Spring-spiration Risotto

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. And when life gives you asparagus tips, you make risotto.

Inspiration can come from the craziest places sometimes, and when you least expect it - including in your Ocado shop. I don't get an Ocado shop often, but now we're officially into spring and I've been cooking with winter vegetables for far too long (butternut squash, I'm looking at you!).

Yes, I am fully aware that not every student can afford to splash out on Ocado shopping, and this really is a rare occurrence for me, but I do think the quality of food and the service you get is far better than other supermarket delivery services - I booked an 8:30pm-9:30pm slot with a text coming through earlier that morning telling me I had no substitutions and that my shopping would be delivered by Andrew in the Lemon Van. Andrew in the Lemon Van knocked on the door at 8:31pm. All my food had extended best before dates, which has been an issue with Sainsburys delivery before, and they have a multitude of discount codes for your first shop which makes the money-savvy part of me so happy. 25% off? Yes please!

But continuing with my tale of inspiration, I was packing away my Ocado shopping when I found a pack of asparagus tips that I can only assume had been accidentally packed into the bottom of the bag. While there is plenty on the website about items not turning up, there's nothing about extra items, and about 15 minutes before I had been surfing on the Jamie Oliver website and had hovered over an asparagus and mint risotto. It was like fate.

How good does this look? 

Asparagus, Green Bean and Pea Risotto with Lemon and Mint
Time to make: 30 minutes
Calories per portion: 173kcal
Cost per portion: £3.13
Portions of your 5 a day: 3

You will need:

• 1/2 onion, diced
• 75g asparagus tips, trimmed
• 50g frozen peas
• 100g arborio risotto rice
• 50g green beans, trimmed
• 1/2 tsp mint
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Knorr vegetable stock pot
• 10g rocket leaves
• 500ml water
• Frying pan
• Baking tray

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius, and place your asparagus tips on a baking tray. drizzle with some olive oil, season with the salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 20 minutes, tossing just once to ensure the asparagus roasts on all sides.

While the asparagus is roasting, fry the onion in a frying pan on low heat until translucent and soft. Boil 500ml of water to make the stock, and add the frozen peas and risotto rice to the frying pan to lightly toast. Don't allow either to burn so keep stirring until the water is boiled and ready to mix with the stock pot. You can do this in a saucepan but I prefer not to dirty too many pots and pans so I just make up my stock in a mug.

Add the green beans, and then add the stock slowly, allowing the first couple of spoonfuls to be fully absorbed before adding more. The most important tip for cooking risotto is to not stop stirring - by stirring the rice you release the starch inside, creating the creamy consistency we're looking for. Keep stirring and adding stock until you have two or three spoonfuls left, and remove the asparagus tips from the oven.

Add the asparagus tips, the last of the stock, the thyme, the mint and the lemon juice to the pan and continue to stir until all of the liquid is absorbed, and remove the heat. The risotto should be soft and without crunch, but should still retain its shape. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before stirring in the rocket leaves and serving.

The fresh vegetables and creamy consistency of the risotto rice is going to make this dish a firm favourite in the upcoming months, especially as I had no plans to make this dish! Personally I chose not to make my risottos with wine but if you want then I would recommend a light white wine such as a sauvignon blanc or a pinot grigio to pair with the asparagus. You can also add parmesan at the end but I didn't have any in the house. Next time though!