Mushroom risotto with garlic and mushroom bruschetta (vegan option)

A while ago I went to Manchester's Food & Drink festival and picked up a jar of mushroom and garlic bruscetta topping from Francas.

Francas is actually a Italian pizza takeaway in Bolton, but they also do a lot of local food festivals selling their authentic pizzas and Italian ingredients.

I've been meaning to use this for ages, so when I get some mushroom with this week's veg box I decided a risotto was a good idea.

First of all, I made a quick stock using Abel & Cole's 'Stock and Roll recipe', this is really easy and as with any stock, you can use anything you have to hand. This time I used onion, celery and carrot plus a few cabbage leaves and the stem part of a used broccoli.  This resulted in quite a dark green stock!

My new food processor which I received as a Birthday present from The Boy really helped with the stock recipe!

For the risotto itself, I used a basic risotto recipe, and then added the bruscetta spread near the end.

1. Sizzle an onion in butter or oil (I used Suma Sunflower Spread) until tender
2. Add around 50g of risotto rice per person and cook for a few minutes.  Add in sliced mushrooms
3. Add a glass of vegan/ vegetarian white wine and let the rice absorb it.
4, Add a ladle of warm stock.
5. Set timer for 20, add the stock to the risotto a little at a time until the time is up.
6. Add cheese, or as I did add a bit of bruscetta topping and a sprinkling of pine nuts!

The lady at the festival gave me a tip when I bought the spread: when you've opened it and used it, cover the remaining spread with sunflower oil- it makes it last longer and infuses the oil!