It’s 3AM here in Sydney. I just got off a conference call with Toronto and I can’t sleep! What better time to write about… mushroom risotto?! This is one of my favorite recipes – I love the creamy thick rice and earthy mushrooms. This is such a comfort food for me!
I adapted this recipe from the Gourmet Mushroom Risotto recipe at AllRecipes.com, by veganizing the ingredients and adding things like truffle oil. I don’t replace the Parmesan with anything as I don’t think it needs it. All it DOES require though, is A LOT of mushrooms. I like to use a variety of mushrooms…
Oyster Mushrooms
Shitake Mushrooms
Cremini Mushrooms
If you can afford really nice dried mushrooms (like porcini), I recommend using a small handful of them.
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Tip: Use the water leftover from reconstituting them as part of your broth. It will add that much more mushroom flavor to the risotto.
This serves 4 mains / 6 sides, but if you have leftovers, you can roll hand fulls of risotto into little balls or patties, coat them in breadcrumbs and lightly fry them into risotto cakes. There’s rarely any leftover risotto in this house, but I’ve heard that’s what other people do!
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 pounds (4 cups) sliced mushrooms (white, brown, portabella, oyster, porcini)
- 2 tablespoons dried mushrooms, reconstituted (optional)
- 2 shallots, diced
- 1½ cups Arborio rice
- ½ cup dry white wine
- sea salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
- 2 tablespoons vegan margarine
- 1 tsp truffle oil (optional)
- In a saucepan, warm the broth over low heat.
- Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the mushrooms, and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove mushrooms and their liquid, and set aside.
- Lower heat to medium-low heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and stir in the shallots. Cook 1 minute.
- Add rice, stirring to coat with oil, about 2 minutes.
- When the rice has taken on a pale, golden color, pour in wine, stirring constantly until the wine is fully absorbed.
- Add ½ cup broth to the rice, and stir until the broth is absorbed. Continue adding broth ½ cup at a time, stirring continuously, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente, about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat, and stir in mushrooms with their liquid, margarine, chives, and truffle oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Update
March 17, 2013 – I made this again last night and have to say that this is just the best and most decadent thing ever. I’ve updated the post with a few new photos. Enjoy!
Gosh! So many mushrooms in one dish….i’m drooling….love mushrooms!!
I love them too! Thanks for your comment :)
Hey Ang… what is the side dish you have here?? Is that asparagus wrapped in puff pastry?
Hi Daina!
Yes, but it’s not a recipe that I wrote down so I don’t have the exact measurements… I basically mixed some cream cheese with lemon zest and a bit of garlic, and spread it onto puff pastry. I folded some blanched asparagus and tossed in the oven until golden. It was yummy!
everything sounded great until the cream cheese part…errr..umm…that’s NOT Vegan!! did i miss something..?? vegan cream cheese maybbeee??? hmmm…
Hi Laurel – I use this vegan cream cheese > http://www.tofutti.com/btcc.shtml
Thanks for this. We cooked it tonight. Yummy!
And great to have discovered another Sydney vegan. Do you go to the Vegan Society dinners? (http://www.vegansocietynsw.com/vs/html/index.html)
Hi Jason – Thanks for taking the time to comment, glad to hear you liked the risotto! I haven’t been to a vegan society dinner in some time as I never seem to be available when they’re on. Do you attend them?
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I did not use dried mushrooms nor truffle oil (didn’t have them) and it still came out great! I added a little vegan parmesan cheese at the end of cooking and it was a good addition. Thanks for posting!
Hi Jodi – The dried mushrooms and truffle oil are totally optional but just something I add when I have them on hand. I’m glad to hear that you liked the risotto – thanks so much for the feedback!! :)
Thanks for the fantastic recipe, it was delicious! :-)
My only amendments were to add some crushed garlic with the shallots and stir through some fresh basil and lemon juice at the end.
Hi Elle,
Yum, those are great additions… Will keep that in mind once I’m back in my own kitchen! Thanks for taking the time to write – all the best!
Hi :) I’m Jason 34, carnivor lol! I have been dating my girlfriend for about a month now and things are going great. She is vegan and this is my first experience, even with a vegaterian let alone vegan. She handles me eating meat so I totally can handle her choice to eat vegan. Anyways I am making this mushroom risotto dish tomorrow night for her and I’m so excited! I’m really glad I came across your site and I plan to use your recipes to wow my girl :) so keep the good stuff coming. On a side note I’ve never seen tofu let alone cooked it. Is it hard to prepare? I’m pretty handy in the kitchen, just the new ingredient kinda scares me.
Hi Jason, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. How nice of you to cook vegan for your girlfriend. Go you! Let me know how the risotto went-over.
Do a search for tofu recipes on my site (or on Google for that matter). It’s really easy to use. Let me know if you have any questions!
What does vegetable broth consist of?
I use the terms veggie broth/stock/bouillon cubes interchangebly. Any vegetable-based broth is fine, whether you reconstitute it from vegetable bouillon cubes or use a liquid one like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00474HL8E/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00474HL8E&linkCode=as2&tag=vegangela-20. Hope that helps!
Excellent Dish! I used mushroom broth to give it an extra kick. For sides I roasted broccoli and sauted sweet corn. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks, and glad you liked it! Thanks for taking the time to comment :)
Made this for dinner last night with friends…. it was amaaazing! Threw in a bunch of nutritional yeast near the end with the truffle oil….Will definitely be making it again-Thanks for the great recipe!!!!
Hi Kalyn – I made it on Saturday night myself! I updated the post with a few new photos as well. So glad you liked it – thanks for taking the time to comment :)