Speltotto with Edam beans

As you know, I am huge fan of risotto, so when I saw this recipe on speltotto with Edam beans in the weekly magazine "Alt for Damerne", issue unknown from 2013, I knew at once, that I wanted to test it out in my little kitchen working with something than the usual rice grains.

However, I decided to the following changes:

• use a combination of white wine and vegetable stock instead of just vegetable stock
• addition of butter on top, as I like the cream sensation and the flavour coming the butter
• addition of sugar peas, as I had a rest of this in my refrigerator, which needed to be used for something than cabbage.

If you make a bigger portion it is important, that you first added the water cress on the part of speltotto, which you will be eating that particular day, as fresh water cress can contain earth bacteria, which is unwanted in food, which will be cooled down and reheated later on.

Speltotto with Edam beans: - 4 servings

• 3 scalots - finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic - finely chopped
• 4 stems celery - finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil 
• 340 g spelt grains
• 2½ dl white wine
• 7½ dl vegetable stock - warm
• 50 g butter - i smaller pieces
• 80 g Parmesan cheese - grated
• 170 g Edam beans
• 100 g sugar peas - optional
• water cress - chopped
• salt and pepper for seasoning

1. Chopped all the vegetable in the desired size.
2. Heat up the olive oil in a bigger cooking pot. Add all the vegetable and fry them for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the spelt grains and stir them around for 1 minute to absorb the oil.
4. Pour in the white wine on top of the vegetable and spelt grains and let the wine cook at lower heat, until the majority of the wine has boiled away. 
5. Afterwards add the warm vegetable stock little by little, let the spelt grains absorb most of the liquid, before adding more vegetable stock. This part of the cooking process takes approx. 20-25 minutes. Keep stirring regular.
6. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Add the smaller butter pieces and let them melt into the speltotto.
8. Add the Edam beans and sugar peas and stir well into the speltotto
9. Add approx 40 g of the grated Parmesan cheese and stir well. 
10. Top of the speltotto top with the rest of the grated Parmesan and chopped parsley on the serving plates/bowls. 
11. Enjoy together with a glass of white wine.