Saintly Seafood and Saffron Risotto

Risottos are creamy, gooey affairs full to bursting with cheeses and cream and butter and take hours of standing over to keep them topped up with stock and wine so hardly anyone ever cooks a risotto at home. I'm pretty sure no one cooks a risotto mid week at the very least! Well not only is this risotto completely dairy free it is super easy and super quick! This is a regular on our mid-week menu. We love authentic paella and this is as close as you can get without a paella pan, a big enough burner and a Spanish Mama.

Nutritional Facts: 
Calories: 350
Fat: 10.5g
WW PP: 8.5
Carbs: 46g
Sugar: 3.8g
Fibre: 3.1g
Protein:14.7g
Serves: 4 

Prep time: 15 minutes.
Cooking time: 38 minutes.


Ingredients:
1 tbsp Flora Cuisine
1 onion peeled and finely chopped
8 slices chorizo roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves peeled and grated
225g risotto rice
225ml white wine (Lidl do a 255ml bottle of South African Chenin Blanc for €1.79. It's not the best for quaffing but cheap and perfect for cooking of course if you want to get a big bottle make sure it's something you're gonna drink)
600ml chicken stock
Pinch of saffron (expensive for the tiny amout you get but it's essential to the flavour)
Large pinch of smoked paprika
2 garlic cloves whole (seperate from above for frying the seafood with)
100g king prawns (fresh or frozen - Fresh is always best but if you're on a budget this is still delicous with frozen prawns)
100g mussels (fresh or frozen as above)
1 medium squid or a handful of squid rings(clean squid and cut into pieces)
small bunch of fresh flat leaf parsely


Method


1. Preheat the oven to 180C (160 for fan assisted). Warm 1 tsp of flora cuisine in casserole dish  or pyrex dish. ( I just used a 9 inch square baking tray and it was fine) Chuck in the onions and chorizo. sauté them over a lowish heat for  8 minutes or until the onions have softened and the chorizo has released all of it's oill and coloured a bit.  ( I bet you will want to eat it at this stage) Add the garlic and fry for a further minute. 


2. Stir through the rice (Don't worry you don't have to do anything to it before hand) and fry for a minute, then pour over the wine and stock. I like to maybe just add 400ml of stock at this point and reserve 200ml to add about 10 minutes into baking as you may not need the entire 200ml. It all depends on how gloopy you like your risotto. Sprinkle in the saffron and a good bit of smoked paprika. Then pop the lid on your casserole dish or just tin foil over the top of whatever you are using amd pop it in the oven for 25 minutes. Like I said at 10 minutes add some more stock and stir through.


3. The rice should have absorbed most of the liquid but will still be a bit gloopy. Toss the seafood in the remaining olive oil and add these with the two cloves of garlic to a hot frying pan. It will only take a couple of minutes to cook or heat these through (depending on if you bought raw or cooked seafood) just make sure they are hot all the way through. You will probably get some water coming out of these so drain them before stirring them into the risotto. Finally add the parsely and stir before serving with a flourish of parsely. 


Note:


Rice expands in your stomach, so it may not look like much in the bowl but give it 15 minutes and you will be feeling full.



I didn't add any salt to this dish as there is plenty in the stock but it can be added as this stage if you feel the need. try to opt for low sodium if you can. If you are more of a paella than risotto person just add 300-400ml of stock for a dryer consistency.


If you're not into seafood try this will chicken instead.


A 125ml glass of the white wine you may have left over will go beautifully with this meal and will add only 85 cals to your total...sure go on...treat yourself...you deserve it.