Creamy Vegan Mushroom Risotto
I wasn’t a fan of risotto until about 4 years ago, now It’s one of my favourite dishes to make. Just like pasta, you can chuck in whatever you want, and it’ll taste great.
I used to make it the normal way with lots of parmesan, maybe some butter if I was feeling fancy- but you can imagine how eating risotto every week isn’t the healthiest thing ever… After some playing around, I came up with a dairy-free substitute for the parm, and made a lil umami ‘cheesy’ tasting vegan sauce to replace it- please don’t try eating the sauce alone, it is POTENT!
Serves: 3-4 people
Ingredients
For the 'cheese' sauce:
1/4 cup soaked cashews
2/3 cups nutritional yeast
3 tsp thin soy sauce
1/4 cup water
Method
1. Soak the cashews in water for 1 hour or more.
2. Discard the water from the soaking cashews.
3. In a blender add all the ingredients for the cheese sauce and blend until everything is completely smooth.
For the risotto:
150g mushrooms, sliced
2 sprigs of thyme
2 shallots, sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup (225g) risotto rice (carnaroli, arborio..)
1/4 cup (50ml) white wine
4 cups (780ml) warm low sodium veggie or mushroom stock
1 tbsp olive oil
3 or more tsp cashew sauce
4 tbsp chives/parsley, chopped
salt, pepper, oil
Method:
1. In a pan with olive oil on medium heat, add thyme and mushrooms, cook until browned. Try to stir them as little as possible, this will ensure browning. When they are done, set aside.
2. In another pot on medium heat, add some oil and sweat the shallots until they go translucent. Add the garlic, let it sweat for a minute.
3. Add the rice to the pot and mix well so that all the grains are well coated. Pour the wine, let it reduce completely.
4. When the wine has evaporated, add a ladle full of stock to the pot and stir until the liquid has been fully absorbed by the rice. Add more stock and continue doing this process until the rice is cooked al dente.
5. Add the olive oil along with the cheese sauce into the rice and stir until everything is fully combined.
6. Take it off the heat, mix the mushrooms into the rice and season with salt and pepper.
7. Serve with fresh herbs, cracked black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.