Sprout & Pea

A few weeks ago I had an incred­i­ble vegan meal at a lit­tle spot right around the cor­ner from my old stomp­ing grounds in the West Vil­lage. I was equally excited to be din­ing in the old hood as I was to be shar­ing a meal with some of my favorite peo­ple. The deli­cious food was a bonus and served as a lit­tle inspi­ra­tion in my own kitchen. My friend had raved about Blos­som for some time so I decided it was finally time to see what all of the fuss was about. Among a table of unique cock­tails, pizza that you would never know was vegan, and many other knock your socks off dishes, stood my favorite plate of the night — their vegan risotto. A few weeks later, I decided it was time to attempt mak­ing the vegan risotto myself.

With­out research­ing any recipes, I thought I would wing it and try mak­ing this with some cashew cream — some­thing I had been want­ing to exper­i­ment with for some time. I googled how to make the cashew cream (sim­ple as pie — blend raw cashews with water) and sub­sti­tuted it in for but­ter. The risotto came out rich and creamy and didn’t leave me in a food coma, and it was very sim­i­lar to the risotto I had eaten a few weeks prior at Blos­som. I topped my din­ner off with some pump­kin from my CSA that I roasted while the risotto was cook­ing. If you’re crav­ing risotto this win­ter but don’t want all of the fat involved in the clas­sic meal, I highly rec­om­mend giv­ing this a try. Here’s how to make it…

1 1/​2 cups arbo­rio rice
5 cup veg­etable broth
1 cup dry white wine (I used half white wine, half dry sherry)
2 medium shal­lots diced
2 tbs extra vir­gin olive oil
1 cup raw cashews
1/​2 cup water
1–2 cups roasted pump­kin — cut into small cubes for roast­ing
Zest of one lemon

To make the cashew cream, blend raw cashews and water in food proces­sor until smooth. Start with 1/​2 a cup of water and add a bit more if too thick.

Place slices of pump­kin in a pan with a lit­tle olive oil and roast at 400 degrees while risotto is cook­ing, keep­ing an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn or crisp (about 15 minutes).

In a pot (I used a Le Creuset), saute shal­lots in olive oil over medium heat until they begin to soften and become translu­cent. Con­tinue to cook over low-​​medium heat for a few more min­utes. Add white wine to the veg­etable broth and add 1/​2 cup of the liq­uid to the pot and then add rice — there should be enough liq­uid to just cover the rice — add more if nec­es­sary. Cook over medium heat, stir­ring occa­sion­ally. As liq­uid absorbes con­tinue to add more — about 1/​2 a cup at a time. Con­tinue stir­ring after you add more liq­uid. After about 15–20 min­utes, rice should begin to soften. When rice is fully cooked (give it a taste to see if it is soft), mix in the cashew cream. Add lemon zest and mix. Remove pump­kin from the oven and mix into risotto.