vegan risotto with truffle oil

You may not realise it, but I love any excuse to add truffle to a meal. I usually add it to a mushroom based dish and this one was not going to get away without a drizzle or two.

It’s such a whole sensory experience that compares to none other. When you sit down to a meal and smell the truffle, it’s like your first kiss, every time. Your heart skips a beat and you can’t wait to dig in, but you want to take it slow and savour every moment. What an analogy huh!

Risotto is an awesome one pot meal to spare you that laborious task of washing up too much. Adding to that beautiful experience.

I don’t know about you, but usually I find myself using heaps of pots and baking dishes when preparing dinner. It’s not so bad because I wash as I go – we’ve got a pretty tight kitchen so bench space is hard to come by. Actually, if I think about it, every night the dishes (bar the ones we eat on) are all washed up and stacked before we sit down to eat. Joel likes that because he is always on washing up duty but there is rarely much to do.

Ingredients

(serves 4)

1 tblsp olive oil

1 brown onion, finely sliced

200g button mushrooms, finely sliced

1 c arborio rice (risotto rice)

2 ½ c water

1 bunch asparagus, sliced into 1cm rounds

1 c peas, frozen or fresh

salt and pepper to taste

Optional: Tartufo Bianco (white truffle oil)

Heat oil in a heavy based saucepan, add onion and stir until softened.

Next add mushrooms and stir fry for approximately 5 minutes.

Add rice and mix for a further 2 minutes.

Then add 1 c of water to the pan and simmer until water has been absorbed, stirring minimally.

Next mix in the asparagus and add the remaining water.

Cover saucepan to cook through, approximately 15 minutes.

Finally add the peas stirring the risotto until the peas are cooked.

Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with truffle oil and serve.

wellbeing stir fry with green tea noodles

There are never enough hours in the day!

With my hours at work having picked up lately, I'm finding it a juggle to fit everything (fitness, blogging, housework, entertaining etc) into the limited time I have in the evenings. 

So, when I am time poor, I love a quick throw-together stir fry that has a rainbow of colours with minimal cooking time for a warm yet fresh dinner.

The more colours you can enjoy with your food the better.

Not only is it appealing to the eye, but also, each vegetable holds its own nutritional content and to combine and vary what you eat is great for all-round wellbeing.

Ingredients

(serves 2-3)

100g green tea noodles

1 tsp pure sesame oil

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

3 garlic cloves, sliced

1/2 red hot chilli, finely sliced (optional)

1 tblsp soy sauce

1 tblsp mirin sauce

10 button mushrooms, finely sliced

2 bunches of baby pak choy, finely sliced

1 red banana pepper, finely sliced

4 shallots, finely sliced

1 c purple cabbage, finely sliced

1 tblsp dried wakame

1/2 c peas

1/4 c roasted cashew nuts

1/4 c fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Cook noodles in boiling water for about 5 mins - until tender.

Drain and rinse with cool water - set aside.

Next, heat oil in a wok and add ginger, garlic and chilli - cook for 1 min stirring constantly.

Then add the soy, mirin and mushrooms and continue to cook until mushrooms are softened and browning.

Then add the pak choy, pepper, shallots and purple cabbage and toss for a minute or 2.

Then toss through the seaweed, peas, nuts and coriander. 

Remove from heat and toss through the noodles*.

Serve and enjoy!

*You may need to re-rinse with cool water to prevent sicking.

mushroom and chestnut soup - drizzled with white truffle oil

Ahh.. Tartufo Bianco.

You make any meal a mind blowing experience.

I love you.

We love you.

We worship you.

I'm so excited to share this recipe with you.

The earthy tones of the mushrooms combined with the sweetness of the chestnuts make for the perfect winter warming soup.

Not to mention the truffle oil.

The first time we tried this tasty tasty artisans dream, was in a tiny little town called Motovun in Croatia.

Walking down the cobbled streets sampling all the free taste testers they had available was a treat.

No way could we afford to buy any of the produce, but we did.

It was really the beginning of the end for us.

Motovun, Croatia

We bought the White Truffle infused oil and kept it in our van for the nights our mediocre meals needed some spicing up.

Following on from this experience when we continued our travels into Italy, we were able to stock up on more oil and even attended a White Truffle (Tartufo Bianco) festival.

White Truffle oil is now a staple in our kitchen.

Ingredients

(serves 4-6)

500 g chestnuts

250 g button mushrooms, sliced

1 medium leek, roughly sliced

2 chokos, diced

2 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

2 vegetable stock cubes

couple of pinches of salt to taste

water

white truffle oil

Turn oven to 200 degrees. Score each of the chestnuts with an 'x' and place on a baking tray in the oven to roast for 40-50 mins.

Remove from oven and cool.

Using a nut cracker, de-shell the chestnuts and put in a heavy based pot.

Add all other ingredients with enough water to cover the contents.

Boil for about 20-30 mins.

Remove from stove and cool.

Using a blender, blend all ingredients until smooth.

Return to stove and warm through.

Serve - drizzled with truffle oil, roasted chestnuts and chopped parsley.

Yummm. x