Spanakorizo (A Greek Spinach Risotto)

evelyn/athens's Note:

One of our favourite vegetarian (ladera) meals.

• Total Time: 45 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 ½ lbs spinach, cleaned, stemmed, torn or 1 ½ lbs cut into smaller pieces and washed in several changes water
• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 cup chopped spring onion (white and green)
• 1 small onion , chopped
• 1 leek , chopped (optional)
• 1 ¼ cups rice , short-grain is best (or use Arborio, but at a pinch, you can use converted. I often make it with brown rice for more fibe)
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
• 3 cups water
• salt
• fresh ground black pepper

Serve with

• feta cheese
• kalamata olive
• crusty bread

Directions:

1. In a deep pan heat oil and gently fry onion and leek (if used) until soft.
2. Wash (or soak if necessary depending on what kind of rice you use) rice, drain and add to onion.
3. Cook for five minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Add remaining ingredients and bring to the boil.
5. When boiling add the spinach, stir well and cover.
6. Reduce heat and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes or so (longer if using brown rice).
7. Remove from heat.
8. Leave tightly covered and allow to stand at least 1/2 an hour before serving.
9. Serve with feta cheese, kalamata olives, crusty, peasant-style bread, a glass of wine and you'll think you're in Greece!

Reviews

[ekives]

Great and easy, really tastefull. I used lime juice (that's what I can get here in razil), jasmine rice and sardo cheese, it turned out a little too acidic, but great. Next time I'll cut the lime juice.

[Geema]

I close my eyes and I'm in Greece while I eat this delicious risotto. I used the Arborio rice for this dish and was thrilled to discover that I could make a risotto without standing for a half hour of more, stirring and adding broth to my rice. It came out exactly right...creamy. I add the feta, and think it added a wonderful dimension, but my husband doesn't care for it and left it out. I'm keeping this recipe to make some other risotto variations using the same proportions, since it turned out so well.

[Kumquat the Cat's friend]

I really liked the combination of lemon juice and dill in this, as it gave it a distinctive taste. We served it with feta cheese. Kalamata olives would have been good too but we didn't have any. My only comment would be to add the spinach a little later in the cooking process because I felt it came out a bit slimy. Also, we thought the amount of olive oil was excessive so we reduced it substantially.:) Thanks evelyn!