Farmers Markets

Farmers markets are a great way of cutting down on your carbon footprint and helping your local suppliers. If you're vegetarian like me you can find an abundance of lovely fresh, seasonal vegetables and depending on where you are different cooking ingredients. I usually go to a local farmers market in Olney, but back in September my housemates and I went to one in Winchester. It was massive compared to what I was used to so I picked up quite a few different bits. There was a stall selling Bookhams Not Just a Pasta Cheese, which although it was expensive I had buy because I can rarely find a vegetarian alternative for parmesan (apart from in Sainsburys, but it's not always there) and as well as picking up some cakes and other bits, my housemate and I went halves on some chard because we'd never tried it before. When we got home we decided the perfect thing to make would be a chard and butternut squash risotto.

What you need for 2 people,

1 litre vegetable stock
1 clove garlic crushed

1 small white onion chopped
2 tbsp white wine
½ small butternut squash, peeled and chopped

4 big Chard leaves, sliced finely
50g butter
100g Risotto Rice
25g Bookhams Not Just a Pasta Cheese (or other veggie pasta cheese), plus extra shavings to serve

Make the vegetable stock up in a pan and keep on the heat. Fry the onion, garlic and squash in half of the butter until the onion is translucent and then add the rice and keep frying until the rice also turns translucent. Pour over the white wine and wait until it is all absorbed. Then add a ladle of stock and stir in, keep repeating this until all the stock has been used and the rice is cooked, when adding the last ladle also add the chard to cook for 2 minutes. Stir regularly to make sure its nice and creamy. When all the stock has been absorbed add the rest of the butter and the cheese and stir well. Serve with grated cheese on top and enjoy!

Posted in: vegetarian