Comfort Food: Tomato Basil and Spinach Risotto

If you follow this blog for a while, you will know that both Nick and I love our risotto and we are always looking for new recipes. Today I will share a risotto which holds 3 of my favorite foods: Tomatoes, basil and spinach. This is really a lovely combination. It would taste best in summer, when the tomatoes are of the best quality. But in winter I often use cherry tomatoes instead because they aren't so watery and have more flavor than the larger ones in winter.
The original recipe comes from Iowa Girl Eats.

Tomato Basil and Spinach Risotto
- 2.5 cups vegetable broth
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 spring onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- salt & pepper
- 0.75 cup arborio rice
- 2 Roma tomatoes, seeded & chopped
- 2 cups baby spinach
- handful torn basil
- 0.25 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Boil the vegetable broth and keep warm. Melt some olive oil over medium heat then add the spring onion, season with salt & pepper, and then saute about 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 30 more seconds. Add the rice and stir to coat in butter. Add 0.5 cup of vegetable broth then stir continuously until broth is absorbed. Continue adding broth, 0.5 cup at a time, stirring until nearly absorbed before adding more. When there’s about 0.25 of the broth remaining, add tomatoes then continue stirring. Add baby spinach and basil with the last broth addition then continue stirring. Stir in parmesan cheese then add more salt & pepper to taste.

You can use frozen spinach as well, when it is not the spinach season, but make sure to heat it in a separate pan before adding it to the risotto.

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