Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto Rice

The result of a tomato, mozzarella and pesto panini crossed with tomato risotto as a quick energy and vitamin packed lunch after I went to the gym yesterday.

Most of the time I cook, I look to the fridge for inspiration. I try to come up with different meals that use up as many ingredients as possible or ingredients that are about to go out of date or generally when I am at home, ingredients that are tasty but too expensive for me to bother buying at uni.

This was some of the ingredients I found, a portion a rice and quinoa mixture that was cooked yesterday, a jar of pesto that has been open some time…  half a mozzarella, some tomatoes, an onion and some garlic and PINE NUTS!!! although I do give into buying these at uni, I absolutely love them and could put them in pretty much any dish so I have to ration them, but these are completely freee.

I also used some passata and coconut oil in the recipe but any oil would be fine, mum just bought a massive jar of it and doesn’t really like it so I thought I may as well take advantage of that too.

Method: to make one portion

1. Finely chop the onion, garlic and tomato (without the seeds, 1 because I do not like the texture and 2 because it will make it too watery. Leave the skins though because that is where a lot of the vitamins are concentrated according to my lecturer). For this I used a Pampered Chef food chopper for ease, speed and less mess to clear up-basically because I am lazy.

2. Heat a small sauce pan on the hop with 1tsp of coconut oil in. When the oil has melted add the chopped vegetables and leave to soften, stirring often. I toasted the pine nuts during this time. Just place them in a frying pan on a low heat, tossing them often to avoid burning-I didn’t manage this very well because I got distracted by my phone.

3. When the mixture looks vaguely like a baby food, add about 200 to 250ml of passata and one portion of rice. Stir until the sauce is bubbling then turn off the heat and add the mozzarella then serve. Put a spoon of pesto on top then sprinkle over the pine nuts.

Bon appetit

A perfect summer dish when you don’t like cold food.