Healthy risotto for spring

Risotto might be traditionally a buttery, cheesy dish, but it can still be delicious with a fraction of the fat. You don't have to go the whole hog and make some kind of vegan high-fibre risotto with pearl barley and no cheese. Those recipes have their place, but here I'm thinking of something more like a classic risotto, with arborio rice and still with the cheese. 

But let's ring the changes a bit. Parmesan is, of course, a wonderful cheese for risotto, but it's nice to do something different. There are so many interesting English cheeses, and more seem to be appearing all the time. If I have a particularly interesting cheese, I like to crumble it over my risotto at the end, rather than stirring it in. Purists would probably say this is not the point of risotto at all, but I think you can appreciate the complex flavours of the cheese better - they get less lost among all the other flavours. It also means that you don't seem to need as much cheese, so it's healthier too.

I add mushrooms at the end to keep the beautiful white colour of the risotto, as mushrooms added earlier have a tendency to turn the rice a bit grey. But if you don't mind this, or if want the mushrooms to infuse the risotto a bit more, then feel free to add them earlier.

I reckon with rich mushrooms, interesting cheese and some wine to add flavour, you won't miss the butter at all.
 

Ingredients 

Serves 2-3

1 onion
2 tsp vegetable oil
200g/ 7oz risotto rice
600ml/ 1 pint vegetable stock, ideally home-made
100ml / 3.5 fl oz white wine
100g / 4oz chestnut mushrooms
100g  / 4oz greens of your choice - eg spinach, chard, wild garlic or even rocket 
50g/2 oz of an interesting cheese (I used Blacksticks Velvet, a sheep's cheese from Lancashire, but experiment with other blue cheeses, or a goats' cheese)

Method
Chop the onion fairly small. Heat 1 tsp of the oil in a large saucepan and cook the onion over a medium heat for five minutes. Meanwhile, heat the stock if it's not already hot.

Add the rice to the onion pan, followed a minute later by a ladleful of hot stock. Keep stirring and adding stock for about 20 minutes. If you run out of stock, add more boiling water.

You don't need to stir constantly, so while this is happening you can slice the mushrooms and fry them in a non stick pan with the other teaspoon of oil. Chop the greens quite finely. By now the rice should be nearly cooked with just a slight 'bite' to it.  Add the greens and white wine, stir and cook for a few minutes longer until the greens have wilted down and the rice is plump and creamy. Taste and season, and add a little more liquid if you think it needs it. Serve the risotto with the mushrooms scattered over and the cheese sprinkled on top.