Asparagus, mint & lemon risotto

Name: Asparagus, mint & lemon risotto
Cook time: 1 h 5 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 litre organic vegetable or chicken stock; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 large onion peeled and finely chopped; 4-5 sticks celery trimmed and finely chopped; 600 g risotto rice; 250 ml vermouth or dry white wine; 2 bunches asparagus woody ends removed and discarded; 700 ml organic vegetable or chicken stock; 50 g butter; 1 small handful Parmesan cheese freshly grated, plus a block for grating; 1 bunch fresh mint leaves picked and finely chopped; 2 lemons zest and juice of; sea salt; freshly ground black pepper; extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

Cook:1h 5min

This is such a simple, clean and delicious risotto. When buying asparagus, have a look around because there are lots of varieties available now - purple-tipped, white, thin straggly Japanese, wild Spanish and dozens of good locally grown English. In this recipe, the stalks are finely sliced to an inch below the tips - this will give you lots of flavour from the stalks and you'll then have those whole beautiful tips as a bit of a prize! There are variations on this risotto that I love to do, like sprinkling in a little picked crab or lobster meat or fresh, peeled prawns or sliced scallops - all of these work particularly well with asparagus if you fancy a little upgrade. (If you do decide to add any of these seafood suggestions, then reduce your Parmesan by half.)

Updated at: Thu, 11 Dec 2025 08:33:14 GMT