Member-only story
Defy Tradition With Dairy-Free Risotto
And a hack to ensure it’s creamy
When making vegan risotto, it’s easy enough to use oil in lieu of butter and skip the cheese, but a little trickier to duplicate the creaminess dairy lends to the dish.
Here’s a workaround: Replacing some of the stock or water with rice, oat, or nut milk (specifically hazelnut or almond) will help a lot, though they’re all slightly sweet and none is entirely neutral in flavor. (Don’t use soy milk — it’s too strong.)
According to the canon, you must use Arborio or one of its relatives to make “real” risotto, but I’ve long had success with other short-grain rice, and the common varieties cost about a fifth of the usually overpriced Arborio. You can even make it with short-grain brown rice; you will lose some creaminess, but it’s made up for in deep, nutty flavor.
Many people are scared of making risotto, thinking it must be stirred constantly. Yes, the liquid must be added a bit at a time, and yes, the heat must be kept fairly high, and yes, there’s a lot of stirring. But that doesn’t mean constant stirring. That said, once you start the process, you shouldn’t leave the stove for more than a minute or so at a time. Remove the rice from the heat when there is still a tiny bit of crunch in the center of the rice kernels and the mixture is moist and…
