This is a delicious recipe for vegan herb risotto with fresh basil, oregano, parsley and nutritional yeast. It’s easy and uses simple ingredients, but it isn’t super quick. It takes time to stir, ladle, and stir some more. But, it’s worth it to end up with a super creamy, savory vegan herby risotto!
When it comes to creating creamy risotto, stirring is everything. As you stir, the rice grains rub against one another, and release some of their starch. This creates the creamy consistency. The creaminess doesn’t come from cheese, milk or cream. It comes from good old fashioned stirring. And that means, it’s really important to use a rice with a high starch content.
My favorite high starch rice for risotto is arborio rice. In the U.S., it’s fairly easy to find, and is carried at most major grocery stores. Other high starch content rices you could use include baldo, carnaroli, maratelli, padano, roma, or vialone nano.
This fresh herb risotto recipe can be enjoyed as a meal or a side dish. Nutritional yeast (or vegan parmesan) is added to enhance the flavor. If you want to skip it, it’ll still be good, but it’s a little more enjoyable with it.
Please enjoy 💚 And check out more UVK recipes, like Beet Risotto, Grilled Lemon Garlic Herb Tofu Skewers, or Broccoli Pasta Salad with Fresh Italian Herb Dressing.
Vegan Italian Herb Risotto
6 cups broth (fake chicken or vegetable)
6-8 whole garlic cloves
1 cup chopped onion
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups arborio rice
1¼ cups dry white wine
¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
2½ Tbsp chopped fresh oregano
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast (OR vegan parmesan)
1. First, prepare the broth for the herb risotto. Add the broth to a large pot, cover with a lid, and bring to a boil. Once it boils, turn off the burner, but do not remove the lid. You will add the hot broth to the rice later in the recipe.
2. While you are waiting for the broth to boil, add the celery, onion, and garlic to a food processor and blend until very finely chopped. You can also chop it by hand until it is very, very fine.
3. In a large pot or dutch oven, add 2 Tbsp olive oil, the celery, onions and garlic. Sauté over medium heat for 5 minutes.
4. Add the arborio rice to the pot with the celery, onions and garlic. Constantly stirring the rice, sauté for another 3 minutes over medium heat.
5. Add the wine, and continue stirring the rice over medium heat. As you stir, the wine should reduce and/or absorb into the risotto rice.
6. When the wine has reduced, add 2 ladles of the hot broth to the pot with the rice. Stir constantly over medium-high heat. This will keep the risotto rice from burning, but it will also allow the rice to release starch.
7. When the rice has absorbed most of the broth, add 2 more ladles of broth. Continue stirring, allowing the broth to reduce by about 75%, and then, adding more broth and stirring more. Continue this process until all the broth is gone. On the last addition of broth, stir and reduce the broth as much as possible (no soupy rice here!).
8. Remove the risotto from heat, and stir in the fresh herbs (parsley, basil and oregano).
9. Stir in the nutritional yeast (or vegan parmesan). Taste the risotto, and adjust seasonings (more fresh herbs? salt? more nutritional yeast?). Serve this vegan herb risotto as a meal or side dish.
