I haven’t really cooked in a week because of a midterm and have been eating salads and tons of protein everyday! Needless to say, I have been craving some sort of carb. I had some mushrooms in the fridge that I had been saving for either a mushroom pasta or risotto. I chose risotto tonight! Risotto is one of my fave dishes- rich, creamy, and definitely filling. Risotto is always so expensive at restaurants and usually because of the gourmet fancy ingredients such as truffle oil, wild mushrooms, and what not. My version is equally tasty and creamy. I thought the creaminess came from lots of cream and cheese, so it scared me away for awhile, but most of the creamy texture actually comes from starchiness of the grain itself! Risotto is typically made with Italian arborio rice, high in starch and cooking it releases this starch to create creaminess. I thought I had bought some, but when I came home, I realized I had Italian farro instead! I quickly looked up if I can remotely even make a risotto dish with it– turns out I can!  Farro is a wheat grain, so I bet it is slightly healthier than arborio. It is definitely less starchy, but definitely not enough for the end dish to lose creaminess. Try it yourself with either arborio or farro!

Ingredients:
1 8oz pack of crimini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup shitake mushrooms [dried or fresh]
1/4 cup chives, chopped fine
1 8oz bag of farro [I used Trader Joe’s 10 minute farro] OR 1 8oz bag of arborio rice
2 cans chicken broth
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
1/2 cup Chardonnay
1 1/2 tbsp butter
olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Pour chicken broth into pot. Heat on medium.
2. In a pan, heat olive oil, saute garlic, mushrooms [crimini and shitake], and chives.

3. Add 1/4 cup heated chicken broth into the mushrooms. Let simmer until broth goes away. Set aside
4. In a medium size pot, heat butter on medium heat. Saute shallots until translucent.
5. Add farro rice to shallots. Stir around so farro is coated with the butter.
6. Add 1/2 cup Chardonnay into farro mixture. Simmer until liquid goes away.

7. Add 1 cup at a time of chicken broth to farro mixture. Simmer until liquid is gone. Repeat until broth is all used. Stir occasionally.

8. Once farro is done, mix 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese and mushroom/chive mixture with the farro.
9. Serve!