Low waste, low cost: Risotto with Spinach and Leek

This traditional Italian housewarming classic has all the features of a perfectly sustainable dish: vegetarian, low waste and low cost.

Follow our guide on how to make it for under 5 pounds, how to buy the ingredients with no package and to how to dispose them after use. 

Ah, Italian food...pizza, pasta, mozzarella, gnocchi, lasagne, everybody loves it!

But if you have ever spent some times with an Italian person, you would have noticed that we often point out that Risotto is one of the most "feels like home again" food.

Don't get me wrong, we do like pasta and pizza, but the process of slowly making risotto, seeing the creaminess create, seeing the ingredients all mixing together slowly, while gentle stirring them...priceless and really home feeling.

There are A LOT of risotto recipes and Italy has such wide regional diversity in term of cuisines that makes it difficult to pinpoint where specific risotto recipes originated from (apart from some classic such as Risotto alla Milanese - with saffron and bone marrow - and other few exceptions).

Risotto is made, traditionally, with varieties of rice that comes from the north west side of Italy, now cultivated nationwide and in many parts of the world.

Carnaroli, Arboreo and Roma are the most used varieties and can be found in most U.K. Supermarkets.

We use those kinds of rice varieties instead of the long grain ones (jasmine or basmati) because they remain harder and don't overcook easily. Risotto is not a soup and you do need to feel a little bit of crunchiness.

Today we are going to explore how to make one of Marco's favourite, using simple greens like spinach and leek.

This would typically be a dish from (but not exclusively) the North of Italy, where there is a more warm, earthy cooking style.

Spinach is available all year around, but is really abundant from late summer and early autumn.

Leek is also a very common vegetable, growing for most of the year.

The rest of the ingredients are staples in everyone's household: butter, salt, pepper, vegetable cube.

Easy, tasty and, of course, almost zero waste!

Ingredients

• 100g of risotto rice per person

• 1 Leek

• 1 Bag of (or bunch) baby spinach or normal spinach

• Vegetable cube

• Salt

• Pepper

• Butter for cooking (can be substituted with veggie spread)



Little note: in Italy we measure the portion for risotto in "fists", taking a fist of rice per person +1 (e.g. 2 people +3 fists).

I invite you to have fun and try, or you can use a scale and measure around 80/100g per person.

How to get the ingredients low waste/low budget

All of the ingredients can be easily found with almost no waste in local markets and big chain shops.

Traditionally, Risotto is cooked with stock prepared before, using carrots, onions and celery, but for a quicker version we used vegetable cube (although, if you really want to go zero waste, home made stock is the way!)

Risotto is usually sold in a cardboard box (like here) but often there is plastic inside (sneaky!). Otherwise you can buy risotto rice from a zero waste shop.

This time we have sourced our ingredients from the Tesco extra in Streatham which didn’t have spinach with no plastic, but those can easily be found in local markets (price check: two bunch of loose spinach for £1.50 at Brixton Market).

Price breakdown (2 servings) 

• (1x) Bag of Spinach £1.2

• (200g) Risotto Carnaroli GALLO £ 1.10 (2.75 x 500 g)

• (1x) Leek £ 0.60

• (60g) Butter £0.42 (1.79 x 250g)

• (1x) Vegetable cube £0.09 (0.90 x 10 cubes)

Legend:  Orange: recyclable    Green: zero waste if bought loose   Blue: bought in bulk to reuse

Total cost: £ 3.41 for two people!

Final wastage: 1 recyclable plastic spinach bag + 1 cube foil (unfortunately not recyclable)

Now let’s cook!

Step 1. 

Wash the spinach and the leek

Cut all the leak, including the green part. I love it as it gives an interesting texture because it stays a bit firm even when cooked. If you want, you can keep the base of the leek for regrowing (more on this soon)

That's the only preparation needed before starting cooking!

Step 2.

Add half the butter/vegetable spread to pot and turn on medium heat. 

When you start hearing bubbling, add the risotto rice. I know it seems a bit counterintuitive to add the rice first, but that is an important operation. We need to toast the rice so that it stays firm during the long cooking time of the risotto. Pay attention to not let it burn: it needs to turn golden but not brown (in Italian we say "indorare":: to make it golden).

Step 3.

Once the rice is golden, you can add the (washed) spinach and leek.

Stir firmly to mix the ingredients.

Some people will put a bit of white wine at this point, to sauté the mix and add a bit of flavour, but you don't need to if this is not your vibe or you don't want/can't use alcohol.

Step 4.

This is an important operation: now we need to add the stock (or cube = hot water) to the mix but we need to make sure that it is just about enough to cover the rice and vegetable. Too few and we risk burning, too much and we are creating a soup.

Step 5.

Now, we need to keep eyes, ears and tongue focussed on our risotto.

You need to see that the level of stock is going down and refill (with the same principle of step 4) if it is going down to much.

Meantime, our ears are making sure the risotto is bubbling (yes, you need to hear it... for me, is the sound of home and family and cozy evenings).

Our tongue is in charge of deciding if the grains are cooking well or not by try a bunch of them every now and then.

Step 6.

When our tongue decide that the rice is getting "al dente" crunchy but soft at the same time, we will stop adding any stock and let it evaporate. You will notice that, thanks to that, a cream of starch has formed, making the risotto creamy.

DO NOT add cream or other type of liquid milky thing to your risotto: you will make an entire nation upset (and you will spoil the texture of your risotto)!

Step 7.

Serve on a plate, add some parmigiano if you want and enjoy with family and friend for warm embrace. The favour should be delicate, smooth and uplifting, like home.

How to dispose after cooking

The spinach plastic bag can be recycle.

Check the bag of risotto rice, sometimes the hidden plastic is not even recyclable (aaarghh!)

The stock cube and butter peel are not recyclable, but there are quite few alternatives that are in recyclable plastic boxes, although a bit more pricey.

For the best low waste result, buy at zero waste shop and make the stock yourself!

Affordable. Achievable. Southstainable!