In the northern region of Lombardia (Lombardy), traditional dishes include mostly meat. Lombardy is landlocked, bordering Switzerland, and has no access to the sea. With many open fields, lakes and fields, Lombardy uses meat and fresh water fish in many dishes.
Risotto is a very common dish. Risotto is rice based dish and is used as a primo piatto, or “first plate” if you will. Arborio is the popular rice in Italy and used to make risottos.
The traditional Risotto alla Milanese or Risotto allo Zafferano (Saffron rice) is made with meat broth, meat pieces, butter and cheese. For a vegetarian version you can use butter and cheese, but then again it is not vegan (or animal) friendly.
But we have “veganized” the risotto and made it animal free! We call it Risotto alla “Veganese” to indicate the animal free dish!
We basically took the original recipe then substituted the animal products for non-animal products.
400 gr of brown rice
1 medium onion
1/2 glass of white wine (optional)
1 liter of vegetable broth
Nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon saffron
To prepare:
Begin slicing the onion. Then let it saute a few minutes with the olive oil in a pan on low heat.
When it’s slightly browned, add the rice and begin toasting it a couple minutes. The add the wine and let it evaporate. Begin to add the vegetable broth to start cooking the rice, adding the broth little by little until it has all been absorbed.
A couple minutes before the rice is completely cooked, add the saffron into a bit of hot broth until it starts to dissolve, then add to rice. Add salt to taste.
Remove the rice from the flame and add nutritional yeast. Mix well and let sit 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!!
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