Share the Love With This Valentine's Day Heart Beet Risotto

Valentine’s Day may be cleverly disguised as an exclusive holiday for couples, but it’s really every foodie’s favorite opportunity to eat as much pink-colored food as possible. Whether you decide to cook for a special someone or to cook for yourself, you can’t go wrong celebrating a cheesy holiday with a cheesy recipe. The ooey-gooey beet risotto is studded with bites of bright red beets, which infuse the dish with their lovely hue. Roasting the beets first takes a bit longer than boiling them, but it gives them a much sweeter, more complex flavor. Besides being packed with vitamin C, folate and manganese, beets are also known to be a natural aphrodisiac, making them must for any Valentine’s Day menu.

No matter who you may be making this beet risotto for, cooking a meal from scratch is an act of love in itself, and especially when it requires this much stirring.

Beet your heart out!

Heart Beet Risotto

• Prep Time:10 mins
• Cook Time:50 mins
• Total Time:1 hr
• Servings:2
• Medium

Ingredients

• 3 peeled beets
• 1 cup rice arborio is the best but short grain brown rice also works
• 1 small yellow onion chopped
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• Coconut or olive oil
• 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons butter

• Step 1

  Preheat the oven to 400º F.

• Step 2

  Cut beets into quarters and then into eighths so that they are bite size. You can also use a cookie cutter to make a few hearts to serve on top of the risotto.

  

• Step 3

  Put beets in a bowl and toss them with just enough melted coconut oil to coat them. Use some more oil to cover the baking dish so that they won’t stick.

• Step 4

  Place the beets into the baking dish and bake them for about 40 minutes, or until they are nice and tender. Make sure to take them out every 20 minutes or so and give them a good stir.

  

• Step 5

  Bring the vegetable broth to a boil. Lower the heat and keep it to a simmer.

• Step 6

  Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a sauce pan and add the onions.

  

• Step 7

  When the onions are golden and translucent, add the rice to the sauce pan. Stir the rice for a minute or two to mix it with the oil and onions. Add in the beets and lower the heat.

  

• Step 8

  Add a ladle full of hot vegetable broth to the rice and make sure to stir it well so that it does not stick to the pot.

• Step 9

  When the rice has absorbed all the liquid, add another ladle of broth. Continue this process until the rice has stopped absorbing it or until the broth is all used up.

• Step 10

  If the rice is still too al dente for your taste, boil up some more broth and keep adding it until it reaches the desired consistency.

• Step 11

  Turn off the heat and stir in the butter and Parmesan cheese.

• Step 12

  Sprinkle some more Parmesan onto each plate and serve warm.