Peel the onions. One you slice into thin crescents, the other two onions, chunkier crescents. These are added in at the end for presentation.
In a wide, heavy-bottomed pan, add the vegan butter and a tablespoon of olive oil and place over a medium heat. Once the fat is simmering, add the chunkier onion crescents and cook until soft and fragrant. Set aside.
Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil back to the pan. Add the thin onion crescents and cook until soft and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so.
Add the arborio and stir to coat. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until the grains start to look a little translucent. Add extra oil here if required.
Once the arborio grains are toasted, add the stock to the pan, enough to cover. Over a low simmer, stir gently and allow the stock to be absorbed by the grains. Repeat this process until you have used all your stock.
Once you’re happy with the consistency, remove your risotto from the heat. Stir in your oat cream followed by the vegan Parmesan and chunkier onion crescents.
Finish with a squeeze of lemon, pepper and sea salt to your taste. Serve immediately with extra Parmesan plus a drizzle of quality olive oil.
This meal will keep well in the fridge for a day and reheat on the stove top on the following.
This risotto was really what felt like the first real meal I made in our new home in Fitzroy, Naarm once all the between moving boxes were removed and all our things were in their new spots. Not shown in the photographs but always at the table, was a huge green salad drizzled with flaxseed oil and a big squeeze of lemon to really opened it up. A perfect dinner. To keep this risotto dish vegan, I have used oat cream and vegan Parmesan. These ingredients add a tonne of flavour and richness to the risotto without the dairy. The risotto is seasoned with pepper and sea salt to taste. I have been making this on repeat, my boyfriend loves it. I’d also like to make sure everyone knows that this risotto is not difficult to prepare and it was the best thing ever and you should definitely add it to your meal plan for the week.
Risotto is not a type of rice but is rather an Italian dish made with a special high-starch, short-grain rice such as Italian arborio, carnaroli, or vialone nano rice. These hardy grains are fundamental to achieving a creamy risotto with bite and texture that holds its form while at the same time will absorb a lot of liquid. Other recipes on the Internet will incorporate or replace arborio for example, some websites say that you can use other grains, like brown rice or buckwheat but this is not risotto and these grains are not capable of holding form with the ratio of liquid to grain weight.
Nature is magic and complex so rice is not just rice. The carbohydrate content of white rice is 45 grams per cup, and the fibre content is negligible, 0.6 grams. Arborio rice has a slightly higher carbohydrate component—53 grams per cup but has a massive 6 grams of fibre. Fibre is important and I have written about that before so if you feel that you might not be reaching your 25 to 30 grams daily, switching our white rice for risotto every so often is one way to get there.
Toasting your arborio grains without liquid first, here we added them with the oil, garlic and onion. This helps the grains maintain their firm form during cooking. It is similar to toasting buckwheat.
We all have different cooking equipment so add liquid to suit your risotto. If you feel like you want a more loose risotto, and you have used all your stock, add water or additional oat cream at the end to reach your desired consistency.
Stir continuously. Risotto is not a passive recipe. You must intermittently stir, cook, add liquid until the grains are cooked through but have a bit of bite and to prevent your risotto sticking to the base of your pan which only means additional clean up.
Your final ingredients should be added off heat, this way you won’t overcook your Parmesan or burn your oat cream or soy milk if using that as a substitute. And in particular for the lemon juice so you get that sharp flavour that would be diminished if added over heat.
Making risotto is not hard, the instructions here are uncomplicated, just follow the above advice and the recipe method and you will have a thick, super creamy risotto that holds and plates well.
