Italian dishes are not only pasta and pizza, but also risotto! Luckily for all vegans, Italian cuisine is so easy to veganize! Make this Italian-style risotto with a lot of roasted vegetables! So yummy, creamy, and easy, perfect for people who are beginners in a vegan lifestyle and for people who look for simple meals.
I love Italian cusine and I wish I could eat it more often. Unfortunately, Italian dishes are rich in carbs and I watch my intake of carbs. Therefore, I can’t eat them more than once a week!
Of course, some people at Italian dishes more than once a week and they always look for new ways how to prepare Italian meals. For these people, I made this Italian-inspired vegan risotto with roasted vegetables. Are you going to try it??
Having this risotto not only is ver filling but it will immediately take you to Northern Italy where risotto originates. Did you know that Acient Romans used rice mainly for medical purposes and started to cultivate it much longer, in the 10th century?
Today, we can find different kinds of risotto throughout Italy. The northern style risotto quite varies from the one you can taste in the southern Italy! Italian living in the southern part of Italy use rice mostly for making arancini (in Sicily), the sartú (in Naples) or in Tiella of Puglia. I won’t go into details here because these traditional dishes of Souther Intaly are not vegan and the last thing I want is to upset someone 🙂
Oh risotto, so good!
How do you know that your risotto is ready without trying the softness of rice? It’s easy. According to the best practises for coking risotto, you should keep adding liquid (vegetable stock/broth in this case) until all liquid is fully absorbed. In this point risotto because fully cooked and extremely creamy. And trust me, you want your risotto to be the creamiest possible!
Risotto as one of the many delicious typiucal Italian dishes, is extremely popular. It has so many varieties and it can be easily versatiled. It’s also easy to cook because it uses ingredients, ordninary found around your kitchen. I am sure you are able to make risotto right now without going shopping!
Risotto for sure tastes better with shredded melting cheese on the top. If you can’t find any of vegan varieties, try dairy-free parmesan or easily nutritional yeast (which also adds vitamin B12 to your meal).
As for this Italian-style vegan risotto, I also added some sprouts and fresh chopped parsley on the top as a garnish because it’s such a good combo!
More Italian-style vegan recipes?? Oh yes, please!
- Spicy Roasted Eggplant Pasta
- Easy Pumpkin Gnocchi
- Easy Avocado Pesto Pasta
- Lemon Pasta With Sage And Spinach
- Easy Vegan Margherita Pizza
- Vegan Pasta With Asparagus And Broccoli Sauce
- Meatless Meat Balls With Marinara Sauce
- Beetroot Pizza (Vegan and Gluten-free)
What do you need to make this Italian-style vegan risotto?
- Vegetables for roasting. Choose easily roasted vegetables, such as carrots, zucchini, peppers (capsicum)… Everything you can find in your fridge and think it might be worth to roast!
- Olive oil. Good quality olive oil, especially cold-pressed virgin olive oil is a must-have for an Italian kitchen! This recipe is no exception. Try this cold-pressed olive oil with a mild and delicate flavour.
- Red (or alternatively pink) onion
- Garlic cloves. If you can’t be bothered to mince the garlic, use garlic paste.
- Arborio rice. This type of rice is the only perfect rice suitable for making risotto. It has the right texture that turns very creamy, chewy, and firm after cooking.
- Vegetable stock. Try to use vegetable stock low in sodium and organic. I used 3 cups of the stock but if you find that your risotto rice needs more liquid or you want the risotto to be creamier, use more.
- Canned tomatoes
- Tomato paste – good quality. It gives an authentic Italian taste to the vegan risotto!
- White rice vinegar or white balsamic vinegar
- Dried oregano
- Broccoli
- Fresh basil leaves. Find out more about basil and how to cook with basil in this article.
- Mushrooms. I used white bottom mushrooms but porcini mushrooms are good, too! Can’t you decide what mushrooms you want? Read this article!
- Salt and pepper. You might not use any salt if your vegetable stock has added salt/sodium.
- Sprouts for garnish
- Fresh chopped parsley for garnish
- Vegan shredded cheese, e.g. cheddar or parmesan. Alternatively, you can use nutritional yeast.
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Italian-Style Risotto With Roasted Vegetables
Ingredients
For roasted vegetables:
- 2 medium carrots sliced
- 2 medium zucchini sliced
- 1 medium red capsicum sliced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
For risotto:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium red onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup Arborio rice
- 3 cup vegetable stock
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp white rice vinegar or white balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 cup white button mushrooms sliced
- 1 small broccoli cut in florets
- 1 small bunch of fresh basil
- salt and pepper to taste
- fresh chopped parsley for garnish (optional)
- sprouts for garnish (optional)
- vegan shredded cheese1) for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/392°F.
- Place the cut vegetables on a baking tray lined with a parchemtn paper. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix it well and roast for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add onion, garlic, and cook for 5 minutes.
- Now add rice, 1 cup vegetable stock, canned tomatoes, and tomato paste. Cook for 5 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed. Add another 1 cup vegetable stock and cook until all liquid is absorbed by rice again, about 5 minutes. Repeat this step one more time with the last cup of vegetable stock. Cook for 10 minutes until all liquid is absorbed and rice softens.
- Add rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar, dried oregano, mushrooms, broccoli, and fresh basil leaves to the saucepan. Cook for additional 10 minutes.
- Lower the heat to minimum and stir into roasted vegetables. Taste and season with salt and/or pepper.
- Divide the risotto into plates. Serve with fresh chopped parsley, sprouts, or shredded vegan cheese.
Notes
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @writtenbyvegan or use hashtag #writtenbyvegan or share it with your friends and family! You can also rate this recipe below! 🙂
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Klara Walterova
Klara is a professional freelance writer for hire. She offers web content, blog posting, ghostwriting and copywriting. She writes for a healthy lifestyle, wellness and travel websites. She focuses on veganism and the vegan diet. When she's not writing, she develops new tasty vegan recipes, travels the world or plays with her cats. Please contact her for her online writing services on her website writtenbyvegan.com or visit her Instagram profile @writtenbyvegan.