Almost French Onion Soup Risotto

Sunday night when J and I returned from our weekend away, the last thing we wanted to do was battle crowds at the grocery store which would have been even more crowded than usual for a Sunday night due to the bad weather in the forecast.  

Instead, we took stock of what we had available to us (white wine, Gruyere cheese left over from this recipe, arugula, onions and risotto) and decided to make our old faithful: risotto.

We followed the same basic steps (and used the same basic ingredients) as outlined in these risotto recipes but made a few changes.

1. We used four cups of water for three bouillon cubes to cut down on the salt in the dish, which really worked!
2. We used grated Gruyere as the cheese of choice
3. We caramelized half of an onion in the following manner:  Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a small skillet.  Add onions and salt and pepper.  The salt will help draw out the moisture in the onions, which is good for caramelization.  Once they start to turn golden brown, add one to two tablespoons of brown sugar.  Stir occasionally until the onions brown and caramelize.  Remove from heat and top risotto with onions.

We made a simple oil and vinegar dressing, using a dijon mustard dressing as the base, and tossed our arugula with some grated Parmesan cheese.

It was delicious and something we'd like to make again, but using beef stock instead of chicken stock in the hopes of creating a French Onion soup like risotto, hence the title of this post.

Oh, and for those of you who have not tried to make risotto, I really encourage you to try it.  I know I was intimidated the first time I made it but really once you get the hang of it (and even that's not that hard) you will love it!  It takes a lot of constant stirring but it also guarantees you that dinner will be on the table in 35 minutes or less.  How about that?!

Update:  This post is linked up to Tasty Tuesday on For the Love of Blogs and Delectable Tuesday on Home Sweet Farm