I love risotto and I love deep frying food, therefore this meal/starter is the perfect combination. Because risotto is naturally gluten-free, the only thing you need to go out of your way to buy gluten-free for this recipe is the breadcrumbs. I always keep breadcrumbs in my cupboard, you just never know when you fancy jazzing up some chicken, or deep frying a mushroom; it’s a very handy cupboard staple.

 Serves 4 as a starter/or you can eat them ALL yourself if it’s a lunch like I did…

 Take around 6 minutes to fry, 20 minutes to prepare

 Difficulty rating

Ingredients

• 1 leek, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 160g arborio risotto rice
• 500ml veg stock (I used knorr stock pots)
• 40g frozen peas
• 1 lemon, grate the zest but also keep the lemon
• 20g parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten and left in shallow bowl
• 200g breadcrumbs (these are good)
• 100g vegetable oil
• Olive oil for frying veg
• 20g butter

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a pan and add the leeks until softened. Then add the garlic and cook for a minute more.
2. Add the rice and stir until mixed in, then pour in the hot veg stock in small amounts. Continue to stir until rice is nearly cooked; you might not use all the stock.
3. Add your frozen peas and cook for a further minute or so.
4. Turn off the heat and stir in the butter and the lemon zest and the parmesan, now leave to cool.
5. Heat your vegetable oil in a wok or a deep pan (I always use my Tefal wok)
6. With your beaten eggs in one shallow bowl and your breadcrumbs in another, take a small handful of the risotto mixture and mould into a ball.
7. Dip the ball in the egg, then coat in the breadcrumbs, place gently into the hot oil as you go. Continue this process until the risotto mixture has been used up.
8. Fry the arancini balls for roughly 3 minutes, turn the balls over and fry for another 3 minutes on this side.
9. Remove each ball once golden with a slotted spoon, and place on kitchen towel to absorb excess oil.
10. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and sweet chilli dipping sauce.