Student Recipe: Pesto Risotto

Name: Student Recipe: Pesto Risotto
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 onion; 1 x glug of oil - vegetable, olive or sunflower; 1 1/2 standard mugfuls of risotto rice - look for arborio or carnaroli; 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube; Pesto, to taste; 1 standard mugful of frozen peas; 200 g pack ham, chopped

Once you’ve mastered the basic recipe, experiment with different meats and vegetables.

By The GH Kitchen TeamPublished: 09 September 2012

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Food, Cuisine, Dishware, Recipe, Serveware, Tableware, Dish, Kitchen utensil, Salad, Meal,

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Yields:

Prep Time:

15 mins

Cook Time:

30 mins

Total Time:

45 mins

Ingredients

1 onion
1 x glug of oil - vegetable, olive or sunflower
1 1/2 standard mugfuls of risotto rice - look for arborio or carnaroli
1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
Pesto, to taste
1 standard mugful of frozen peas
200 g pack ham, chopped

Directions

1. Step 1
  Halve the onion and peel off and discard the papery brown skins. Then chop both onion halves as finely as you can and discard the rooty ends. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium hob heat and add the onion. Fry for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent.
2. Step 2
  Add the rice and give the mixture a good stir to prevent it from sticking.
3. Step 3
  Crumble the stock cube into a standard-sized mug and fill it with boiling water from the kettle. Stir to dissolve the cube and pour it into the rice saucepan. Add three further mugfuls of boiling water.
4. Step 4
  When the liquid in the saucepan starts to boil, turn down the heat to low and cook for 15-20 minutes, occasionally stirring well, until the rice absorbs the liquid. Add half a mugful more of boiling water if all the liquid has disappeared but the rice still isn't cooked, then cook it for a little longer. Repeat until rice is tender.
5. Step 5
  Stir in the pesto (as much as you want), frozen peas and ham and continue cooking until the peas are hot. Check the seasoning and serve.

Try cooked prawns or a handful of spinach instead of ham.

Per Serving:

Calories: 489
Total carbs: 72 g
Sugars: 3 g
Total fat: 15 g
Saturated fat: 3 g

The GH Kitchen Team

The GH Kitchen Team are Good Housekeeping’s resident recipe developers and all-round food obsessives. GH Kitchen Director Sarah Akhurst is our resident hosting pro and loves nothing more than putting on a foodie feast for friends. Our GH Kitchen Manager Linzi Pucino is our very own Italian food expert (originally hailing from the North East of Scotland!) and can be found working her way through midweek recipes that cover all bases, from haggis to ragu! Our Kitchen Editor ⁠Nadine Brown loves digging into the stories behind her favourite foods and enjoys applying her eclectic tastes to more modern, flavour-forward recipes - just don't give her too much chilli! Our Junior Food Content Produce ⁠Frankie Prichard combines a love of beautiful presentation and flavour-led, seasonal cooking in her recipe development, along with a passion for bringing people together through food. With a wealth of professional kitchen experience between them, they’re dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work every single time