Breakfasts, Dinners, Gluten Free, Lunches, Nuts, Thermomix, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Wholefood
Brown Rice Mushroom Risotto with Macadamia Cheese
Risotto is a family favourite around here, perfect for that quick meal when you can’t be bothered cooking. (At least, it is when you have a Thermomix.) But too much white rice is not a good thing, so I decided to try making a brown rice risotto the other day. It was delicious – nutty, full of flavour, and very filling. My family aren’t usually all that keen on brown rice, but they gobbled this up and asked for seconds! It takes a fair bit longer than regular risotto, but that’s not really a big deal when your Thermomix is doing all the stirring and cooking for you… you can just put your feet up and relax until it calls you for dinner.
I love to serve this macadamia nut ‘cheese’ with this risotto – it makes all the difference! The risotto becomes creamy and nutty and ‘cheesey’ – it’s a perfect match for the brown rice. Even if you usually enjoy parmesan on your risotto, try this and see what you think. You can also bake some pumpkin pieces and raw baby spinach to stir through once it’s cooked for extra flavour. Enjoy!
Note: You can find Fine sea salt, Aussie Kibble Pepper and Organic Garlic for this recipe in my online store!
- 1/2 a brown onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 30g ghee or extra virgin olive oil
- 200g sliced mushrooms (a mixture is nice)
- 350g brown rice
- 2 Tblspns vegetable stock paste
- 1100g water
- Chop onion and garlic in Thermomix for 3-5 seconds on speed 5
- Add ghee or oil and cook at 100 degrees for 3 minutes, speed 1
- Add the remaining ingredients and cook at 100 degrees for 50 minutes, reverse, speed 1 1/2 and a dash of truffle oil if you have some!
- Pour the risotto into your Thermoserver, stir through a couple of handfuls of baby spinach, and place the lid on to finish it off to a perfect consistency. Then rinse the bowl to make the macadamia 'cheese'.
- If you're in a hurry and can't be bothered nicely slicing the mushrooms, just chuck them in after you saute the onion and give them a quick chop on speed 3-4, just for a few seconds. That's what I did with the risotto in the photo.
- 1 cup of raw macadamias
- 1 Tblspn lemon juice
- 2 Tblspns savoury yeast flakes
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- Mix all ingredients in Thermomix on speed 6 for a few seconds, just until a crumbly consistency is reached. Don't overprocess, or you'll have cream cheese!
- To serve the risotto, stir through a couple of handfuls of the macadamia cheese, then sprinkle some on top of each individual serving. You can also stir through some small pieces of baked pumpkin, or serve alongside.
Hi there!
Please could you tell me approx how many people this recipe would feed? Thank you!
Hi Laura – This should feed 6 people, with a small side dish of salad or veggies. Remember risotto is pretty filling:)
i love this risotto, is there any way to sub in cauliflower for a grain free version?
Hi Geetha – no, I don’t think this would work with it being an all in one bowl meal. Sorry 🙂
Hi Jo. I am having friends over for dinner soon, one is vegan and another has diabetes. I can tell this is a vegan friendly dish, would it also be appropriate for a diabetic diet?
Just wondering if I can freeze this 🙂
It may dry out and not be the same texture so add more liquid when reheating.
How could I add in diced chicken breast to increase the protein content?
There’s a chicken and mushroom risotto in my blog maybe try that one instead 🙂
Is there any way to add chicken in for protein? Or is it best to steam and shred some chicken and add it in at the end?
You can add chicken in with the onions as they saute, about 200g, and reduce the rice by 100g.
Lovely! My whole family loved it! I also wanted chicken so I cooked 1kg seasoned chicken thighs in the Veroma above. Chicken was still partially frozen and I removed it about 10mins before the rice finished so it wouldn’t overcook. I sliced it and sprinkled the pieces over the rice, also adding in some baby spinach leaves. Yummo!
This was SO delicious! Even though I didn’t have macadamias (or any nuts, for that matter), it is exactly the perfect consistency, unfortunately I misread the instructions and so it burnt a bit, as I put it on Varoma temperature. I just LOVE your recipies! Thanks heaps, Jo!
Hi Jo – If i have pre soaked the rice would I just need to adjust the cooking time a little? Thanks, Mikaela 🙂
I haven’t tried this one with soaked rice, you’ll probably need less water and less cooking time but I’m unsure of the details, sorry.
Hi! So keen to try this for a quick lunch while at work. Does the risotto freeze and reheat well?
Yes! When you reheat it it’s best to steam it to keep it moist, you can do this in the Varoma.