Hi guys!
Andre here with a recipe for you all. This recipe is one my sister and I made for Christmas dinner that I got from Minimalist Baker’s website. Ever since I became vegan (September 2015), I have been getting recipes from Dana’s website. She always has the best, easiest, and the most delicious recipes, especially her basic vegan French toast (I know, I know, how basic right?) but everything she puts up is delicious! However, this post is not going to be about those delicious vegan French toasts, it’ll be of a comfort food that one can enjoy on a hot summers day with family and friends, or on a cold winter afternoon wrapped in a blanket re-watching the Gilmore Girls. This recipe, my friends, is risotto! Mushroom and Leek Risotto, that is.
For this recipe, you will need the following:
- 3 ½ vegetable broth, warmed on the stovetop
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 8 ounces crimini mushrooms, cleaned, sliced
- Sea salt & pepper (for taste)
- ¾ cup thinly sliced leeks, well rinsed & dried
- 1 cup Arborio rice
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- Optional: 1 tbsp vegan butter
- ¼ cup vegan parmesan cheese
- Optional: freshly chopped parsley
Instructions:
- In a small pot, heat the vegetable broth over medium heat. Once it starts to simmer, reduce the heat to low to keep warm.
- While the vegetable broth is heating up, heat a large pan over medium heat and add 1 tbsp olive oil & mushrooms. Add a pinch of salt & pepper to taste, and sauté until tender and slightly browned. About 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from pan and set aside. (We didn’t remove the mushrooms from the pan)
- Using the same pan, (with the mushrooms still in the pan) add 1 tbsp of olive oil and leeks over medium heat. Sauté for 1-2 minutes, or until softened and very slightly browned.
- Add the Arborio rice, and cook for 1 minute. Stir frequently to coat.
- Add dry white wine and stir. Cook for 1-2 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed.
- Using a ladle, add the warmed vegetable broth (1/2 cup at a time), stirring almost constantly, giving the risotto breaks to return to a simmer. The heat should be medium, and should always be a slight simmer. You don’t want the mixture to be boiling, or it will get gummy and cook too fast.
- Continue to add the vegetable broth, until the rice is ‘al dente’- cooked through but still has a light bite. The whole process should take about 15-20 minutes. (For us, it took about 25 minutes; at first added the broth a little too fast so the risotto wasn’t cooking properly. Then, there was pieces of rice that were still undercooked, so we added extra vegetable broth and covered the pan so it could cook evenly.)
- Once the rice is cooked through and al dente, remove from heat and add vegan butter (optional), vegan Parmesan cheese, and most of the cooked mushrooms from earlier, reserving a few for serving. Stir to coat. (We added 1 tbsp of vegan butter, on cheese, and since we didn’t remove the mushrooms from the pan earlier, everything was already mixed.)
- Taste and adjust flavor as needed, adding a pinch of salt and pepper to taste, or more vegan Parmesan to enhance the cheesiness. (We didn’t add any salt or pepper, instead we added about ½ a tsp of vegan butter.)
- Best when fresh. If there’s some leftovers, keep covered in the refrigerator for about 2-3 days.
This recipe typically serves 2 as entrée, 4 as side. My family is a family of 5, so you would think that there would be no leftovers… My brother only had 1 serving, while my mom, sister, dad, and I all had 2-3 servings :O It was THAT good.
If you ever want a dish to make for your family or friends, and don’t know what they would enjoy, this my friend, is the recipe you want! I don’t like mushrooms at all, in fact, I detest them haha, but I didn’t even mind eating them, I could barely taste them, because the flavors and creaminess was so delicious.
