Vegan Recipe: Oven Baked Red Pepper & Sun Dried Tomato Risotto

I bought some risotto rice ages ago and had big plans to add it to my repertoire. Everyone says how easy it is and that it's really versatile and blah blah blah. So I get the bag home and whip out my recipe book and suddenly realise that traditional risotto requires a lot of stirring. Like a whole lot. Like a where is Sweet Brown when you need her because I shouldn't have to tell you that ain't nobody got time for all that stirring, amount of stirring. And I did remember being at college with an Italian room mate who made risotto once and watched him stir it for what seemed like days. He made it look so simple, but he didn't leave that pan alone for a second.

So I procrastinated. For months. And every time I opened my cupboard, that bag of rice was starring at me like 'Whatcha gonna do?', 'What's that matter? You afraid of a little bag of grain?'.  ENOUGH, I thought. There must be a way to do this and keep my sanity - though I was already talking to vacuum packed food at this point.

Enter oven baked risotto. The no fuss, simple, one stir cousin of the traditional method. I made this recipe this afternoon and it was delicious first time - which is exactly what we like. It took me about 10mins to prep then I popped it in the oven and wandered off to check my Twitter feed. Came back gave it a stir. By the time I had retweeted the latest raw vegan smoothie in a mason jar, it was ready to eat. That's 30mins from start to finish. Now that I can do!  

But it's not all about convenience, this risotto was off the charts. The sweetness of the peppers and the tang of the sun dried tomatoes makes for a beautiful combination that tastes as good as it looks.

Oven Baked Red Pepper & Sun Dried Tomato Risotto

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 finely chopped yellow medium onion
4 sliced garlic cloves
1 finely chopped red pepper
1 cup of chopped sun dried tomatoes (about 15 slices)
2.5cups or 600ml of vegetable stock
250g risotto rice
pinch pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1. On the stove top, cook finely chopped onions and sliced garlic in olive oil until soft in an oven safe pan.
2. Add coarsely chopped red pepper and sun dried tomatoes to the pan and mix well. Add rice to the pan and cook for 1 minute.
3. Add vegetable stock to pan, stir through, cover and place in the oven for 20 minutes, stirring once in between. 
4. Season with pepper and vinegar to taste and serve.

And that's kind of it. Really simple right? Enjoy!