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In California winter can transition to spring in a flash. It seems like yesterday we were beset by chilly storms while the forecast for this week is all sunny and 70s.
Daffodils are blooming, as are cherry trees, and the truest test of spring, asparagus in the market can be found for less than $2 a pound.
I just couldn’t resist these at the market today, and cooked them up into a creamy risotto. This recipe is a classic asparagus risotto recipe.
You can easily dress it up with some lemon zest, lump crab meat, green onions, truffle salt, fresh thyme or chopped mint.
This risotto we’ve made on the loose side, which is why we are serving it in a bowl. When making risotto you get to decide how loose you want it. Just stop adding liquid when the risotto gets to the consistency you like!
Asparagus Risotto Recipe
If you want to make this a vegetarian dish, use vegetable stock or water instead of the chicken stock.
Ingredients
- About 4 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock for vegetarian option)
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
- 1/2 cup chopped shallots
- 1 cup arborio rice
- 1/4 cup dry white wine (or 1 Tbsp lemon juice and 3 Tbsp water)
- 1/2 pound asparagus, trimmed, tips cut off, tough skins of the spears peeled (if working with thick apparatus spears), and the spears cut into thin disks
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper
Method
1 Heat the stock: Heat the stock in a small saucepan until it comes to a low simmer.
2 Cook shallots in butter to soften, then add rice: In a separate 3 or 4 quart saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon butter on medium heat. Add the shallots and cook for a minute or two, until translucent. Add the arborio rice and cook for 2 minutes more, stirring until nicely coated.
3 Add the white wine: Add the white wine. Slowly stir, allowing the rice to absorb the wine.
4 Add the stock, 1/2 cup at a time, adding only after the previous addition has been absorbed by the rice: Once the wine is almost completely absorbed, add 1/2 cup of hot stock to the rice. Continue to stir until the liquid is almost completely absorbed, adding more stock in 1/2 cup increments. Stir often to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Continue cooking and stirring rice, adding a little bit of broth at a time, cooking and stirring until it is absorbed, until the rice is tender, but still firm to the bite, about 20-25 minutes.
5 Add the asparagus: With the last ladle of stock, add the asparagus. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes, until the risotto has absorbed the stock, but is still loose, and the asparagus are just cooked through.
Note the stock amount given is approximate. You may need a little more or less. If you end up needing more stock and you find yourself without, just use water.
6 Stir in the Parmesan, remaining butter, add salt, pepper: Turn off the heat. Gently stir in the Parmesan cheese and the remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Asparagus Risotto
Perfect as written! Thanks, Elise!
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So glad you liked them Melissa!
Loved it! (perfect as written)
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I wanted to make this tonight but realized we are out of Parmesan. Has anyone tried with a different cheese? We’ve made the original recipe and loved it!
Hi, Danielle! You could also use asiago or pecorino cheese. Any hard, aged cheese would work well. Enjoy!
use mascarpone! made it so creamy and sweet!!
Amazing and easy. We love risotto. This one is now in our favorite list. Rice was perfect. Asparagus just cooked right.
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I wish I had blanched the asparagus because it was undercooked, even the tips. Should I have waited until the height of the asparagus season? I added the asparagus halfway into the cooking process. If I had not, the asparagus would have been undercooked as to be inedible. No other reviewer commented on this. I’ve made asparagus risotto a dozen plus times. Maybe my asparagus was not fresh? It looked lovely.
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Hi Wendy, did you thinly slice the asparagus? It could be that you had some tough asparagus that just needed more cooking time. It should’t take more than a few minutes to cook the thinly sliced asparagus and the tender tips. In any case, thank you for your feedback! I’ve adjusted the recipe a little to make it more clear that the asparagus should be thinly sliced and that they should be cooked through by the end of cooking the risotto.
Hi, this was my first shot at Risotto and I was quite pleased. I added the asparagus in early as Wendy mentioned… when I had about 1.5 cups of broth left. It turned out just how I wanted it with just a bit of crunch. I would have to admit that my asparagus was probably twice as thick as in the picture of step 5 however. I also added extra parm (didn’t measure it out though). Thanks for the recipe.