The Lazy Cook Eats . . . Risotto from a Crockpot

Sure. Besides being a world class food grubber of the 'over at your house' variety, I'm also a very accomplished lazy cook. I love to eat, but the time it takes puts me into grasshopper mode (see the fable 'The Ant and the Grasshopper'). Spoiler alert: Industrious ant wins, carefree, hedonistic grasshopper starves.

Never fear, girlie will never starve as long as she has her garage full of appliances and cookware. The most useful being the pressure cooker my old friend Pamela Richard gave me back in the eighties and my crockpot. Yes, I still use that pressure cooker especially when I tire of stir-frying collards or kale or get an extremely unusual hankering to can something (usually peppers or hot sauce). For princess lazypants there has never been a more appreciated gift, but that's a different story.

This story is about good ol' crockpot and the recipe I found to make a no stir risotto with said utensil. I don't eat a lot of rice or risotto anymore, but when I do, its a fatty, starchy, fungal infused extravaganza; just to make it worth my dietary while. Today I was food-perving the web and ended up over at GalTime to find Camilla Saulsbury's No Stir Crockpot Risotto recipe.

I've changed it only by upping the garlic content, adding mushrooms to the mix and drinking the entire remaining pinot grigio I opened for the recipe. Enjoy. I certainly did.

No-Stir Sundried Tomato Risotto with Mushrooms

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 and 1/4 cups raw Arborio rice

1/2 cup dry white wine (try Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc)

3 and 1/2 cups low sodium vegetable broth

1/4 cup roughly chopped oil-packed sundried tomatoes (blot away the oil)

1/2 cup sliced baby bella  or cremini mushrooms

A pinch of crushed white peppercorn, to taste

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Add the rice, garlic and oil to the insert of the crock-pot, stir to coat. 

Stir in the white wine, broth, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes. 

Cook on HIGH for 2-3 hours (may take about 2 and 1/2 hours). 

Serve topped with the Parmesan cheese.

4 servings.

Approximate Nutrition per Serving (1/4 of recipe):

Calories 311; Fat 3.4g (poly 0.2g, mono 1.6g, sat 1.4g); Protein 7.7g; Cholesterol 3.1mg; Carbohydrate 67.3g; Fiber 4.1; Sodium 784mg)