Courgette Risotto with Fresh Garden Herbs

Yay, I've been picking my first courgettes of the season over the last couple of days! I was getting a little worried as we were fast approaching the end of July and I hadn't posted a courgette recipe. For my first courgette of the season I really wanted to taste and savour the flavour so I decided that my first courgette should be celebrated in style and eaten as a raw dish. But more of that to follow - watch out for the specials board.

Thankfully I managed to pick a few more since, my two 8 Ball courgette plants are growing their round courgettes so fast its amazing to see the start of one grow one morning to go back a couple of days later and find it ready to harvest. Yes, really they grow that quickly! My standard courgette plant seems a little slower but I've had a couple so far, hopefully it will pick up. My beautiful pattypan plants are growing their spaceship shape squashes too, they're just so cute!

For my courgette risotto I used the standard shape courgette, if you grow your own don't let them get too big as I think they lose their flavour.

Ingredients 

500ml Vegetable stock
1 Tsp Porcini powder
1 Onion, diced
3 Garlic cloves*
250g Arborio rice
100ml White wine
500g Courgettes
5 Sprigs fresh oregano
5 Shoots fresh chives
Handful of fresh parsley (large)
Handful of fresh basil (large)
2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp Vitalite
* I used 1 clove from my elephant garlic, which was huge but I think it was probably the equivalent to 3 standard cloves

Method - Serves 3-4

First prepare your vegetable stock, either make it yourself or use vegetable bouillon and mix the porcini powder into it. Set to one side

Divide the courgettes up so you have 250g of grated courgette and 250g diced courgette. Put the grated courgette to one side. In a frying pan saute the diced courgette in a little olive oil until cooked through and starting to turn a golden brown. Remove from the frying pan and set aside.

Saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add the rice and saute for another minute stirring all the time so the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Pour in the white wine, the mixture will bubble furiously, keep stirring until the liquid had been soaked up by the rice. Add the grated courgette and stir through then add a little of the stock. Let the mixture soak up the stock before adding anymore. Continue adding the stock slowly and waiting till it has been absorbed before you add another ladle or two. 

Once all the stock has been used and the rice is cooked around 15 minutes add the diced courgette back to the pan along with the nutritional yeast. 

Remove the leaves from the oregano stalks and chop with the chives and parsley and add to the pan stir to combine.

Add the vitalite and carefully beat into the mixture to give the risotto a glossy shine. 

Shred the basil leaves and add to the pan and stir so everything is combined thoroughly. Serve straight away.

The risotto will keep if you have any left over, but you may need to add a little stock to 'loosen' the risotto.