I know what you're thinking: "but frozen veggies are much more expensive than fresh ones", and that's technically true, but…

…if you think about all the work behind cleaning, peeling, cutting and eventually portioning and partially storing (if that was more than you needed) these vegetables in fresh form, you're surely going to end up spending a bit more time. In my experience this would take me roughly 1h 20min.

Sure, cooking is fun and all, but personally I work a lot, I live alone and I have so many other things to do besides work, and the last thing I want to do is to keep working even when I literally just have to feed myself. I have worked as a chef, and trust me, those scenes in The Bear where chefs eat PB&J sandwiches for dinner after a long shift are definitely real. I'm saying this because sometimes it's not just about "you can cook, why don't you make everything from scratch?"; it's always important to consider other people's frictions before telling them how to live. Also, these veggies were discounted so I took many of them.

Ingredients for one serving:

• 150-200g mixed frozen vegetables (I used peas, pinto beans, spinach, tomato, chard, potato, carrot, celery, onions, cabbage, green beans, zucchini, basil and a bit of frozen vegetable stock)
• 70-100g carnaroli, arborio or roma rice (depending on how hungry you are)
• 1 tablespoon each of peanut butter and almond butter (you can just use peanut butter; cashew butter works like a charm too)
• a mix of herbs and spices (I used dried chives, dried thyme, turmeric, chili powder, garlic powder, paprika powder and chili flakes); add to your liking
• salt & pepper (6g of salt should be enough, less if you season this with nutritional yeast)
• a kettle or pot with boiling water (when cooking the rice)
• a couple of tablespoons of oil (I used olive oil, but you can use any other oil you like)

Steps:

• Begin by cooking your frozen vegetables in a little bit more water than necessary (about 1 cup more water). Follow your package instructions to cook them.
• In a non-stick pan on low heat, put some oil, let it get warm and drop your rice in. Let the rice toast for 3-4 minutes (always at low heat), stirring from time to time, until it develops a slight golden color.
• Deglaze the rice with your previously cooked "minestrone".
• Cook the rice by stirring it every 2-3 minutes. Keep adding water if necessary.
• Add your almond and peanut butter and stir those in.
• When your risotto is almost cooked through, be sure it's a little bit more watery than it should be and leave it to rest. It will get to the perfect consistency in a couple of minutes.
• Serve and enjoy

Final Notes:

Yes I know, this is not "traditional", but chef Irene Volpe who made it to the finals in Masterchef Italy does use almond butter and tahini to make her risottos creamy. Nut and seed butters work great because they're fatty and they have lots of soluble fibers that act as a gel.