This is such a comforting bowl, perfect for chilli winter days. I made this for my carnivore boyfriend today in the attempt to showing that eating plants can be really delicious. Well, it was a success! He really loved it and I have to admit it was really delicious! The dried porcini mushrooms are super flavoursome and really “meaty” adding a lovely rich flavour to the dish.
Serves 2-3 people
Ingredients:
1 small white onion or 1/2 of a very large one – very finely chopped (I have blitzed it in my food processor to save some tears and because I am not very good at chopping)
2 cloves of garlic – crushed
About 150gr of chestnut mushrooms – sliced
1/2 cup of dried porcini – soaked in some warm water for at least 1 hour (don’t discard the water!)
About 1 litre of veggie stock
1 teaspoon of brown miso paste
1 cup of risotto rice (you can also use brown rice but risotto rice helps massively to have a creamy and gloppy consistency)
3-4 tablespoons of nutritional yeast ( or even more, in my books the more nutritional yeast, the better!) + extra for sprinkling
A glug of olive oil for frying
Salt & pepper to taste
Optional – I like to top it with some extra mushrooms panfried in Tamari, you don’t have to but if want to go the extra mile here is how:
About 5-6 chestnut mushrooms
A generous splash of Tamari or soy sauce
Place the finely diced onion in a pan with the glug of olive oil. Saute the onion on a medium heat until it starts to soften and becomes translucent. Add in the crushed garlic, cook for another minute and keep stirring to prevent from burning. Add in the chopped mushrooms and the rice. Drain and squeeze the dried porcini reserving the water. Roughly chopped the porcini and add them to the pan. Add in the miso paste. Pour in some veggie stock until the rice is covered and place the lid on. Cook on a medium heat for a total of 25-30 minutes (it also depends on what kind of rice you are using). The key with risotto is to keep stirring from time to time and keep adding the veggie stock and equally some of the porcini mushrooms soaking water. The rice will gradually absorbed the liquid and eventually one it’s cooked it will be quite gloppy (kind of like porridge). Once the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is cooked adjust with salt & pepper and add in the nutritional yeast. Switch off the heat and let the risotto rest for few minutes. Please feel free to stir in some vegan cheese if you fancy!
To make the Tamari mushrooms simply heat up a generous glug of olive oil in a frying pan then add the mushrooms into a pan with a splash of Tamari. Cook the mushrooms for about 10 minutes until soft.
Serve the risotto with the mushrooms on top, nutritional yeast and some fresh thyme leaves (optional)