I made this twice last week, and got so many requests for the recipe, that I bumped this post up so I could get it to you guys immediately! It's a wonderful side dish to steak, chicken, or pretty much any protein that you desire really. It also works well next to a salad, as a base for bowl, or just all by itself. Everyone that has tried this has loved it. It's super easy to make, and it's much healthier than your normal, run of the mill risotto.
My secret is that I use organic sprouted brown rice or wild rice (always choose organic!), instead of the white rice usually used in risotto that has no nutritional benefits. I also sub out butter and/or cream for ghee or coconut oil, depending on what you prefer. Instead of parmesan you can also use nutritional yeast, but this time around, I decided to go the cheese route. There is no replacement for good old, regular cheese people!
Feel free to add, subtract, sub, and do whatever you want to this recipe. It's a great one to experiment with! We actually doubled it (2 cups of rice instead of 1 cup serving that the rice package suggests) because we love having left overs (meal prep anyone!?). The recipe below is just an estimate of what I threw in the pot, but you really can't screw this one up. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
- 2 large sweet potatoes/yams
- Organic brown rice (or whatever rice you'd like to use)
- 1 small red onion (or half a large onion), chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1-2 tbsp ghee or olive oil
- 1/3 cup dry white wine
- Chicken broth (vegetable broth for vegan)
- Parmesan cheese (nutritional yeast for vegan)
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- Paprika
- Cinnamon
- Salt & pepper
Directions:
- Preheat over to 400 degrees.
- Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into 1 inch cubes. Put in a bowl, pour melted coconut oil over, and dust with paprika, cinnamon, and salt & pepper (I used a generous amount of spices since I like a lot of flavor). Toss in the bowl until the potatoes are evenly covered with the oil and spices.
- Place the sweet potato cubes on a baking sheet and put in the over for about 20-30 minutes or until lightly browned and soft.
- While the potatoes are cooking, you can start on the rice! In a medium sized pot, heat the ghee (or olive oil) over medium heat.
- Once it is melted and bubbling slightly, add the chopped onion and minced garlic cloves. Cook for a couple minutes until translucent/slightly browned.
- Add the rice to the pot (all of it). Stir and coat the rice fully with the butter/onion/garlic mixture. Cook for a minute or two. Cover the rice with the white wine and again, cook for a couple more minutes.
- Begin to add the broth to the rice about 1/2 cup at a time. Each time, you'll probably cook the rice for about 5-10 minutes in between pours. You're going to do this until the rice is fully cooked. I cooked about 2 cups of rice, so I used about 6 half cups of water total by the time I was finished.
- While the rice is cooking, we're going to mash the potatoes! I used a food processor, but if you don't have one, you could just use a potato masher or a fork. You want to get it as pureed and smooth as possible. I'll add a little bit of broth to them before pureeing just to help the process a bit.
- Finally, once the rice is cooked, add some parmesan cheese (or nutritional yeast), and stir well. Last step is to add the sweet potato puree.
- Mix everything together well and serve! You can also sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top to make it look nice. Let me know what you guys think below!
