One of my favorite vegan dishes to make is this wild mushroom and leek risotto.

It is such a simple recipe packed with amazing flavors and textures. It's the perfect vegan dish to try out and I bet your dinner guests probably wont even realize that something so wonderfully creamy, rich and delicious could be dairy free.

If you have any leftover risotto you could always make arancini (risotto balls) the next day, just roll into balls, dip into soya milk or any leftover cream, coat in breadcrumbs and shallow fry. It's almost worth making a little extra just to make them.

Serves four

Ingredients

2 tbsp dairy free margarine

6 tbsp olive oil

1 large diced white onion

12 button mushrooms sliced into quarters

4 cloves of garlic

300g Arborio rice

50g mixed dry wild mushrooms (any dried mushrooms will do)

Large glass of dry white wine

1l of mushroom stock

1 tbsp vegetable stock

1 large thinly sliced leek

½ lemon - juice and a little bit of zest for serving

Salt and pepper

250ml soya cream

3 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

 

Method

1 Firstly you want to steep the dried mushrooms in 1l of hot water, you can add the stock to this also.

2 Heat the oil and margarine in a deep pan, add the diced white onion and fry until soft.

3 Add the thinly sliced leeks and button mushrooms and continue to fry for about 5 min or until the veg softens and starts to colour nicely.

4 Add your rice and stir slowly trying to evenly coat it in the butter, olive oil and juices.

5 Stir in a large ladle of the wild mushroom stock, you can start adding the mushrooms at this point also. Keep stirring slowly, this is the key to getting the rice lovely and creamy.

6 Continue adding the stock ladle by ladle until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is al dente.

7 Once you come to this point turn to a low heat and stir in a little more butter, the nutritional yeast and the cream and keep stirring and tasting until the rice is just about cooked.

8 I add the wine and lemon at this point also as you don't want to burn off the taste too early on.

9 Give it one last stir and add a little bit of salt and pepper to taste.

10 Cover with the pan lid and prepare a little bit of dressed rocket for garnish, I use a white balsamic dressing normally but you can use just olive oil, or anything that's not too overpowering.

I also like to use a little bit of lemon zest through the rocket to freshen and cut through the creaminess of the risotto.

Peppery, creamy, zesty and a little bit boozy… what more could you want from a dish?