Baked risotto with greens and peas
and a defense of cooking dinner
Welcome to To Vegetables, With Love, a celebration of a vegetable life, less ordinary. ‘ Find archived recipes on my recipe index.
My book Tenderheart is available from Books are Magic, Kitchen, Arts and Letters, Book Larder, Bold Fork Books and also here or here.
I love cooking dinner. Is that controversial to say? No matter how busy my day is or how little time I have, cooking dinner grounds me, a physical reminder to unwind and be present.
In modern food discourse, there is the common narrative that cooking dinner is hard, annoying, complicated, or a nuisance. Some assert that meals have to be ready in 15 minutes and use fewer than five ingredients in order to be suitable for our busy lives. Yet, generations before us have cooked with less wealth, less ingredients, and less resources than we have today.
For me, after a busy day, spending an hour creating a meal for my family, and perhaps more importantly, myself, is how I reclaim control. Cooking is daily self care and also the ultimate act of empowerment. Cooking dinner is not heroic or special, it is just life.
Are there days when I don’t want to cook? Of course. On those days, I will order take-out without an ounce of guilt. Or I will cook pasta and served with jarred sauce with zero shame. I will make Japanese curry with Golden Curry bricks and serve with pride. I will make Brooklyn Delhi’s genius cheats saag paneer (this is my version) and eat like a Queen.
But many people will still ask - how do you know what to cook? One of the first things I do is check what is in my fridge. Then I think about what type of dish I want - whether that be a “with rice” dish, a pasta or noodle dish, soup, or a lighter option such as a salad. During the week I try to mix it up so that we are not eating the same type of dish every night (aka pasta) so that thought process really informs what I cook. I still fall back upon my “repertoire”, the dishes that I can recreate without much thought, the ones that my family knows and loves, with ingredient lists that I can remember off the top of your head. A lot of the times, dinner is whatever recipe I’ve tested that day.
How do YOU decide what to cook and what are your weeknight staples? Let us know and share your insights in the comments.
This week, in celebration of dinner, I am so pleased to share a recipe from the new NYT Cooking book called Easy Weeknight Dinners by Emily Weinstein. Even though many of us are already huge fans and every day users of the app/website, the book is a handy and practical compendium of their best recipes - like a “greatest hits” album.
The best thing is, you can take this book into the kitchen without a need for your phone or a computer or a printer. As a cookbook lover, it hits differently.
While I was thrilled to find several of my NYT Cooking recipes in the book, I decided to share a recipe from a different developer today. This baked risotto with greens and peas by Kay Chun is creamy and hearty, but is lightened up by a copious amount of greens and peas. As the book title promised, it was very easy… And also very delicious.
COOK / EAT / SHARE
NYC LUNCH
If you are a paid subscriber, make sure you check out my midweek pop-up post here - I am hosting a FREE lunch for Substack paid subscribers on 26th October - there are only 12 seats at the table so submit an expression of interest and I'll pick names randomly.
THINGS TO COOK THIS WEEK
Monday: Lentil bolognese
Tuesday: Greek salad with gnocchi
Wednesday: Honey glazed mushrooms with udon
Thursday: Lemongrass tofu and broccoli
Friday: Kimchi and potato has with eggs
EVENT: PHILLY!
Join me in Philadelphia this October for a beautiful TENDERHEART-inspired dinner developed by Chef Tyler Atkins at the beautiful new Bastia in Fishtown. This event is part of the annual Cookbooks and Convos, a celebration of chefs, authors and the Philadelphia Food Community. Reserve your seats here.
🥦 My cookbook, Tenderheart is for cooking vegetables, all year round. Pick up your copy here. It is also mostly vegan (or vegan-izable) and gluten-free adaptable.
THIS WEEK’S RECIPE
Baked risotto with greens and peas
© Recipe by Kay Chun, excerpted with permission from Easy Weeknight Dinners by Emily Weinstein, Ten Speed Publishing 2024. The below recipe has been adapted by Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love.
Recipe headnote by Kay Chun: This easy baked risotto eliminates the constant stirring required in traditional risotto recipes. It’s laden with vegetables, namely kale and spinach, but other leafy greens like Swiss chard or collard greens would work equally well. If you happen to have some extra asparagus, sub it in for the peas. This risotto makes a great starter or side dish, but you can also turn it into a vegetarian main course by using vegetable or mushroom stock in place of the chicken broth, and topping it with sautéed mushrooms, a fried egg or crispy tofu slices. Leftovers can be refrigerated for two days and reheated with more broth, or repurposed into crunchy rice cakes or arancini. Simply form into patties or balls, coat in bread crumbs and shallow-fry until golden and crunchy.
Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped yellow/brown onion
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 cup Arborio rice (about 7 ounces / 200g)
Kosher salt and black pepper
4 ounces green or lacinato kale (about ⅓ bunch), stems separated and thinly sliced, leaves stacked and cut into 1/4-inch-thick ribbons (about 4 packed cups)
3 1/2 cups vegetable broth
4 ounces baby spinach (about 4 packed cups)
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
3/4 cup grated Parmesan (3 ounces), plus more for garnish
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Heat oven to 375˚F / 190˚C. In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, 1 minute. Add rice, season with salt and pepper, and stir until coated in oil and lightly toasted, 2 minutes.
Add kale, season with salt and pepper, and stir until wilted, 30 seconds. Add broth and bring to a boil over high heat.
Cover and bake until almost all of the liquid is absorbed and rice is tender, about 20 minutes.
Stir in spinach and peas until spinach is wilted. Add Parmesan, butter and lemon juice, and stir until well blended and saucy. (Liquid will continue to absorb as risotto sits.) Season with salt and pepper. Serve in bowls and top with more Parmesan.
Io Vegetables, With Love is dedicated to vegetables and it is a joy to bring you a new recipe every week. Thank you to everyone who subscribes, especially to paid subscribers who make this work possible.
Sometimes I'm grumpy at the beginning of the cooking process because I'm tired from the day, but I generally feel better a few minutes in and always feel better once I see what I've made! Cooking is kind in that way!
I’m with you — I love cooking dinner too. I find being in the kitchen comforting and the process of cooking supper meditative. Sometimes I have music on, sometimes it’s just me and my thoughts, but the best is when Katie’s sitting at the counter chatting. Those times are magic. How do I choose what to make? If there are new cookbooks on the counter I’ll make something from them or I’ll pull a favourite from the list (like you, there’s no room for guilt or shame either on those light/no cook days — it’s all good).