Mushroom and Sweet Potato Risotto

I'm trying to cut back on our grocery bill so I've been inventing with whatever I have in the fridge. Last night I looked in and found onions, carrots, sweet potatoes and mushrooms and a cup of arborio rice in the pantry. This turned out fantastic. It is low fat, yet oh so creamy.


Ingredients

1 tsp. Canola Oil
1 small onion, diced
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed
2 carrots, peeled and cut into same size chunks as sweet potato
6 white button mushrooms, sliced
Coarse salt
Freshly ground garlic pepper
Pinch of dried rosemary
1 C arborio rice
5 C chicken broth
Freshly grated parmesan

Instructions

Heat chicken broth in a pan and maintain a low simmer. Heat oil in large stockpot on medium heat. Add onion, sweet potato, carrots and mushrooms and salt and pepper to taste . Cook on medium heat until onions are translucent, stirring often and taking care not to burn the onions.

Add dry rice to vegetables and let brown, stirring often for 2 minutes. Add rosemary and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add 1/2 C of chicken broth to the stockpot and deglaze the pan, breaking up the frond (browned bits) from the bottom of the pot.

When the vegetables and rice have absorbed all the broth, add another cup of broth. Repeat this process, adding one cup of broth at a time, until all of the broth is gone and the rice and vegetables are soft. Stir often. You can leave the pot unattended for a minute or so, but much longer than that and you get scorching on the bottom. I usually set up shop in the kitchen with some task (usually loading the dishwasher and cleaning) while I'm stirring.

When rice is al dente, ladle into serving bowl. Sprinkle freshly grated parmesan cheese (I use the Pampered Chef rotary cheese grater) on top. Serve immediately.

4 out of 5 members of my family liked this dish. And the only naysayer didn't even try it!

ps I think I can use chicken broth in a vegetarian meal. But I just read that fancy chefs get annoyed when people call a meal vegetarian that has chicken broth in it. So Fancy Chef, I give you permission to substitute vegetable based broth.