I have been making this risotto for 15 years and I have to confess that it is not my recipe (apart from the vegan conversion parts & the mushrooms and tomatoes). Unfortunately I don’t know who to give credit to because I found the recipe in a magazine at a doctor’s office in 2000. The only thing I had to write on in my handbag was a used envelope and I scribbled as fast as I could because I didn’t know how long I had before the doctor called my name. For 15 years, I have been getting out that envelope each time I make this risotto.
I had never made risotto before this recipe because I had always heard it was hard to make a good risotto and that it takes a really long time. While there is a little bit of stirring involved, it is not difficult and you end up with a really delicious dish.
My favourite thing to serve with this risotto is big, whole Portobello or field mushrooms and slow roasted cherry tomatoes. The flavours together are just amazing!
Risotto is definitely best served immediately because the small amount of juice in the dish will soak up very quickly. I still eat leftover risotto the next day but the texture is kind of gluggy and very different to just cooked risotto but I still love it for lunchtime leftovers.
- 5 cups vegan vegetable stock
- 125ml dry white wine
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion chopped finely
- 2 gloves of garlic crushed
- 1½ cups arborio rice
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (you can buy at health food shops )
- 1 tbsp vegan margarine
- 1 tbsp fresh oregano chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
- sea salt & pepper to season
- Put stock and wine in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer until required.
- Heat oil over medium heat in heavy based pan and add onion and garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes or until onion is translucent and softening.
- Add rice stir well to combine with onion and garlic. Cook for 1 minute.
- Take the stock and wine mix off the heat. (I like to move the saucepan closer to the rice pan. I use a ladle to move the liquid into the rice pan and hold a small plate under the ladle to catch any drips. I then empty any drips on the plate into the rice pan as well. This just stops from getting wine and stock all over your stove top). Add liquid to rice 2 ladles full at a time, stirring constantly in between additions.
- Once the liquid is almost all absorbed into rice, add more liquid and continue until all liquid is used. At this stage your risotto will still have a small amount of liquid but not really runny.
- Turn off heat and stir in rest of ingredients.
- 1 punnet cherry tomatoes (or 2 stems of truss cherry tomatoes)
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- sea salt
- To slow roast cherry tomatoes, pre-heat oven to 125°C (255°F) Place baking paper on tray and add cherry tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
- Cook for about 1 hour.
- 8 - 10 large portobello or field mushrooms
- olive oil
- vegan margarine
- I always used to cook my whole mushrooms in a frypan (skillet) but I think that I have gotten lazier as I get older because now I usually just stick them in the oven. I will put both methods below so you can choose:
- Frypan Method (Skillet)
- Melt margarine and olive oil over a medium heat.
- Remove stems from mushrooms.
- Add mushrooms to pan top side down. You will probably need to cook in a couple of batches.
- When starting to cook and soften on top side, sprinkle with sea salt and turn over and repeat on other side. Sprinkle again with sea salt.
- As they cook, juice form the mushrooms will leak into the pan. You just need to keep an eye on them so the pan doesn’t get too dry (if it does, add extra margarine) or that there isn’t too much liquid or they will stew and that’s not good. If you start getting too much liquid, turn the heat up and cook some of the liquid off.
- Once the mushrooms are cooked all the way through, remove and repeat with the next batch.
- Oven Baked Method
- Pre-heat oven to 200°C (390°F) (unless cooking with tomatoes and details with tomato cooking instructions). Remove stems and place mushrooms in baking dish top side down. Throw the stems in as well.
- Add about ½ tsp vegan margarine into the underside of each mushroom. Drizzle with olive oil and put in oven. Check mushrooms after about 10 minutes to make sure that they are not dry. Cook for approx. 20 minutes (very large mushrooms may need longer).
- The mushrooms and tomatoes can be cooked earlier and reheated when the risotto is ready.
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