The FastDay Forum

Last night, I was cooking for a meal I have today and I made a risotto by accident.

When I say "by accident" I mean I was going for a pilaf and the rice was not a risotto rice but a mediteranean one and, at the end, I had a risotto....

Here's what I did

I put 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan, 1 oignon to sweat, 100 gr rice to sweat also and, when the rice changed colour, I put 50 cl of low fat chicken broth and half a lemon juice and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, I put 100g peas and let it cook for another 10 minutes.

At that time, all the stock and the juice were gone and the rice had a nice colour and nice texture. To end the dish I put some fresh basil on it and some black pepper.


To taste, it's a risotto, really, to my surprise and delight because I love risotto and it's the first time I cook one.

My question is, how many calories there can be in it ? It's difficult to have a realistic idea, even with myfitnesspal

I have it at about 450 calories, with the 2 tbsp of oil making up more than half the calories.

[carorees]

I use the calorie count recipe tool and get 824 cals for the whole lot:

2 tbsp olive oil = 240
1 onion = 44
100 g rice = 365
500 ml chicken broth = 81
100 g peas = 81
50 ml lemon juice = 12

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 899 g
Amount Per Serving:
Calories 824
Calories from Fat 291
Total Fat 32.4g
Saturated Fat 5.5g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 1633mg
Total Carbohydrates 107.3g
Dietary Fiber 8.8g
Sugars 12.7g
Protein 24.3g
Vitamin A 16% • Vitamin C 125%
Calcium 8% • Iron 38%

Carorees,the chicken broth is only 16 cal. It's a low fat one;

For the rice, doesn't it depend on the brand ? (bastmati and thai ftor example, do they have the same cal ?)

About the onion, are they the same cal whatever their size ?

And how half a lemon can have 12 cal ?????
However, thanks, I guess I won't have some and let everybody else eat it. Even if it's great, it's not worth it. It sound a bit too much when you compare to the calories in pre made risottos. When you look in myfitnesspal even a risotto with ham and cheese is "only" 506 cal and mine don't have neither. so, well, through the bin it goes......

[carorees]

Not sure how much juice you get out of a lemon so guessed at 50ml but maybe that's too much,call it 6 cal? And take off 50 cal from the broth so that's down to 768. Of course the onion will depend on size but it's still not many cals. It's the rice and the oil that's the problem though! There's not much difference between the different kinds of rice. Rice is nearly all carbs and carbs contain 4 cal per gram, so that's why it's so high. Fats contain 10 cals per gram so 2 tbsp of olive oil is a lot for a fast day...fine on non-fast days though.

It's really frustrating that, when you home cook something, with great quality products and no products like all the additives you can find in process food, and with a timy bit of good olive oil, you have so many calories, so much more than in process food in fact.

That's one of the reason I don't want to look at the calories on "normal" days.

Lesson learned.

Carbs are not great on a fast day!

(Unless you're thinking of my calorie counted pizza recipe, of course! )

There's a discussion about risotto here:

http://www.52fastdiet.co.uk/5-2-diet-recipes-f5/freekeh-and-mushroom-risotto-t7861.html

I reckon freekeh and rice have about the same calorie count.

[janeg]

*waves at breadandwine* hello!

I am not on a fast day so it's fine. What I find frustrating is that a home made risotto without cream and cheese and all the fatty things is around 750 cal (for how many gramms ?) and a pre made processed risotto as the one we have here "risotto chicken mushrooms and heavy cream" is 120cal for 100g.

How crazy is that ? How can't we expect people notto buy processed food if they are supposed to be lighter and they are, in fact, cheaper ? Who care the bad stuff there are in them ?

[carorees]

According to your ingredients your risotto came to 899g so the calorie count per 100g is less than the pre-made risotto.

how much ? No, it was only 350g in total, I weighted it.How can you have a total of 899g with only 100g of rice and 100g of peas ?

[carorees]

aha! did I misread the amount of chicken stock...was it 50dl or 50cl? that explains a lot!

50cl of chicken stock.

Just to be sure I went to my fridge and weighted it again, 350g and we didn't touch it yet

*waves at breadandwine* hello!

Hi Janeg - long time no see!

I use the calorie count recipe tool and get 824 cals for the whole lot:

2 tbsp olive oil = 240
1 onion = 44
100 g rice = 365
500 ml chicken broth = 81
100 g peas = 81
50 ml lemon juice = 12

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 899 g
Amount Per Serving:
Calories 824
Calories from Fat 291
Total Fat 32.4g
Saturated Fat 5.5g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 1633mg
Total Carbohydrates 107.3g
Dietary Fiber 8.8g
Sugars 12.7g
Protein 24.3g
Vitamin A 16% • Vitamin C 125%
Calcium 8% • Iron 38%

Bet you passed your 11-plus . . . or would have if you'd been around in the horse 'n cart days! I didn't and that's why the likes of me rely on the likes of you). Well done.