Even for us in the south, we had a lot of cold weather, which makes this girl not too happy 🙁 I love the warm weather and sunshine…I really feel for those of you who live up north! Months and months of cold, dark, dreary and miserable weather…I don’t know how you do it! To celebrate Spring’s arrival, I put together a Spring Risotto with Fresh Asparagus and Edamame.

Risotto gets a bad reputation as being really hard to prepare, labor intensive and definitely not healthy. However, I disagree on all points! I love risotto and think that once you learn the technique, they are not hard to prepare. On being “not healthy,” you can make a few substitutions that I will share with you and keep your waistline from expanding. Now I am not saying that you should have risotto everyday, but in moderation you can enjoy it. You know that I believe that nothing is “off-limits” & everything in moderation.

Most risotto recipes call for lots of butter and maybe even some cream cheese or heavy cream, but they are not necessary. I will share with you in my Spring Risotto that an amazing risotto doesn’t have to contain any butter, cream cheese or heavy cream. I dare you to give it a try, and let me know if you miss the butter, cream cheese or heavy cheese.

Spring Risotto with Fresh Asparagus and Edamame

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

35 mins

 

Author: Becky's Best Bites

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 4 cups no sodium or reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1 lb. asparagus, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large sweet onion, chopped
• 3 cloves fresh garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 cup arborio rice
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• 12 oz. edamame
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Pour chicken broth into a medium saucepan and warm over medium-low heat. Once warmed, turn the heat down to low.
2. Steam asparagus for 2 minutes or just until tender crisp. (Using a microwave steam bag or steamer basket in a pot of boiling water). Run under cold water or submerge in ice water bath to stop the cooking process. Set aside.
3. Heat a medium to large saucepan over medium heat. Add the olive oil and once hot, add the onions and garlic. Saute for 3-4 minutes or until translucent. Add the rice and cook for 2 minutes more, stirring until nicely coated.
4. Add the wine to the second saucepan. Slowly stir, allowing the rice to absorb the wine. Once the wine is almost completely absorbed, add a ladle of stock to the rice.
5. Continue to stir until the liquid is almost completely absorbed, adding more stock in 1 ladle-full increments. Stir often to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan. This will also help to break down the rice and give it that creamy consistency. More stirring = creamier risotto.
6. Continue cooking and stirring rice, adding a ladle-full of broth at a time, cooking and stirring until it is absorbed.
7. Add edamame with your last ladle of broth.
8. Once the rice is tender and creamy & most of the broth has been been used (about 25 minutes), gently stir in the parmesan cheese and the asparagus. Add salt and pepper to taste.

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Inspired by Cooking Light.