Risotto is such divine, hearty comfort food. I enjoy the traditional ritual of spooning hot liquid into the rice mixture, but when I don’t have time to stand around stirring, I love this easy oven baked method. If you don’t have or like fennel, swap it for another seasonal herb. Lemon is a real flavour star here & will go well with everything.
1 cup arborio rice
2 ½ cups hot gluten free vege stock, or 1 tsp gluten free stock powder dissolved in 2 ½ cups hot water
2 Tbsp olive oil
180g mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 red onion, halved & thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
4 heaped Tbsp fresh fennel, thinly sliced
juice & zest of half a lemon
½ cup peas (frozen is fine)
1 tsp salt, more to taste
Preheat the oven to 175C.
Heat the oil in an oven-safe pot with a lid. This pot will be going on the stove top, then into the oven, so ensure it is safe for both – mine is a heavy iron one, similar to Le Creuset.
In another pot or measuring jug, heat the stock (or boil water to dissolve your stock powder, if that’s what you’re using) so it’s ready to go.
Heat the oil on a medium heat and fry the mushrooms until starting to colour. Then add the onion & garlic, frying until soft. Add the rice, stirring often. Once you see a few grains start to colour, add the hot stock/water. Also stir through half of the fennel now. Pop the lid on and place the pot in the oven for 15 minutes.
All the liquid should be absorbed by the 15 minute mark – if not, pop it back in the oven for a few extra minutes.
Stir through all the remaining ingredients – the zest & juice, salt, peas & other half of fennel. If using frozen peas, you can either let them defrost in the hot risotto, or give them a head-start warm rinse before adding to the pot. Check the seasoning & add more salt if needed.
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