Two of my New Year’s resolutions are to do more cooking with fresh ingredients and to also work my way through all the canning I did last summer so that I have room for this summer’s garden produce. I canned a lot of different things last summer with all the tomatoes we had in the garden, and one of them was a Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup, which is delicious on its own, but I wanted to see how I could use it in other ways to get through the jars a little faster. I was reading various risotto recipes I have saved on Pinterest, and I thought why not substitute a pint of this tomato soup for some of the liquid that’s used in a risotto recipe?

The basic premise of risotto is 2 cups of Arborio rice to 4 cups of hot liquid when you’re making risotto on the stovetop, and then you can add in whatever veggies, cheese, etc., as you go. You do need to take into account what types of veggies you are using because the water content of that will affect how much liquid you’ll need to use. Since I was using my Instant Pot, I didn’t need to have piping hot liquid, which is a plus. I only used a handful of fresh mushrooms, and they were sauteed in the beginning steps of the recipe, so the water content there was negligible. I used a pint of my homemade soup (2 cups) and then used chicken stock for the remaining 2 cups of liquid that I needed.

I didn’t add any salt and pepper to this recipe, and that’s because instead of the usual chicken stock, I used Better than Bouillon roasted chicken base, which I think has plenty of salt in it, so if you use something else, you’ll probably need to add salt and pepper to taste.

I realize you probably won’t have this tomato soup on hand, but there are plenty of things you can substitute for it. You could use store-bought tomato soup. You could use crushed Italian tomatoes or regular tomatoes and add Italian seasoning. You can substitute however you like just as long as you stick to 2 cups of ingredients.

Tomato and Basil Risotto with Mushrooms

Extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

1/4 cup fresh mushrooms, diced

White wine

2 cups Arborio rice

2 cups Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup

2 cups chicken stock (I used Better than Bouillon roasted chicken base)

Salt and pepper to taste (especially if using regular chicken stock)

Turn on Instant Pot’s saute function, and add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the onions and mushrooms, and stir until the onions are translucent, and the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the rice to the pot and stir constantly. When the rice is added, it will turn white, and it will absorb any liquid from the onions and mushrooms. Keep stirring until you see a few grains begin to turn golden – this means the rice has been toasted, which releases the starch from the rice and makes for a creamy texture. Add a couple swigs of the white wine to the pot, stirring to loosen any rice that might be sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Turn off the saute function, and add the soup and chicken broth to the pot. Stir to combine everything. Add the lid, and select the Manual setting at high pressure for 6 minutes.

After 6 minutes, do a quick release. Once the lid is off, you may see that there is liquid on top of the rice. Stir everything for about 30 seconds or so – the rice will continue to absorb the liquid. Remove the insert pan to stop the rice from cooking further.

Serve hot with grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.

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