Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Risotto

This is the 500th post from Vegetarian & Cooking! and I cannot believe that we're already halfway to 1,000. This post comes at the perfect time because we have a lot of exciting things coming up as we move into Thanksgiving, Christmas and the two year anniversary of us starting this blog. In the meantime, check out the Milestones tab above to see all of our other milestone blogs and features.

This recipe was really popular on my Pinterest board, Recipes to Try and the photos from the original were stunning. Also, in my opinion you cannot go wrong with risotto, it is always absolutely delicious and the leftovers are a great thing to take to work for lunch.

Other risotto recipes: Tomato & Spinach Risotto, Corn Risotto, Champagne Risotto and Butternut Squash Risotto.

From the blog Sheer Luxe.

Ingredients: 
-1 small onion, diced
-2 cloves of garlic, minced
-Two tablespoons of butter
-1 1/4 cup of risotto rice
-1 cup of white wine
-4 cups of vegetable broth, heated
-Jar of roasted red peppers, drained
-Chunk of Parmesan, grated
-Splash of cream
-Handful of spinach, wilted
-Wedge of goat’s cheese

Melt butter in a large skillet, saute the garlic and onion over medium heat for about five minutes. Stir in the arborio rice, coating with the onion, garlic and butter. Pour in the wine, stirring until absorbed.
Slowly ladle in the hot vegetable broth, stirring until absorbed each time.

Once the last ladle of  stock has been added, drain the oil from the jar of roasted red pepper. Puree in a blender and add into the risotto with a splash of cream and some Parmesan. Serve the risotto with chunks pieces of goat cheese and topped with wilted spinach. To eat mix in the goat cheese and spinach into the risotto.

The roasted red pepper flavor was really strong in this, that made my mom not like it. I really enjoy roasted peppers and I thought this was fantastic. There was a nice depth of flavor to the risotto, the goat cheese was a nice creamy balance to the rich flavor of the roasted red pepper. The spinach added color and some additional texture to the risotto. The leftovers were good for lunch the next day.

This is something that would be great for a dinner party or for a nice date. There is nothing more impressive than when your date cooks a nice meal for you!