Red Ale Craft Beer Cheese Risotto

No one likes long stories preceding recipes right? Me neither. Arborio rice is a good companion for beer because it absorbs up the flavor in the liquid that plumps it up. So choose a good beer because you'll be tasting it. In this case, I went for a Broad River Red Ale from River Rat Brewery in Columbia, a clean red with a biscuity taste from the malts and no overpowering flavors. If you don't have River Rat available in your area, look for a red or amber ale with similar qualities and no fruits or coffee and no high IBUs to muddle up the taste.

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Red Ale Beer Cheese Risotto

Craft beer makes a delicious stand in for wine in making risotto, so go all in and pair the craft beer with the right cheese, and add some vegetables for a complete one pot meal.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian

Keyword arborio rice, cheese, craft beer, risotto

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 4 servings

Author April

Ingredients

• 1 quart vegetable broth
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 ½ cups Arborio rice
• 12 oz red ale I used River Rat’s Broad River Red
• 1 cup finely dined onion
• ¾ cup fined diced carrots
• ¾ cup finely diced celery
• 1 clove finely minced garlic
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard I used Sierra Nevada Stout mustard but it is not necessary
• 3 cups loosely packed sharp cheddar
• 1 tsp salt
• Black pepper to taste
• Parsley and cayenne pepper for garnish optional

Instructions

• Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large pot. In a smaller pot, put the vegetable broth in and heat over medium low heat.
• Add the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic and stir occasionally until the vegetables are soft, about four to five minutes.
• Add the rice and stir to coat with oil. Let toast slightly, keep an eye on them, stirring occasionally for three minutes.
• Pour in the beer, and stir to remove any clumps. Let the rice simmer in the beer.
• When the beer is mostly absorbed in the rice but isn’t dry, add warm vegetable stock, a cup at a time.
• Stir, and keep adding until all of the vegetable stock is in the rice. Meanwhile, you can be grating the cheese, but stir the rice frequently.
• Once most of the broth, but not all, has absorbed into the rice, remove from heat. Add in the mustard, stir in thoroughly.
• Add the cheese and fold it in well, it will begin to melt from the heat of the rice and vegetables.
• Salt and pepper to taste, serve hot.
• Garnish with parsley and cayenne if desired.

And this reheats quite well if you are the kind of person who takes their lunch to work and reheats it in a microwave! Enjoy!

We picked this up on our trip to Asheville last May, at an Ingles grocery store. SO GOOD. Now that this is empty, it's time for another trip to the mountains!