Recipe

When October evenings turn cool, nothing hits the spot like a bowl of creamy Italian risotto. Loaded with earthy mushrooms and finished with sharp Parmesan, it’s comfort food at its finest. The key to smooth, even cooking? Uniformly chopped mushrooms and aromatics—something your manual food chopper handles effortlessly. Gather these ingredients to get started: 

Ingredients 

200g Arborio rice

300g mixed mushrooms (shiitake, oyster—cleaned), 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves 100ml dry white wine, 500ml warm chicken broth

50g grated Parmesan, 20g butter, 2 tbsp olive oil

Fresh parsley (chopped), salt/black pepper (to taste)

Instructions

1. Prep Mushrooms & Aromatics with the Manual Food Chopper:

Mushrooms: Attach the coarse-chopping blade (8mm holes) to your manual food chopper—this blade is designed to keep mushroom texture intact. Tear large mushrooms into 4cm chunks (smaller ones can stay whole) and place 1–2 chunks into the chopper’s feed chute (it fits mushrooms up to 6cm wide). Hold the chopper’s base with one hand (it has a non-slip silicone pad) and use your other hand to rotate the top crank clockwise at a slow, steady pace. After 2 full rotations, the mushrooms will drop into the built-in catch tray as 1cm chunks—perfect for holding shape while sautéing. Repeat until all mushrooms are chopped (no need to squeeze mushrooms—the blade cuts cleanly, avoiding excess moisture).

Onion & Garlic: Swap to the fine-chopping blade (3mm mince). Cut the onion into quarters and add it, plus the peeled garlic cloves, to the feed chamber. Rotate the crank 4 times—this turns the onion and garlic into fine mince that cooks quickly and releases maximum flavor. No more tiny garlic pieces stuck to your knife!

2. Sauté Base: Heat olive oil and butter in a pot. Cook onion-garlic mince 2–3 minutes until soft. Add mushrooms and sauté 5 minutes until golden.

3. Cook Risotto: Toast Arborio rice in the pot for 1 minute. Pour in white wine and simmer until absorbed. Add warm broth ½ cup at a time, stirring often—cook 18–20 minutes until rice is creamy but al dente.

4. Finish: Stir in Parmesan and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

Conclusion

Creamy risotto lives or dies by even cuts—and your manual food chopper delivered perfectly. Its coarse blade turned slippery mushrooms into uniform chunks (no more uneven knife work!), the fine blade minced aromatics without waste, and the catch tray kept ingredients organized. Cleanup was fast too—just rinse the blades and chamber. The result? Restaurant-quality risotto that tasted like it took hours, but came together in 30 minutes—all thanks to simplified prep.