The original recipe will add egg whites and butter, but lemon juice, a good dose of olive oil and some freshly opened wine will do exactly the trick in this vegan mushroom risotto.
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
250g mushrooms
½ lemon
600ml vegetable stock
2 sprigs of rosemary
225g Arborio risotto
90ml white wine
Vegan cheese for garnish (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Juice and zest the lemon, put the veg stock on to boil and measure out your white wine to start with.
- Finely chop the onion and garlic and cook in olive oil in a deep pot until soft.
- Meanwhile, dry-fry all the mushrooms in a separate small pan until charred.
- Turn off the heat and add lemon juice, pepper and salt. Remove and finely slice half of the mushrooms, keeping the rest warm by leaving them in the pan on minimal heat.
- Bring the stock to a simmer, put in your rosemary to infuse.
- Pour all your rice into the dish to toast for 2 minutes. Add your chopped mushrooms.
- Pour all your wine in and stir until it has been absorbed. Then place one ladleful of the stock in as well.
- Once this has been absorbed, keep adding ladlefuls, stir until absorbed and repeat again.
- This process will take up to 18 minutes, but make sure to taste to check your rice has a nice bite to it, so that it’s al dente.
- Turn off the heat and cover with a lid for the last two minutes, to further infuse the flavours.
- Serve on a plate, garnishing with some rosemary, your larger mushrooms, lemon zest and the cheese.
Risottos are the high-end culinary industry’s best-kept secret. While they can take up to two hours to make, the steps to a creamy, flavoursome risotto are very, very easy. I will often eat a risotto when I have lots of time on my hands, but they are useful when you need to wow guests (maybe non-vegans?) or simply to load up on carbs the night before a long run.
Vitamin D, protein and vitamin B12 are all nutrients that vegans must watch out for — so a (vegan) cheesy, mushroom-packed, and nutritional yeast-sprinkled rice dish is the ideal dinner for any plant-based eater.
