Great British Bake Off Final! The excitement! Time to find out who won, who dropped their cake, and whether the trophy could top last year’s for sheer horrific-ness. (it didn’t, it seemed to be kind of disappointingly ordinary, just a glass cake stand)

I thought I would actually cook something rather than just grazing though, so I popped along to my local greengrocers looking for some inspiration for a risotto….. and came home with some lovely beetroot.

A long while ago, I made a risotto from the Rose Elliot book. Along with the Butternut Squash variation, there was also a descriptor for a beetroot variation. I have had beetroot risotto at Demuths before, so I thought I would have a go too!

The recipe is as before, except instead of roasting the butternut squash and adding that to the risotto, you add approximately 400g of raw beetroot, finely chopped, to the onion, garlic, butter, and oil in the first stage, then proceed as before:

Although, you are warned, your hand may end up like this:

(Actually, this picture doesn’t really do it justice. I do actually look like I have been murdered violet blooded people in a very messy fashion)

I also added some frozen peas towards the end of the cooking time….

Now is this not a spectacular colour?

Mr M proclaimed it to be delicious, and at least on par with the Sage and Butternut Squash Risotto.

I also used up some leftover pastry from the fridge, and some of the lemon cheese, and made some little lemon tarts. Yum.