When you were to ask us about our favorite comfort food during summer, vegan risotto would definitely come to our mind. There’s just something about the creamy texture and full flavor that keeps us coming back to this Italian classic. And while it’s usually a dairy-heavy dish, we find that it’s easy to whip up a healthy, plant-based version as well.
Not only do we skip the butter and cheese here, we also omit all oils and other heavy vegan foods! A creamy, tasty risotto doesn’t require a bunch of fat to be satisfying. Oil doesn’t add much flavor to a dish, anyways – it’s rather the vegetables, herbs, and spices.
In this case, we used Herbs de Provence along with vegetable broth, onion, and garlic for a great base. The white wine vinegar and lemon juice add a nice zing to the risotto, and the nutritional yeast gives it a cheesy hint. What else could you ask for?
One secret regarding the luxurious texture is the rice. When being cooked, the liquids bring out the starch in the Arborio rice, giving the dish a gooey consistency. It makes for a perfect dish when you’re craving carb-heavy meals with lots of cheesiness. You can use it as a main, adding a side salad, or even as an entrée.
This vegan risotto recipe really is pretty easy – if you’ve ever been intimidated to try it, don’t be! You cannot really mess it up. Most of the 14 ingredients will probably (hopefully!) already be in your well-stocked kitchen. And it’s really allergy-friendly, too since it doesn’t contain any eggs, dairy, nuts, gluten, wheat or corn.
You can also make it soy-free by choosing a different plant-based milk. But in our experience, soy milk works best because of its thicker consistency. Soy is also incredibly healthy, can prevent some types of cancer, and has the most similar nutritional profile to dairy milk (minus all the saturated fat, hormones, and pus).
Is Soy Bad for You? →
The mushrooms add a nice chewiness to the risotto as well as lots of B vitamins, copper, selenium, and some might even contain vitamin D. We personally think mushrooms are the best meat alternative when it comes to taste and texture! They bring a nice earthy flavor and absorb the herbs and spices pretty well.
When it comes to easy dishes, you just have to love these one-pot-wonders. Risotto is made entirely by just using one large pan, sautéing the veggies for a few minutes, then adding some broth and plant-based milk as well as the dry rice. Let everything cook thoroughly for about 15 to 20 minutes, then put in some spices as well as your peas and you’ll be done in a few more minutes!
If you’re up for an extra special vegan risotto, you can use white wine here, too. Most of these are vegan by default – just check Barnivore for more information on that. We personally don’t use any alcoholic beverages but it could add a nice touch if you want to wow your omnivorous dinner guests.
But now, let’s get into this quick, comforting, and delicious vegan risotto recipe! Find it in the box below.
What is your favorite vegan comfort food? Have you made a wholesome plant-strong risotto before? Let us know in the comments and feel free to rate our recipe or Pin it for later. You can also tag us on Instagram if you make it – we’d love to see your creations!
Creamy Vegan Risotto
This healthy oil-free vegan risotto is super creamy and comforting! Using fresh mushrooms and frozen peas, it's a chewy and easy whole food plant-based one-pot dinner idea that's incredibly satisfying and versatile.
Ingredients
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 cups white mushrooms, sliced (225 g)
- 1 cup risotto rice (Arborio) (225 g)
- 2-3 cups vegetable broth (480-720 ml)
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 cup peas, frozen
- 1 cup soy milk (160 g)
- ½ cup leek, chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp Herbs de Provence
Instructions
- In a large pan, sauté onions, garlic and herbs for a few minutes, adding some vegetable broth if needed. Then put in the mushrooms and leek, letting everything heat up for another 3-4 minutes.
- Add rice and 2 cups of veggie broth into the pan as well as vinegar and the cup of soy milk. Let everything simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until liquid is soaked up, stirring occasionally.
- Once cooked, add in the peas, nutritional yeast and lemon juice for just a few minutes. Turn off the heat and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm. Decorate with fresh parsley (optional).
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 413Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 3243mgCarbohydrates: 75gFiber: 14gSugar: 20gProtein: 22g
15 thoughts on “Creamy Vegan Mushroom Risotto (Low-Fat)”
This looks amazing. I cannot wait to try it! HOWEVER…..I NEED to know where you got your bowls from?! They are rustic and gorgeous and I HAVE to have them. :)
Hey Leslie,
thanks so much for your wonderful feedback! Happy that you know the bowls – we do, too. Unfortunately, we don’t own them and you need to ask our lovely photographer, Amanda, who shot this recipe, about them. You can find her here: http://mygoodnesskitchen.com/
Best wishes!
Does this really only serve 2 people? 225g of rice is an awful lot. I would normally have said 75g per person was plenty.
Hey Vince,
thanks for your question. It’s always hard to tell how much food one person truly needs at one specific point in time :) as you can see, it’s 510 calories per portion which is usually a good amount to maintain or reach a healthy weight. Feel free to adjust to your hunger levels and personal goals!
Best wishes,
Alena
Hello. I am looking for a low or fat free version of risotto. But I fail to understand how can you “sauté” vegetables without any oil or butter? How do you achieve that result? Also, isn’t the step of frying the arborio in some oil, preferably olive oil, necessary for it to start it’s starch realeasing process?? I would love to have your views…
Hey Varuna,
admittedly, I’m not an Italian chef and cannot tell you how it’s traditionally done ;) This is just my personal, oil-free twist on it. We sauté our vegetables in some water or veggie broth usually. Find more on this here: https://nutriciously.com/plant-based-cooking-techniques/
Maybe you’ll still like the end result, even if we “cheated” a little!
Best wishes,
Alena
I can’t cook at all but I somehow managed to make this dish. It’s amazing! Quick, tasty and it’s hard to mess it up ;)
What’s the nutrition profile for this dish?
Hey Liz,
thanks for checking in and being interested in our recipe. We haven’t added any calories to most of our recipes so far because we don’t want to emphasize that anyone should count calories – rather, that it’s important to eat healthy food and listen to one’s own hunger signals. In the future, we might add more nutritional information to our recipes.
Hope this was a satisfying answer for now!
Best wishes
Can you use coconut or almond milk instead of soy. Thats usually what I have on hand
Hey Beth, sure you can use these plant-based milks instead! Let us know how it turns out :)
Where does all the sodium come from? Even if I don’t use the salt, I can’t eat this wonderful sounding dish. I would use low sodium broth or home made which will also bring it down. Other thoughts? ( Praying it is a typo)
thanks so much for asking! The nutritional information you see at the bottom of the recipe was automatically calculated by the recipe tool and I don’t know why it says that there’s so much sodium – maybe it thought some of the ingredients have added salt, i.e. the soy milk, veggie broth, perhaps nutritional yeast? I assume that if you omit the table salt and look for low-sodium broth then you should be fine :)
This looks so good! Is there a way to make it in the Instant Pot?
thanks, Janet! Actually, I’ve never made risotto in the Instant Pot but it’s certainly possible as other food bloggers show: https://www.veganricha.com/vegan-instant-pot-mushroom-risotto/
Let me know if you try it and how it turns out!