Roasted beetroot, red wine and Brie risotto,
As featured on Great British Chefs: Jack Monroe’s budget friendly Beetroot, Brie and Red Wine Risotto.
In some supermarkets, ready cooked and prepared beetroot is cheaper than buying it in bunches, not to mention quicker to cook! I’ve used the pre-packed variety in my recipe, but feel free to use fresh beetroot if you prefer, but it will need at least an extra 10 minutes in the oven. This recipe uses some of my staple ingredients that I always have to hand: chicken stock, garlic, and long grain rice – yes, long grain rice in risotto. It’s how my mother makes it!
Ingredients (serves four):
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp oil
300g rice
500ml chicken stock
250g beetroot
3 tbsp red wine
2 tsp mixed herbs
50g Brie
First, preheat your oven to 200C, and pop the kettle on to boil.
Next, prepare the beetroot. If you are using fresh beetroot, peel it, rinse it, and dice into 1cm chunks. If you are using pre-packed cooked beetroot, simply rinse it and dice it. Place it in a roasting dish, toss in 1tbsp oil and the mixed herbs, and roast for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges start to slightly char.
While the beetroot is roasting, prepare the risotto. Finely chop the garlic, and add to a large frying or sauté pan with the other tablespoon of oil. Sauté on a very low heat, until the garlic starts to soften.
Tip in the rice and stir to lightly coat in oil. Turn the heat up to medium and cook for 4-5 minutes, until the ends of the rice are translucent. Add the wine and stir well.
While the wine is absorbing, make up the stock. Crumble the stock cube into 500ml of boiling water, and stir well to dissolve. Add a generous splash of stock to the pan, and stir well to disturb the rice and prevent it from sticking. When the stock is absorbed, add another splash. Continue until there is around a quarter of the stock left.
Remove the beetroot from the oven and mash well with a fork or masher. Tip the mashed beetroot and any oil, juices and herbs from the pan into the risotto and stir well.
Continue to add the stock until the rice is al dente and the risotto is slightly soupy. Crumble the Brie on top and fold in before serving to melt slightly.
Serve with green salad as a light lunch, or crusty bread and green vegetables for a hearty warming dinner.
Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/agirlcalledjack
Ingredient costs: all Sainsburys, correct at date of publication. 2 cloves of garlic, 5p (50p/2 bulbs, avg 10 cloves each). 2 tbsp oil, 5p (£4.50/3l). 300g rice, 12p (40p/1kg). 1 chicken stock cube, 2p (20p/10). 250g cooked beetroot, 80p (80p/250g). 2 tsp mixed Italian herbs, 6p (30p/42g). 45ml red wine, 21p (£3.50/75cl). 50g French mild Brie, 27p (£1.09/200g). Total: £1.58/4 servings.
Categories: Recipes & Food, RICE, VEGETARIAN
This sounds wonderful. Even better, it uses ordinary old long grain rice. My husband and son turn their noses up at risotto rice, as they dislike its ‘soggy’ texture. Sometimes I feel like going on strike. But I know they would happily live on utter junk until I gave in and cooked something. 🙂
Beetroot Risotto is our favourite dinner in this house, can’t wait to try it with red wine and brie. Thanks Jack xx
Love the recipe – brie with beetroot sounds like match made in heaven – but I’ll have to substitute the stock cube with something a little more natural (sorry those basic/value stock cubes ruin the taste of food, what’s in them apart from salt?)
I don’t mind them, they are lower in salt than some branded ones but I do use more water than the packet recommends to dilute the taste. I use chicken for the flavour in everything, I don’t like the vegetable ones! 🙂
I have made a not bad veg stock just from the peelings and ends of veg, simmer and strain. Chuck in chicken bones/ carcass to if you have it and want chicken stock. I know its not going to win any prizes and will have chefs throwing up their hands in horror, but I can’t bring myself to make stock with veg we could eat so use the bits we don’t. It does the job.
Yum! My husband used to work in a green grocers and one of his jobs was to peel and cook the beet root. He’d go home looking like an axe murder!
What is meant by mixed herbs? Basil, parsley? Or is this a type such as herbs de Provence?
The ‘basic range’ mixed herbs tend to be a mix of dried parsley, thyme, rosemary and oregano, but any ‘woody’ herb will do.
