Immune boosting

#4 Buckwheat risotto with asparagus and spinach

Since I was a child we would walk across the landscapes with my family in Sardinia during spring and late summer foraging wild asparagus. You would have hoped that nobody went there before yourself to harvest them all. And whenever one found a few would shout ‘two, three’ and so on, and your foraging companion would reply back with their numbers — it was like a challenge to prove who had the sharpest eyes!
I recently went to Sardinia and I brought a friend from London with me. We found so many asparagus that we renamed the place “The Asparagus Paradise”.

But luckily it is all a paradise in London if you wish to say so, we don't need to forage asparagus anymore as the grocery shops stock them all year round.

This is another variation of a tradition Italian primo piatto: risotto.
Giulia and I cooked buckwheat by following the exact same step you would follow to cook a regular risotto. We used buckwheat instead of rice as the first grain is high in fibre, phytonutrients and minerals such as copper and zinc. Low levels of zinc are linked to a weak immune system, therefor it is extremely important to increase consumption of zinc during winter months.

We picked asparagus for its distinctive flavour and because this vegetable —together with onion that in Italy is the base for almost every primo piatto— is packed with quercetin. Quercetin is a plant-compound that can help protecting the body from free-radicals, inflammation and viruses, on top of modulating the immune system.

Another great vegetable we added to the risotto is spinach which contains high levels of vitamin C and beta-carotene, also essential to our immune system and general health.

Buckwheat risotto with asparagus and spinach

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 2 serves 

INGREDIENTS

STOCK
600ml water
1 vegetable stock cube

RISOTTO
140g buckwheat
100ml white wine
1/2 onion finely chopped
130g asparagus
20g butter
40g baby spinach leaves
a handful of parsley
5 twists of black pepper
sea salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS
Bring some water to the boil and then break 1 vegetable stock cube into 600ml of water.
Chop the asparagus into pieces of about 1 inch long.

Heat the butter in a shallow saucepan over a medium flame. Add 1 finely chopped onion, then fry for about 5 mins until is translucent.
Tip the buckwheat groats into the pan and cook for 1-2 min. Pour over the white wine and boil until the alcohol fully evaporates.

Keep the pan over a low heat and pour in half of the vegetable stock. After about 5 minutes stir in the previously chopped asparagus, season with salt and pepper and continue to cook.

Simmer the buckwheat, stirring often. When it has absorbed all the liquid, add another splash of stock again and continue to simmer and stir.
Continue stirring until the buckwheat is cooked and the water fully absorbed. If it is still undercooked, add more water.
Take the pan off the heat, add in a handful of chopped parsley leaves.

Cover and leave for a few mins to cool down so that the rice can take up any excess liquid as it cools a bit.