Wild mushroom risotto

Risotto with black trumpet mushrooms.

wild mushroom risotto

This year was an incredible year for wild mushrooms after a very rainy summer, and I managed to stumble upon an incredible patch of black trumpet (svarttrumpet) mushrooms. It was a battle of stubborn determination to see how many mushrooms I could collect whilst enduring a plague of mosquitos, but the mushrooms were well worth it, and I managed to dry some and cook down some to save for future risottos. Mushroom risotto is probably my favorite type of risotto and with wild mushrooms it is even better. You could use kantarelle, trattkanterelle, or whichever edible mushrooms you have.

My goal with any risotto is to maximise the amount of vegetables compared to the rice. In addition to blending some mushrooms or other vegetables through the rice whilst cooking, you can decorate your risotto with an extremely generous serving of sauted vegetables that may very well entirely hide your actual risotto rice.

Please feel free to use your creativity and imagination and add other vegetables, such as asparagus, zucchini, or something else from your garden or the local farmers market.

Ingredients:

3-4dl arborio or carnaroli rice (to serve 4-5 persons)

1 medium onion

1 cup chopped leek (ca 1/3 leek)

1/3-1/2 head broccoli (optional but great)

1 huge bag of wild mushrooms (eg 1kg)

~1dl olive oil

2-4 tbsp white wine vinegar or 1 cup white wine.

~1 to 1.5L boiled water

~1 dl nutritional yeast

Method:

1. Saute 1 medium chopped onion in a generous amount of olive oil until slightly transparent.

2. Stir in your arborio/carnaroli rice until looking transparent (~1-2min).

3. Add a dash of white wine vinegar or white wine, and then approx 0.5L boiled water (total volume of liquid according to your rice packet or approx 1-1.5L). Cook covered, adding more boiled water as needed (~20min).

4. Saute ~1 cup chopped leek in a little olive oil, and stir through your risotto in the last 5min of cooking, along with a handfull or two of finely chopped broccoli (optional but adds to the nutritional quality of your meal).

5. Saute a large serving of mushrooms in a little olive oil, adding ~1/4 to your risotto in the last 5min of cooking and stir through. You can use black trumpets, chanterelle, or any other wild edible mushroom or regular button mushrooms. You may need to saute these in several batches.

6. When your risotto rice looks done, you can stir though a drizzle of olive oil, a generous sprinkling of nutritional yeast and if you like some black pepper (and/or parmesan, amount for your tastes, but as little as necessary, and obviously it is not vegan or dairy-free if you add parmesan).

7. Serve a small portion of risotto with a generous covering of your sauted mushrooms, and garnish with fresh basil or another fresh herb if you prefer.

Enjoy! save leftovers as it will be just as delicious tomorrow.