A delicious light vegetarian meal to welcome sping! Or, serve this Caramelized Carrot Risotto as a side dish for a larger meal. Want to make more? Use the servings slider to easily adjust the servings amounts.
1tablespoonfinely chopped flat-leaf parsleyplus 1 tablespoon for garnish
1teaspoonroughly chopped fresh thyme
1/8teaspoonwhite pepper
Instructions
Grate carrots using the grater attachment of a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, grate on the large holes of a box grater, or chop finely into even dice.
Heat 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp butter over medium heat in a medium heavy-bottomed pot; add carrots and stir with a wooden spoon until well coated. Add 1/2 cup water, 1/2 tsp salt, and the sugar; cover and cook 5 minutes, or until tender. Uncover and cook, stirring occasionally, until water evaporates and carrots are just starting to brown, a few minutes more. Reserve half of the carrots. In a blender, purée other half with 3/4 cup hot water.
Bring vegetable broth to a simmer and keep at a simmer, covered, over low heat.
Heat remaining oil and butter over medium heat in same (unwashed) pot used for carrots. Add onion and cook until beginning to caramelize, about 8 minutes. Add rice, stirring with a wooden spoon to coat rice with oil, 1 minute. Add wine and cook, stirring, until wine evaporates. Add carrot purée and cook, stirring, until mixture no longer looks soupy.
Add 1/2 cup hot broth, stirring often, until rice absorbs most of the liquid. Repeat process, adding 1/2 cup broth at a time and stirring often till each addition is absorbed before adding the next, until rice is al dente (about 20 minutes; at least 1 cup broth will remain).
Fold in reserved carrots (save 2 tbsp for garnish), mascarpone, Parmesan, 1 tbsp parsley, and the thyme. Add up to 1 cup broth (1/4 cup at a time) to loosen the risotto. Season with salt and white pepper to taste. Sprinkle each bowl of risotto with remaining 1 tbsp parsley, and reserved carrots. Serve immediately.