This radish risotto is almost too pretty to eat. Don’t be intimidated by risotto, you just need a few basic ingredients and a little bit of patience to put together a simple eye-pleasing and stomach-pleasing dish.
A week of rainy weather has left the garden brimming with spring vegetables and the idea for this dish came about as I searched for a way to put my lovely rainbow radishes to good use.
I’m a novice gardener and to be honest I don’t know where I got the crazy idea to build a garden smack dab in the middle of Barcelona. There are no houses with yards, we don’t have a balcony and are flanked by tall buildings.
But I was determined to somehow grow my own tomatoes!
Lucky for me the roof of our building is accessible and unused. My first thought was to put a few pots up there, but it somehow morphed into my second crazy idea of building a planter box from recycled pallets. Then we decided to put it on wheels. Then I decided to build a composter, also from recycled pallets. And now it’s an amazeballs urban rooftop garden.
The only problem is that I’m still a novice gardener and haven’t had much success with anything except the tomatoes, peppers and radishes.
I get the impression that you can’t really go wrong with radishes. Just pop the seeds in the ground and about a month later you’ll be pulling up fresh, organic radishes without much fuss.
I used seeds from Renee’s Garden Easter Egg II packet which come in a mix of four colours. So if you’re trying your hand at this gardening thing for the first time like me, radishes are a great place to start!
So my radishes have become the centrepiece of this simple risotto.
This radish risotto follows the basic risotto formula of fat, alliums, rice, stock, wine and your veggies of choice. It’s basically the same recipe as my artichoke and sun-dried tomato risotto, which is one of my all-time favorite recipes, but replacing the artichokes and tomatoes with fresh garden radishes and herbs.
I sprinkled my risotto with a sliced green onion (also from my garden), but you could just as easily use chives, basil, parsley or fresh green peas to add a bit of colour contrast. This radish risotto is almost too pretty to eat. Don’t be intimidated by risotto, you just need a few basic ingredients and a little bit of patience to put together a simple eye-pleasing and stomach-pleasing dish. As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Radish Risotto
Ingredients
Instructions
Recommended Products
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 380Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1174mgCarbohydrates: 45gFiber: 3gSugar: 8gProtein: 5g
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Nicole @ Yumsome says
Mel, how utterly lovely! I adore your planter (and am a little envious)!
Gorgeous recipe too, especially the rainbow radishes. If you grow marigolds in with the tomatoes, they help to keep pests away (and you can use the petals to make a soothing ointment, and as food colouring).
Basil is also a great companion plant for tomatoes. Often, foods and herbs which go together, grow well together.
Drop me a line if you ever want any pointers; I used to co-run a 5-acre permaculture farm, and I built and tended a reproduction 17th-century cottager's garden within the grounds of a stately home in the UK (and gave demos to the public on early modern cooking, dyeing, and medicinals/remedies). Plus, I've been growing food for almost 40 years!
Melissa says
Thank you so much Nicole! I've been fortunate that the only pests I've had to deal with so far are the neighbours. I had great success with basil last season, too much in fact... I've still got 3 bags of pesto in the freezer! Part of my problem is understanding the climate, obviously I've done well with the Mediterranean crops: tomatoes, peppers, basil, and radishes are no-fail. I'm still struggling with the other root vegetables: beets, carrots, onions. But each year I learn a little bit more and the harvests get bigger!