Recipes Main courses Vegetarian Italian

With beets, I have a love-hate relationship. I find the taste of roasted red beets truly heavenly - roasting them intensifies their sweet, earthy flavor. To achieve this unsurpassable taste, however, you need some patience, something I still sometimes find difficult. Meanwhile, I have found a good way to overcome the love-hate relationship: I put the beets in the bottom of the oven when I have it on for something else, and then make a large quantity at once. When cooked, they can be kept for up to a week. I use them, for example, to make a delicious beet soup with caramelized apples. But they also taste great cold, for example in salads. This time I made a roasted beet risotto with corn salad pesto.

Recipe

Roasted beet risotto with corn salad pesto

It takes a while, but then you have something. A delicious main dish that is packed with flavor, vitamins and fiber.

Course	Main course
Kitchen	Italian
Servings	2-3 people

Preparation time

Preparation time	20 min
Total	30 min

Ingredients

600 gr fresh beet (tip: take a double quantity for a tasty lunch salad, for example)
200 gr risotto rice/ millet/ whole grain round rice/ oat grains/ amaranth ...
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
0.5- 0.75 liters of vegetable broth (depending on the type of grain you use; check the package)
small knob of butter (20 gr)
2 tbsp olive oil + extra for the beets
balsamic vinegar
pepper and salt
For the Pesto:
5 tbsp olive oil
75 g Grana Padano
25 g pine or sunflower seeds
1 clove of garlic
75 g lamb's lettuce
1 tbsp lemon juice

Roasted beet risotto with corn salad pesto

How to make roasted beet risotto with corn salad pesto?

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

1. Wash the beets: scrub off the soil well. Tear off as many aluminum foil sheets as you have beets. Place a beet on each sheet.

2. Drizzle a small splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the beets and sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Fold the foil closed to form packages and place the packages in the oven.

3. Roast the beets until tender in about 60 - 90 minutes. The cooking time depends on the size of the beets; therefore, after 60 min, check if the beets are already soft by pricking them with a knife.

4. Remove the beets from the oven and remove the aluminum foil. Pull off the skin once the beets have cooled slightly (tip: put on plastic gloves to avoid red fingers).

5. Mash half of the roasted beets into puree in the food processor or with the hand blender. Cut the other half into 1-inch by 1-inch cubes.

6. Chop the onion and finely chop the garlic. Heat the olive oil on low heat in a sauté pan. Sauté the onion and garlic until translucent. Add the rice (or other grains) and stir briefly.

7. Add the broth one tablespoon at a time until the rice is done. Keep stirring at the same time.

8. When the risotto is almost ready, stir in the beet puree and the pieces of beet. Once the beets are heated, stir in the butter. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve the risotto with the pesto and corn salad leaves

How to make the corn salad pesto:

9. Set aside a few bunches of lamb's lettuce for garnish.

10. Put the rest of the corn salad, cheese, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl.

11. Puree with the hand blender to make pesto.

12. If pesto is dry, add some extra olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Kookstand Voorkomt dat je scherm in slaapstand gaat

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Incidentally, you don't have to get stress of the oxalic acid that is in beetroot. It is true that oxalic acid binds in the body with minerals such as calcium, iron and magnesium, so that they can be absorbed less well. However, I can reassure you: with a healthy body, eating oxalic acid -rich vegetables is no problem. The famous Paracelsus statement applies here: "The dose determines the poison". Beetings are huge vitamin and mineral bombs and they contain antioxidants, so that they work as anti-inflammatory drugs in our body!

As a health food coach, I think it is important to use as few processed products as possible. Real risotto is made from Arborio rice, a "white" rice type in which the germ and the fleece are removed. That is a shame, because just let it contain exactly many important vitamins and minerals! I would like to replace this rice with healthier variants such as millet, oat granules or Amaranth. You can actually use any type of grain for it, especially try out what tastes best for you. Incidentally, I recently spotted a whole -grain variant of the risotto list - under the name "whole -grain round rice". With this I have put a delicious creamy risotto on the table.

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