Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Risotto

This is the 500th post from Vegetarian & Cooking! and I cannot believe that we're already halfway to 1,000. This post comes at the perfect time because we have a lot of exciting things coming up as we move into Thanksgiving, Christmas and the two year anniversary of us starting this blog. In the meantime, check out the Milestones tab above to see all of our other milestone blogs and features.

This recipe was really popular on my Pinterest board, Recipes to Try and the photos from the original were stunning. Also, in my opinion you cannot go wrong with risotto, it is always absolutely delicious and the leftovers are a great thing to take to work for lunch.

Other risotto recipes: Tomato & Spinach Risotto, Corn Risotto, Champagne Risotto and Butternut Squash Risotto.

From the blog Sheer Luxe.

Ingredients: 
-1 small onion, diced
-2 cloves of garlic, minced
-Two tablespoons of butter
-1 1/4 cup of risotto rice
-1 cup of white wine
-4 cups of vegetable broth, heated
-Jar of roasted red peppers, drained
-Chunk of Parmesan, grated
-Splash of cream
-Handful of spinach, wilted
-Wedge of goat’s cheese

Melt butter in a large skillet, saute the garlic and onion over medium heat for about five minutes.

Stir in the arborio rice, coating with the onion, garlic and butter.
Pour in the wine, stirring until absorbed.
Slowly ladle in the hot vegetable broth, stirring until absorbed each time.

Once the last ladle of  stock has been added, drain the oil from the jar of roasted red pepper. Puree in a blender and add into the risotto with a splash of cream and some Parmesan. 

Serve the risotto with chunks pieces of goat cheese and topped with wilted spinach. 

To eat mix in the goat cheese and spinach into the risotto. 

Always a pretty presentation with such striking colors.

The roasted red pepper flavor was really strong in this, that made my mom not like it. I really enjoy roasted peppers and I thought this was fantastic. There was a nice depth of flavor to the risotto, the goat cheese was a nice creamy balance to the rich flavor of the roasted red pepper. The spinach added color and some additional texture to the risotto. The leftovers were good for lunch the next day.

This is something that would be great for a dinner party or for a nice date. There is nothing more impressive than when your date cooks a nice meal for you!

Roasted Red Pepper Cheese Dip

I mentioned in my posts of the Veggie & Cheese Bagel and Bonfire Eclairs that we spent last weekend at Becky's lake house. We thought there was a blender and there was not a blender so this recipe changed from the original, but I think overall I think it was a success. We served this recipe as a light lunch with the Grilled Cheese Wheel recipe because all of the bread/vegetables could be used for both. 

Adapted from Life as a Strawberry. 

Ingredients: 

-1 red bell pepper

-1/4 cup ricotta cheese

-1/4 cup goat cheese

-salt and pepper to taste

-parsley for garnish 

-baguette slices and veggie sticks, for dipping

To roast the red pepper, cook it on high on the grill, turning until the skin is charred.
Make sure to poke the pepper with a knife, too much steam could build up.
If you're cooking inside follow these instructions. 

The pepper charring process took about 10 minutes.
Toast the sliced baguette at the same time. 

Make sure all of the sides look like this. 

Put the roasted red pepper in a covered bowl and let steam.
The skin should remove easily.

Remove the seeds and give the pepper a rough dice.
Stir into the cheeses.

Top with parsley. 

Serve. 

I think this recipe would have been better if it was blended like the original called for, but this still tasted good. There was a lot of chopped pepper throughout the dip and it wasn't difficult to get a piece of the pepper onto a piece of baguette or celery. Overall, this was a success this would be good for a summer party.

Roasted Red Pepper & Feta Scones

Bread that doesn't require yeast? Sign me up! I fell in love with this recipe when I saw it on Pinterest because it was so different from everything else that I typically see. Another great thing about this recipe was that I already had most of the ingredients on hand, for me that always makes for a good recipe because I hate going to the grocery store. I served this with pasta (I know, carb overload), it would also be good served with some soup, chili or a salad.

The original recipe is from Joy the Baker.

Ingredients:
-4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 tablespoon sugar
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
-1 large egg, beaten
-1 3/4 cup buttermilk, cold
-1 cup coarsely chopped roasted red peppers*
-heaping 1/2 cup coarsely crumbled feta cheese
-1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

To make roasted pepper, cut one in half and remove the seeds and membranes.
Broil until the skin is blackened. 

Place in a bowl covered with plastic for 5-10 minutes until skin is easily removable.
Remove all of the skin from the peppers and give them a rough chop.

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl, thoroughly mix in the cold butter until there are pea sized pieces of flour coated butter throughout.

Add the buttermilk and an egg.

Add the roasted red peppers and feta.

Place the loaf in an olive oil coated skillet or pie pan.
Top with black pepper.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the top is golden brown at 425.

I was disappointed with this recipe, but it was entirely my fault. I did not have a pie pan or a cast-iron skillet handy (that is always a problem in J.'s college kitchen) so I used his roommates wok which was oven ready... as a result my bread was too dense and it was impossible to get it cooked through in the center. I ended up slicing the bread into pieces and trimming out the uncooked dough because there was no way I could put it back in the oven without burning it, because I had already put it back in a few times.

Overall good flavor, it was a great savory bread! Just make sure to use an appropriate sized pan so your loaf is not too dense.