Rice-zotto

A friend of mine told me about this great side dish that added grated zucchini and cheese to cooked rice and it tastes like Risotto! I had to try, not only is risotto my husband’s favourite food, but it’s a complete pain to make and this sounded healthier and easier.

I looked up a few recipes two years ago when I started making this, mixed a few together and came up with this! It’s so easy to make because you can use fully cooked rice, mine if straight from my rice cooker, but whatever method of cooking rice you use will work.

This is a fantastic side for a group. It serves 8-12 as a side dish or is fantastic under pork tenderloin or a roast! It has great structure so on those days you want impress, it makes fancy presentation easy!

Rice-zotto

Make 4-6 meal portions or 8-12 side portions

• 2 1/2 cups uncooked rice of your preference(I used white Calrose rice)
• Water appropriately measured to cook the kind of rice you selected
• 2 Tbs butter
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 4 cups of shredded zucchini(about four mini zucchini or one large one)
• 1/2 to 1 cup Parmesan cheese(depending on the grate- the finer it’s grates the less you’ll need, I used big flakes so it took 1 cup measured)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Make your rice as you prefer, I like to make mine in my rice cooker. In the dish pictured I used white rice, but I’ve made this many time with brown rice. Just before the rice is done cooking, melt the butter on low, in a large saucepan. Add the minced garlic and sauté until fragrant, but not browned.

A few minute before the rice is fully cooked, and is still a little damper than you prefer add to the butter and garlic mixture in the pan. Turn the heat to low- medium. Add the shredded zucchini and stir. Keep stirring until well mixed. Add the Parmesan cheese and continue to stir and cook until the rice cheese is melted, rice is creamy and zucchini has softened and lightened in color. Remove from heat, add salt and pepper to taste, or if you really want to impress drizzle a little truffle oil! Enjoy!

Jess