Zucchini gratin risotto

I  saw a Smitten Kitchen Instagram post for zucchini rice and cheese gratin and decided I would definitely try it. It was not only vegetarian but also (I thought) a good use of our new oven and my still fairly new enameled cast iron dutch oven.

As usual, I knew I would change the recipe a bit when making it. I added more rice, and hence more water, because I wanted it to be more like a main course than a side dish. To make it a bit more exciting, I put sautéed mushrooms on top, which really added a lot.

However, I ended up cooking the dish entirely on the stove, without using the oven at all. That's because, when I put the dutch oven on the oven rack, it bent slightly under the weight. If the oven and pot weren't so new, I might've been fine with it. But at this stage I wasn't ready to risk it.

So, the rice and cheese gratin was something like a brown rice risotto instead. It wasn't bad really, but I think it might've been a bit plain by itself without the mushrooms, plus the baby mozzarella balls I added on top.