Sorry jack but I won’t be trying this one. I absolutely hate beetroot. Makes me gag.
Agreed! (another Irish mammy (Ireland))
Lol at least it’s not just me.
Can’t wait to try this reminded me that I’ve not eaten much beetroot this year due to a poor crop xx
I can’t think of a better combination of ingredients – that’s going on my menu planner next week 🙂
Love beetroot, but my lot won’t eat it :-(. Next time my mums round though…..
I adore beetroot risotto. Jack, do you know Charmaine Solomon’s “carrot relish”? We serve it as a yummy side dish with rice and dal. It’s delicious, and dead cheap, and I have to wonder if it could be simplified a bit or perhaps legumed to make a main….
(http://asiasociety.org/lifestyle/food-recipes/recipe/sauces/carrot-relish)
I love charmaine Solomon. I have her complete Asian cookbook. It’s my favourite cookbook ever. The hibiscus curry is excellent.
Mmmmm. I love beetroot and I love making risotto so thank you for this idea. both hubby & myself are vegetarian and he doesn’t eat dairy. So I think I will work with your recipe but adapt using walnuts and some spinach or rocket if Aldi are doing some, I am sure they will work well with the beetroot. Thank you again for your continued work. x x x
Sounds delicious! We just bought a 10lb bag of beets and I’ve been struggling to come up with ways to use them all. Thanks for the idea!
Beets -n- cheese is an odd combo, but being a beet lover, worth a try.
I must say, you will never know what love is until you have a chance to taste fresh beets (and beet greens) from a garden. If you should ever make a request of a local gardener, it should be for this!!!! “Fresh” from the supermarket does not compare!
I made this recipe yesterday evening. Absolutely delicious! My husband said it was the best risotto he had ever eaten and he is usually quite critical about risotto, especially ones he has in restaurants. Beetroot is his favourite veg anyway so a winner all the way . Going to try your Feisty Soup tomorrow.
Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & POLITICAL JOURNAL.
Going by your notes alone, I must try this. I`m a big fan of beetroot-yep, even that prepacked cooked kind.
Made a “clean out the fridge” version yesterday….left over veg stock from odds and ends, leftover half of red onion, juice of an orange a friend gave me in place of the wine, feta crumbles…there is no such thing as affordable brie here…and the last of my dried dill…used the pressure cooker.
10 min later had a wonderful dinner…..delicious and lovely to look at! Thanks for the inpiration!
Tried this out over the weekend. It was delicious. Empty plates all round.
Look forward to trying this- I love beetroot. I can buy 425g cans of beetroot in juice, no salt added, for 62 cents here ( 38p ) and they are delicious.
Have you seen this https://www.cookisto.co.uk/ coming to the UK soon?
Made this last night – with veg stock, using herbs de Provence and added feta rather than brie. Delicious!
If using fresh beetroot, it’s easier (i.e. far less mess) to peel them when they are cooked. I’d recommend roasting them whole first, slipping the skins off, then dicing before returning to roast for 10 minutes to char the outside. Alternatively, boil them whole for 5 minutes before peeling, chopping and roasting.
I often cook a similar recipe which uses diced courgette, passata (i.e. tomato puree) and pecorino cheese instead of beetroot and brie. By all means, substitute (cheaper) parmesan for the pecorino.
Lovely recipe,gotta try it one day 🙂 In season I like to make tasty soup made from beetroots&their stalks and leaves,I cook it with stock and then I add fried bits of bacon,cream and new potatoes,I don’t know if it’s popular in UK but back in my home country is quite popular in the summertime,both eaten hot or cold
Nom. Made tonight with the slight addition of onion (and I used risotto rice because I had some) and fake feta instead of brie.
World’s pinkest rice dish – was gorgeous. And enough left over for lunch tomorrow
It’s gooooood with fake feta. Love that ‘Greek salad cheese’ haha xx
I tried this last night with some pudding rice (a split pack that was reduced 🙂 ) and used half quantities of everything except the stock, wine and Brie. I found I still needed the full amount of liquid to cook the rice. Very tasty, thanks for sharing 🙂
I love beetroot, my teenager hates it, but he LOVED this risotto! The Brie makes it. (I don’t have the heart to tell him he ate beetroot)
Reblogged this on The White Gift Bag.