Barley Risotto

Still trying to get caught up on recipes...........here's one from Friday night........

Barley Risotto with Roasted Winter Vegetables

This is one of the dishes from the new Cooking Light that caught my eye. It doesn't exactly come together quickly, but it's well worth the effort. I'm not a big fan of parsnip, but my DH loves it, so I knew this was a recipe that he would be more than willing to try - he loves barley too. Not to disappoint DH, but I'd be inclined to use only one parsnip next time and up the cauliflower - parsnip is so strong that it threatens to dominate the entire dish. The colors are lovely - I highly recommend using an orange bell pepper if possible - it really lends the dish an autumnal feel (even if the title does say winter vegetables). In fact, between the flavors and the colors, I think this dish would make a great Thanksgiving side.

The pecans add a nice crunch and the parsley adds a welcome splash of green. The only modification I made, other than cutting down a bit on the parsnip, was to use vegetable stock - it really seemed better to keep this dish strictly vegetarian by not using chicken stock. This risotto did not turn out as creamy as a rice risotto - I decided to keep it as is, but you could probably add a bit more stock if you want a creamier result, or try adding it a little bit at a time as they do in traditional risottos to see if that technique produces a creamier risotto .

This would be a great dish to keep in mind when you have a smattering of vegetables that you're not quite sure what to do with - if you can roast it, you could probably use it in this risotto.