Baked Tomato, Mackerel & Chickpea Risotto with Pea Puree

Kathryn at Limes & Lycopene is having a pantry challenge, challenging fellow bloggers to product a healthy meal from a list of 15 ingredients that she feels that most of us will already have in our cupboards, fridges and freezers. I am hugely excited by this, I certainly have most of the items on the list in my kitchen most of the time and I am looking forward to seeing what other foodbloggers come up with, and what ideas and inspiration I will get for those evenings when I think that I have nothing to eat and end up phoning for a takeaway.

Kathryn’s 15 Foods Are:-

1 Olive oil

2. Tinned tomatoes

3. Tinned legumes or beans

4. Soy sauce

5. Frozen vegetables

6. Flour

7. Pasta

8. Tinned fish

9. Eggs

10. Rice

11. Bread

12. Vinegar

13. Fresh onions

14. One spice or spice mix

15. One dried herb or herb mix

When presented with a list like this my immediate thoughts turn to all sorts of dishes that use everything PLUS ONE OTHER not allowed ingredient. For some reason I was desperate to be allowed to include lemon in my recipe; but Kathryn’s rules were very firm on this point.

“You don’t have to use all the ingredients but your recipes must only use these foods. No tweaking the list and no adding in extra sneaky ingredients”

So that would be a no to the lemon then…

I eventually came up with a simple (chuck it in the oven) baked tomato risotto with mackerel and chickpeas, with a pea puree for a splash of colour. I have to confess that there was one cheat here in that my chickpeas were from my freezer rather than from a tin, but the recipe would work equally well with tinned chickpeas, I just prefer to cook mine from dried than buying tins.

Baked Tomato, Mackerel & Chickpea Risotto with Pea Puree (Serves 2)

For the Risotto

½ large onion – chopped finely

glug olive oil

4oz/100g (half a cup) risotto rice

½ tin chickpeas – drained and rinsed

1 tin tomatoes – roughly chopped

1 small tin mackerel – drained well

Soy sauce

Mixed herbs

For the Pea Puree

½ onion

4oz/100g (half a cup) frozen peas

1tbs olive oil

To make the risotto fry the onion in the olive oil over a low heat until it starts to turn golden, add the risotto rice and fry until the rice is translucent. Place in an oven proof dish. Add the chickpeas, and mackerel (breaking the flesh up) and a tin of tomatoes. Add a good glug of soy sauce and a sprinkling of mixed herbs and give it a rough stir. Top the dish up with boiling water so all the rice is covered and bake for about 25 mins at GM54/180C/350F checking from time to time and adding more water if needed.

Just before the risotto is ready, fry the other half of the onion and when it is soft add the peas to the pan together with an egg cup full of water. Allow the peas and onions to simmer until the peas are defrosted and most of the water evaporated. Blitz with the olive oil in the food processor until they are a smooth puree, seasoning with pepper and salt to taste. Serve immediately on top of the risotto.