Grass green risotto

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 400 g rice (risotto rice)
• 300 g spinach, fresh
• 1 liter of broth
• 200 ml white wine
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 shallot(s)
• 1 clove(s) garlic or to taste
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp Parmesan, grated
• salt and pepper
• Fresh herbs, to taste

Instructions

Working time approx. 10 minutes; Total time approx. 10 minutes

Cook a good chicken or vegetable broth the day before. The specified amount of liquid is an approximate amount, so be sure to adjust the amount to the risotto during cooking; it’s better to cook a little too much broth than too little. Clean the spinach, remove the stalks, and blend it raw with a quarter of the broth in a blender. Pass it through a fine sieve to create a green broth. Set the finely chopped spinach aside in the sieve. Sauté the finely chopped shallot and garlic in olive oil until translucent, add the risotto rice, and toss it briefly in the oil. Then slowly add the broth and white wine. Slowly cook the risotto over low heat, stirring constantly, adding more broth and wine. At the very end, add the green broth as the last portion of liquid. (It’s better to leave some of the neutral chicken or vegetable stock left over! It’s very important that all of the spinach stock is used in the end, but the color stays best if it is cooked for as short a time as possible). A few minutes before serving, add the finely chopped spinach. Then beat in the ice-cold butter and Parmesan. The risotto is relatively neutral in flavor, meaning the spinach adds a strong color but hardly influences the flavor. The green risotto can therefore be used as a base for a herb risotto. Before stirring in the butter and Parmesan, mixed green herbs, mint, oregano, or tarragon can be stirred in to taste; this can significantly alter the flavor. Mint, for example, goes well with fish, and finely chopped tarragon goes very well with chicken breast.