Lettuce and Tarragon Risotto

Although I'm perfectly comfortable with the fact leaves are good for you and even evangelise about it to others from time to time I find actually eating a lot of raw vegetation really quite dull. This is a way of getting more leafy greens into me, without my jaw aching. Regular readers will also note that it's a way of getting more of my favourite white rice included in my diet, but that's not important right now.

At the risk of boring everyone I'll just run over the steps involved in risotto again.

Chop an onion (or shallots) finely and melt down in some olive oil. It's o.k. to use a tad more oil in a vegan risotto as there will be no added fat from cheese or cream.

Put in a quantity of rice, probably a little less than you think you'll need. Risotto rice is always recommended but as it happens I've been using some Riz Rond (aka pudding rice) and the sky hasn't fallen yet. It's working just fine.

Get the rice oily and warmed. Chuck in a good glassful of white wine. I've got a bottle of cooking wine, a (just) drinkable Blanc de Blancs vin de table but if you're buying in a dry Italian wine or a Muscadet is probably better.

Let that sizzle and boil. Add a quantity of chopped tarragon. If you have no tarragon a spoonful of Pastis is good or a slug of vermouth. Add salt and black pepper.

The stock; don't use a stock cube unless you crave monosodium glutamate (which happens), plain water will do. The water doesn't even have to be hot although if you're using cold add it in small doses so that the pan never stops cooking. Of course if you have a good and compatible vegetable stock to hand use it by all means.

Add liquid in small quantities, stirring regularly and keeping the pan simmering, until the rice is nearly cooked.

Add another wine glass of liquid and some nutritional yeast. This really does do most of what the parmesan would do in a traditional recipe but it needs moisture to dissolve in and adds no fat. Don't overdo it, it is a matter of taste how much you'll need.

Stir everything around and pile in a lot of washed, roughly chopped lettuce. Put the lid on the pan to help it wilt down a bit and then remove the lid and stir it in. You may need a little more stock or water but the lettuce gives off quite a lot of liquid as it cooks. Keep stirring, testing the rice and observing until everything is cooked to perfection and serve.