Mushroom and Sun Dried Tomato Steel Cut Oat Risottto

While this recipe from OATrageous Oatmeals: Delicious & Surprising Plant-Based Dishes From This Humble, Heart-Healthy Grain called for traditional steel-cut oats, you can make it with the fast cooking version. I adapted Kathy’s recipe and added in a bit more vegetables, as I prefer a heavier focus on them. This is an excellent base recipe, that you can keep vegan, vegetarian or add meat to as well. The more vegetables added, the farther it stretches. Serve with some crunchy chips or crackers on the side….

Mushroom and Sun-Dried Tomato Steel-Cut Oat Risottto

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 sweet onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 ounces mushrooms, minced
• 1 bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• ¼ tsp dried rosemary, crumbled
• 1 cup steel-cut oats
• 2 Tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, minced
• 4 to 5 cups lower sodium vegetable broth
• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (or Parmesan cheese for non-vegan)

Directions:

In a heavy put heat over medium, add in oil and onion, cook until translucent. Stir in garlic, mushroom, bell pepper, and herbs. Saute the veggies for 5 to 20 minutes, until the mushroom have browned and released their juices.

Add in the oats, stir in. Saute until lightly toasted, about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add in tomatoes and 1 cup of the broth. Simmer over medium heat, stirring often.

Once the broth has been mostly absorbed, add in a second cup and keep stirring. Repeat with the next 2 cups.

Try a small bite, are the oats tender? If not stir in the final cup of broth, and cook till absorbed.

Take off the heat, season to taste with pepper and salt, and stir in the nutritional yeast (or Parmesan).

Serves 4 to 6.