This is a Jamie Oliver recipe which I have adapted, but you can find the original here. I tend not to cook with white wine, and I added a big dollop of sour cream for extra richness. I also upped the vegetables just because I prefer less rice to veggies. It makes the meal a little lighter.

Serves 2

Time: about 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 10g dried porcini mushrooms

• 1 small onion

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 stick of celery

• 250g asparagus

• 175g chestnut mushrooms or white mushrooms

• 2 tbsp sour cream

• olive oil

• 600ml vegetable stock or use 1 vegetable stock cube

• A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

• 30g parmesan

• 150g risotto rice

• 1 lemon

Instructions

1. About half an hour before you want to cook, soak the dried porcini mushrooms in a small bowl of hot water. They’ll soften and the water will become a deep brown colour.

2. Peel and finely chop the onion, garlic and celery.

3. Heat about ½ tbsp olive oil in a medium pot then add the onion and celery with a splash of water and gently cook for about 5 minutes.

4. Meanwhile snap the woody parts off the end of the asparagus stalks then chop the rest into long bitesize pieces. Roughly chop the mushrooms.

5. Finely chop the soaked porcini mushrooms and add to the pan along with the water they have been soaking in, there will likely be a little sediment at the bottom of the bowl which you should be careful not to pour in.

6. Bring the stock to the boil/add the stock cube to 600ml boiling water.

7. Place another smaller pan over medium heat with a dash of olive oil. Add the garlic, mushrooms and some salt and pepper and fry off gently until the mushrooms are soft.

8. Chop the parsley and add the stalks to the vegetable stock. Keep the rest of the parsley for later.

9. Add the rice to the larger pot that has the onions, celery, and porcini mushroom mix. Stir the rice in the pot for about 1 minute then start adding the stock, a ladeful at a time, frequently stirring. As the stock gets absorbed, add more until you have about a third of the stock left.

10. Once you have a third of the stock left, add in the asparagus and the cooked mushrooms. Keep adding in the stock and stirring often, you should start to see the mixture get quite rich and oozy and the rice should be cooked. Taste a little to test, it should be cooked but still retain a little bite.

11. Stir in a big dollop of sour cream, about 2 tablespoons and the grated parmesan cheese.

12. Season with salt and pepper then squeeze in the lemon juice and stir in the chopped parsley.

13. Dish the risotto up on your plate with extra parmesan and parsley sprinkled on top to serve.