Risotto Tuesday: Coconut Beetroot Curry

Welcome to the second meeting of the Meera Sodha Appreciation Society

Back in the mid-aughts heydey of first-generation personal blogs, I came across one called

Smart, Pretty & Awkward

—which I’m DELIGHTED to discover is still active & being published right here on Substack. It’s written by Molly Beck, who was either in college or an early-career professional when I found the blog in high school—absolute catnip. The format was simple: each post shared three pieces of advice—how to be smarter, prettier, and (less) awkward).

One tip that’s stuck with me for the last +/- 15 years: When you’re starting a new project, blog, endeavor, don’t promote it right away. Do it for a month in silence. Work on establishing the practice, finding your organic audience, experimenting, and building up a small archive. This way, you get to try it out, figure out how (or if!) it fits into your life, and make the announcement from the stronger position of already doing the thing, instead of planning to do the thing.

Although I announced this newsletter before the Beck-suggested 30-day waiting period, my commitment to Risotto Tuesday is the longest commitment I’ve ever maintained in my adult life, (if you don’t count commitments to employers and my spouse). I’ve lived in multiple apartments for less time than I’ve been holding Risotto Tuesdays.

When I moved to my current town, I was coming off of about 3 years of near-total pandemmy isolation. I needed a place to call home—beyond just a place to live, I needed to belong.

This is the face of someone who NEEDS the next place they live to be better than the place they’re leaving. (It will be—but it’ll be the next place after that that really becomes home.)

The chaplain at my undergraduate institution hosted a weekly spaghetti night at her house—just a communal open-house dinner for anyone that wanted to come. I went once, brought along by friends who went regularly, and everyone was SO friendly SO welcoming that I was too shy to go back. I wanted to be the kind of person who went to that, though, wanted to be the kind of person who belonged to a place and belonged to people, who made that kind of belonging for themself.

I tried lots of things, but Risotto Tuesday‚ a kind of spiritual successor to those college spaghetti dinners, has been one of of the most impactful.

It happens every week that it can happen, regardless of my mood or what ever else is going on. I might change plans, make something simpler, but I won’t skip it unless scheduling prevents it.

Risotto Tuesday has taken a few hiatuses when it’s had to. What I learn, though, every time it goes on hiatus, is how much I need Risotto Tuesday in my life. How much this one dinner a week has shaped my time in this home, has given me a home, has given me something to belong to. I’ve built friendships because of Risotto Tuesday. I’ve planned entire vacations because of it.

Walden Pond, New Year’s Day 2023. Utterly magical. We dreamed up this trip at the Risotto Tuesday table.

It’s not a small commitment. I spend about four to five hours every Tuesday on the meal—two to three hours to shop and prep, an hour of stirring at the stove, an hour or two at the table—but it’s a commitment that works for me, and has given so much back to me.

I don’t expect that Risotto Tuesday will mean the same thing to you as it does to me— we all have to find the rituals that work for us—but I hope it means something. I hope you can take the time this week to cook something slowly, sit down at the table with your family, and check in with each other. Maybe it’ll even be with this week’s…

Coconut Beetroot Curry Risotto

I have another Meera Sodha risotto for you this week, this time inspired by the “Sri Lankan Beetroot Curry with Green Bean Mallum” from East. You can also grab the original recipe for free over at The Guardian.

Lacinato kale looked divine at my local grocery co-op, so I swapped the green bean mallum for this quick coconut and lime kale from (guess what!) another Meera Sodha recipe.

I made a few tweaks to the recipe in writing it up—namely, the recommendation to boil the beets ahead of everything else. I did not do this, but if I were to make this recipe again, I would! My unboiled beets were edible, but crunchy. You can skip the step if you want—just be sure to slice the beets thinly so they soften as much as they can. I’ve also stepped the recipe down from two bunches of beets to one (this will make it a bit more more “risotto-y” and less “bowl of beets-y”) and upped the kale from one bunch to two.

Two bunches of beets (seven beets) was too many.

Serves 3-4

For the Risotto

• 1 bunch beets (3-4 medium)

• 1 can full-fat coconut milk

• 3 tbsp butter

• 2 shallots, minced

• 2 jalapenos or serranos

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 tsp fresh grated ginger or ginger paste

• 1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste

• 1 tbsp ground cumin

• 3/4 c arborio rice

• 1/2 c dry white wine

• 1/2 c parmesan, finely grated

• Juice of 1 lime

• Salt

For the Kale

• 1 tbsp coconut oil

• 2 bunches kale, sliced with stems removed

• 2 tsp brown mustard seeds

• 1/3 c dried coconut

• Juice of 2 limes

• Salt

Make the Risotto

1. Bring a medium (3-5 quart) saucepan of salted water to boil.

2. Top, tail, and peel the beets. Halve smaller ones and quarter larger ones. Slice thinly. Boil in water for 15-20 minutes, or until fork tender. You can get on with the chopping for the rest of the recipe while this happens.

3. When the beets are tender, use a slotted spoon to remove and reserve in a bowl. Turn heat down to simmer and add 1 can coconut milk to form risotto broth.

4. Melt butter in Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add shallots and jalapeno and cook, stirring frequently, until shallots are tender and peppers are soft. Add ginger, tomato paste, and cumin and cook until the tomato paste is darkened.

5. Add rice and stir until translucent, 2-4 minutes.

6. Add the sliced beetroot and wine. Stir until the wine is almost fully absorbed.

7. Add the coconut milk broth about 1/2 cup at a time, until the rice is tender and the beets are soft. It will take 40 minutes to an hour. Top off the broth pot with water as needed.

8. Just before you add the final ladle of stock to the risotto, make the kale. Heat the coconut oil in a large lidded frying pan over medium heat. When hot, add the mustard seeds. When they begin to pop and crackle, add the kale, dried coconut, lime juice, salt, and 1/3 cup water. Toss everything together, put the lid on the pan, and let steam for around 5 minutes or until the risotto is done.

9. When the rice is tender and the beetroots are cooked, add the parmesan and lime juice and stir to incorporate.

10. Ladle into bowls and top with kale to serve.