Vegan & Spring-ish: Baked Risotto with Almond Asparagus

We don't generally think of risotto as a vegan dish. (All that mascarpone...) But it is actually a great dish for vegans, as demonstrated by this baked risotto from Veggie num num. And just to make it that much more tantalizing, it's paired with a spring dish of asparagus, green beans, and spinach tossed with almonds and Dijon. Yum!

The baked risotto itself is a bit of a misnomer, as it is basically just rice baked with orange juice and vegetable stock. There's no stirring or painstaking stock-ladling involved. But we know from experience that these oven-baked risotto dishes are just as delicious and savory as the ones made on the top of the stove. In fact, we have been enjoying this type of baked rice dish quite a lot lately!

And that dish of spring vegetables is just too delicious to pass up; we're trying this soon!

• Get the recipe: Baked Risotto w/ Tossed Green Veggies at Veggie num num

Do you ever make vegan risotto? What do you put in it?

(Image: Trudy of Veggie num num)

Comments (4)

sounds delicious! i make vegan mushroom risotto a lot, because my partner is lactose intolerant and even as a serious cheese lover myself, after stirring for so long and having those delicious flavors come together in the pan, i actually don't miss any of the dairy that is "supposed" to be in risotto. its still as creamy and rich as ever.

Always! And I've never heard of a risotto recipe that uses dairy, except butter for sauteeing the rice and shallots, and maybe some parm at the end.

Anyway, I use earth balance or olive oil for the sauteeing, and usually add extra wine at the end and sometimes a couple tablespoons of nutritional yeast if I want it more cheesey. But I find for light spring vegetables, making dairy-free risotto really brings out their flavour.

I'm Northern Italian, and all my family's traditional risotto recipes are vegan for the simple reason that nobody used to be able to afford meat! Now many use chicken broth (I don't, because I'm vegetarian), and we all like to hit it with parmesan, but a seafood or meat risotto is still very rare. Butter, I think, is a restaurant thing. Everything in restaurant-land includes a stick of butter, risotto included, but it's not common in our family at least. Sometimes, if it seems to "need something," but it's not the daily thing.

The Angelica Home Kitchen cookbook has the most amazing recipe for spring vegetable risotto made with jasmine rice and quinoa, topped with gremolata (parsley, lemon zest, garlic). So, so tasty! http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/RECIPES/RECIPES/GrainPastaBeans/quinoa_jasmine_Angelica.html