Miso Risotto with Shrimp and Broccolini

A few friends asked for this recipe after I posted this photo on social media, so here it is — one of those fortuitous “let’s see how this goes” dishes that actually turned out to be something I’ll look forward to repeating. I’d found a carton of miso broth at Whole Foods and picked it up without any specific plan for using it. But I knew I’d make something good with it because, hello, miso broth! The opportunities were most enticing.

Compared to risotto I’ve made with chicken stock, I’d say that the miso version was richer and almost tasted a bit like mushrooms. No need for additional salt either — the broth is plenty flavorful. I absolutely loved it, and my kids were fans too (my son did not eat his broccolini, that is par for the course :-)).

With the exception of the rice-to-broth ratio, precise amounts aren’t all that important in this dish, so I’m just going to tell you the general technique for how I made it and you can make adjustments according to your own tastes.

Heat 4 cups of miso broth in one pot. In another pot, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil and a chopped clove of garlic until it’s pretty fragrant but not brown. Add a cup of arborio rice and stir to coat and toast the rice. When the rice is translucent, after a few minutes, ladle in the first cup of broth and start stirring. When the broth is absorbed, ladle in the next cup and kept going until pretty much all of the broth is used (toward the end you can taste it to see how the texture is). When there are about 2 ladles of broth left, add in a few handfuls of chopped broccolini. The broccolini florets loves to grab hold of all the umami!

For the shrimp, roast it with olive oil, salt and a little furikake (optional) at 400ºF for about 9 minutes until it’s pink and cooked through.