Watch me make the recipe in the video below!

I call this WATCH ME WALK Baked Risotto because the risotto gets to watch you walk away instead of standing over a hot stove top the way your old risotto made you!

I watched Ina Garten make risotto this way on her cooking show and fell in love. I’ve always loved risotto but never liked having to be glued to cooking it-adding more broth and more broth and stirring and stirring-for 45 minutes or longer-who wants to really do that?! This version allows you to still achieve creamy, blissful risotto in less standing time AND I adapted Ina’s recipe to be VEGAN!

Here’s the vegan trick: YOU MUST BUY VEGAN WHITE WINE.

Did you know that wine isn’t always vegan? Traditional risotto is made with white wine. After researching, I’ve found that wine isn’t just made up of fermented grapes. The process to make wine sometimes allows for animal derived ingredients to be used during the filtering process. Learn more through this article on PETA’s website: Is wine vegan?

So……how do you find vegan wine? It’s actually pretty easy! Many wine specific shops know their wines and can either order you some OR they’ll point you to brands in their shop that are vegan. You can also do your own research before shopping via this awesome website: Barnivore: Vegan Wine Directory.

Prep/cook time: 60 minutes

Yield: 4-6 servings

Suggested cooking tools: large glass or stone baking dish with a lid (or use foil if it doesn’t have a lid), measuring cups, measuring spoons, large mixing spoon

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups arborio rice

• 1 cup vegan grated parmesan cheese (I used Violife and found it at Whole Foods)

• 2 cups frozen peas, thawed and warmed

• 5 cups vegetable stock, divided (I used a low-sodium version)

• 1/2 cup vegan white wine

• 3 tablespoons vegan butter (I used Melt Organic Vegan Butter and found it at Whole Foods)

• 1-2 teaspoons salt (depending on your tastes)

• 1/2-1 teaspoon pepper (depending on your tastes)

How-to:

1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees (F)

2. In a large baking dish, mix 4 cups vegetable stock and 1 1/2 cups arborio rice. Cover and place it in the oven for 45 minutes.

3. After 45 minutes, remove from the oven and add 1 more cup vegetable broth, the white wine, butter, parmesan cheese, and stir vigorously 2-3 minutes. Stirring this long will thicken the rice (you want this).

4. After stirring, add the peas, salt and pepper to taste. Stir again, gently, to incorporate the ingredients.

5. You can serve, eat and enjoy at this point! If you found that your risotto cooled down too much when stirring and mixing in the other ingredients, you can return it to the oven (covered) for about 5 minutes to re-heat.

Tips and Tricks:

• Store leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator

• Don’t like peas? Don’t add them. Try adding some roasted asparagus or roasted butternut squash or roasted beets instead! Be creative and make it your own!

Did you make this recipe? Leave me a comment or a send me a message below! I love to hear how people made my recipes their own!

Or, post it to social media and tag it #carolynsdailydishes or @carolynsbloomingcreations