This simple risotto dish is so delicious but really cheap to make. You’ll have to be strong willed not to eat up the whole lot, but you need to save some of it for another dish later in the week. Don’t worry it’ll be worth it.

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Day 4
Breakfast
Porridge or toast

Lunch
Coronation chicken or cheese sandwiches

Dinner
Roasted Carrot Risotto

Snack
Louise cake slice, fruit

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Roasted carrot risotto

Serves 4 with extra for lunches and Arancini

Ingredients for the risotto

2 litre of fresh, hot stock
Olive oil
1 onion, peeled and diced small
5 carrots, peeled and diced small and
500g Arborio risotto rice
A knob of butter
100g freshly grated cheese
Salt and pepper

Method

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat in a large saucepan.

Add carrots and stir with a wooden spoon until well coated.

Add 125ml water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the sugar then cover and cook 5 minutes until tender.

Uncover and carry on cooking for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until water evaporates and carrots are just starting to brown.

Tip the carrots in a bowl and with a stick blender, purée lightly with 150ml hot water.

Heat your stock either boiling a kettle for the stock cube or boiling your homemade stock in a pan.

Then fry your chopped onions gently for 15 minutes. Add the rice and turn up the heat to cook for a minute stirring so as not to burn it.

Add the stock a ladleful at a time and stir. You are looking for each ladleful of stock to be absorbed before adding the next. Don’t be tempted to stir the rice too much, you want the grains to cook but not break up.

The rice should take around 20-25 minutes to cook, with regular additions of stock and a little stir. The grains should still have a little bite to them and the dish itself will have become naturally creamy.

When the rice is cooked and creamy stir in the purée carrots then turn off the heat and let it rest a couple of minutes with a lid on,

Just before serving add the cheese and give it another stir to help it melt through the rice then season to taste.

Save back at least half of the risotto, you will need it for the Arancini.

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Coronation chicken for sandwiches

Ingredients

The rest of the chicken fillets which should be approx 100g boiled and diced
2-3 tablespoons of mayonnaise
2 teaspoons mango chutney
1/4 teaspoon curry powder (optional)
1/2 teaspoon Garam Masala
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon flaked almonds (optional)
1 teaspoon sultanas (optional)
Small handful of chopped coriander

Method

For the coronation chicken, firstly poach the chicken by putting the chicken strips in a pan of cold water then bring it to a boil, cover the saucepan and reduce the heat to low. Lightly simmer until the chicken is just cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove from the saucepan and let it cool before chopping into dice size pieces.

Mix the cooked cooled and diced chicken breast with the mayonnaise and mango chutney together with the curry spices. Season well and stir in some chopped coriander, flaked almonds and sultanas. Keep in the fridge until needed for Coronation chicken sandwich later in the week.

You can easily scale this up and use leftover roasted turkey or chicken, no need to boil then, just pick off the meat and add the rest of the ingredients.