There are a few dishes I would recommend anyone to learn. One of them is risotto. Many cooking shows and guides claim it to be the nemesis of all home cooks. In fact it is fairly easy if you are patient enough to follow the very simple steps and never try to rush it. Cooking risotto is not something that can be done while multitasking and doing other things unless you are a very experienced chef or have done this at least a dozen times.
Once you mastered making this basic Risotto you opened up and endless range of dishes. Risotto can be altered to suit any taste and you can add anything you like to eat to it and experiment on your own.
I tried to keep the instructions as visual as possible simply because there is no wiggle room for mistakes. Because of this I added more pictures than I usually do in my recipes. In fact there are almost more pictures than there is text so bear with me. There will be some scrolling to do but it is for your own benefit.
Now let’s get cooking and make this basic and creamy risotto!
- 600ml (2½ cups) vegetable stock
- 125ml (1/2 cup) white wine - optional
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 200g (1 cup) risotto rice
- 1 tbsp vegan butter
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- salt to taste
- Start by heating your stock in a small pot. Once it comes to a boil cover with lid and turn the heat to medium. You want hot stock but you don't want to boil all the liquid away.
- In a separate large pan fry the onions and garlic on low to medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. You want your vegetables to soften, do not brown them. When you can squish the onion in your pan with a wooden spoon add the rice and turn up the heat.
- Keep stirring while the rice is lightly frying until it becomes translucent on it's edges. It should look a little bit like tiny beads made from glass.
- If you do not want to add the wine then skip this step if you do want to add the wine then do it now. Keep stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. Any alcohol will evaporate and leave the rice with a nice taste.
- Now it is time to add your first ladle full of stock. Turn the heat down to medium again and keep stirring slowly. Do not keep the heat on the highest temperature setting or the outside of the rice will cook too quickly which will result in an awfully sticky risotto. Stir until all liquid is gone. You will know it is ready for the next portion of stock when you can draw a line with your spoon cross the pan without it being filled up with liquid.
- Keep adding stock with your soup ladle and stirring until the stock is gone before you add the next ladle. This will take around 15 minutes. Taste the rice to see if it is cooked. Depending on the rice you might need to cook it a bit longer. If you for any reason run out of stock before the rice is cooked then add some boiling water.
- When the rice is softened take the pan off the heat. Now comes the important part since it creates a wonderfully creamy risotto without actually pouring cream to it. Add the vegan butter and nutritional yeast. Stir it well and place a lid on the pan. Let it sit for a minute or two.
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