Vegan - ish Valentine's Day Dinner

Today I wanted nothing more than to make a delicious Valentine's Day dinner to enjoy with my meat-eating sweetie. I did a quick Internet search and came up with the perfect solution - risotto! All the ingredients are vegan, so I could cook up some chicken seperately and viola!

I already had everything I needed except the arborio rice - not something I've actually ever bought... So, it was a pretty big bummer to find out the Vons in Scripps Ranch DOESN'T CARRY IT!!! Booo Vons! I hate wasting trips to the store!

Luckily, Pat came up with the idea to try and make it with the cooked brown rice we already had in the fridge - genius! Another quick Internet search proved that it could be done, so about 45 minutes and 83 dirty pots, pans, bowls, spoons and cutting boards later... dinner was served. And it was really good!

Here's how we did it in case you want to try a healthier version of risotto, or just happen to have brown rice instead of arborio. And this recipe was kind of based on what veggies I had, so feel free to switch out with what you like best (or have on hand).

Brown Rice Risotto with Asparagus, Spinach and Mushrooms
1 Tbsp olive oil, plus 3 additional Tbsps
3-6 cloves of garlic minced (or fewer - I really like garlic!)
1 medium bunch asparagus (cleaned and chopped)
2 cups spinach (washed and torn up if large leaves)
2 cups mushrooms (cleaned and sliced)
1 Tbsp butter (I used Earth Balance vegan butter)
3 cups cooked brown rice
3 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 chicken breasts (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop up all the veggies, heat the first Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet and add a few cloves worth of the minced garlic, cooking until fragrant. Add the veggies and stir. Cover for a few minutes to steam. Once they start to shrink down, remove the lid, stir and turn up the heat to cook out the liquid. Keep an eye on them and continue to stir until cooked but still slightly firm.

In a large sauce pan or small pot, heat the 3 Tbsps olive oil and the butter. Add more of the garlic until fragrant. Add the rice and stir to coat and start to brown - 2 or 3 minutes. Add just 1/3 cup of the broth to start. Stir ("and stir and stir and stir," as Kate says) until absorbed and continue adding the broth in 1/3 cup increments and stirring until the rice reaches a creamy risotto-like texture. It took me about 25 - 30 minutes.

When the veggies were done, I put them aside and cooked the chicken with a little of the minced garlic and a few misto sprays of olive oil. When done, I chopped it up and mixed in about half the veggies and half the risotto. Then I threw the rest of the veggies in the still vegan risotto and we each had our dinner.

I also made some sour dough garlic bread the way we had it in Italy - toasted, rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil.

It might have been a lot for a Monday night, but worth it to have a delicious healthy Valentines meal! And lots of leftovers! Try it like this or make up your own version - go nuts! And let me know how it goes. :)