This vegan chanterelle risotto makes every gourmet’s mouth water. It is creamy, hearty, herby, simple to make - and full of amazing chanterelle flavour that shines across the whole dish like sunlight across an alpine meadow on a warm summer day.
Wild chanterelle mushrooms
The chanterelle mushrooms absolutely shine in this risotto. The combination with onions and herbs always works perfectly for savoury dishes. The unique flavour of the bright orange chanterelles makes this an awesome seasonal treat. Or dehydrate chanterelles when they are fresh and enjoy our vegan chanterelle risotto the whole year round! We like to sun dry them behind the windscreen, on the dashboard of our van.
The chanterelles have such a characteristic, charismatic, unique, special, amazing flavour… I could go on raving about them for hours. They are one of the main reasons for us to visit a certain area in Austria (where chanterelles are called Eierschwammerl - ‘egg mushrooms’) every summer or autumn, and there we have a little chanterelle festival.
Chanterelle mushrooms are happy to lend their earthy and fruity aroma to many meals as the heart of the dish, but also make a great addition to any hearty, savoury recipe. We like them best when they are fried with some onions and herbs before combined with other ingredients.
Before I actually rave on about how awesome chanterelles are, let’s get back to the risotto.
Pressure cooking risotto
Pressure cooking a risotto is our favourite way to make risotto. No long cooking time or endless stiring! Pressure cooking reduces the cooking time of any dish, while preserving more nutrients than conventional cooking. In the camper van, that means saving some gas, while also saving time and eating more healthy!
But of course, you can also cook this recipe without using a pressure cooker.
No wine? No problem!
You could use white wine for deglazing, as almost any risotto recipe calls for. But as we usually don’t have a bottle of white wine in our van, we got creative using some of our staple ingredients. We usually use a splash of soy sauce and lemon or lime juice, which serves the same purpose of adding some extra flavour and a subtle tang to the vegan chanterelle risotto. You can also substitute apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar for the lemon juice.
Rounding it off with herbs
On the same walk on which we picked the chanterelles for the risotto, we also came across some wild oregano. So that’s what we used to herb up the risotto, but any herb mix will do the job perfectly, like herbs de provence or italian herbs. In the alpine area you would likely find chanterelles paired with parsley a lot.
Nutritional yeast in vegan risotto
Nutritional yeast works magic in vegan risottos. It’s key role is to add a ‘cheesy’ flavour typical for risottos, but also helps make it more creamy. It also adds some extra nutrients to vegan dishes. Simply mix it in at the end of the cooking process. And don’t be too frugal with it!
Other recipes:
If you are looking for more vegan risotto recipes, why not try these?
Caramelised Fennel Risotto with Herby Garlic Cashews
Squash Lentil Risotto
More of our chanterelle recipes:
Wild Chanterelle Mushroom Goulash
Creamy Chanterelle Soup
📖 Recipe
Vegan Chanterelle Risotto
Ingredients
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 cups chanterelle mushrooms chopped
- 2 tsp mixed herbs (see notes)
- 1 pinch black pepper ground
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp lemon juice lime juice or cider vinegar
- 1 tsp stock powder or bouillon
- 1 cup short grain rice for brown rice: see notes
- 2 cups water more as needed
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- a couple strands of saffron (optional)
- ¼ tsp kala namak (optional)
Instructions
- Clean the chanterelles. Small mushrooms can be left whole, larger ones can be chopped into chunks. The mushrooms will shrink to half their size when cooked.
- Fry the onion in olive oil, stirring frequently, until start to brown ever so slightly.
- Add garlic and chanterelle mushrooms. After a few more minutes, add herbs.
- Cook on until liquid is almost boiled off. If the mushrooms are a bit dry and don't give off any liquid, add a splash of water.
- Add stock powder and rice, and saffron and kala namak if using. Toss around for two minutes, to coat the rice in oil.
- Deglaze with wine substitute: soy sauce & vinegar/lemon juice.
- Add water to cover the rice. Bring to boil and turn down the heat to a gentle simmer. As the liquid gets absorbed, keep adding water to keep the rice just covered. Once the rice is done al dente (after about 20 minutes), let it absorb the rest of the liquid until a creamy consistency is reached.
- When the rice is cooked, mix in the nutritional yeast.
- Season with salt & pepper, to taste. Mind that the risotto will taste more salty when it has cooled down a bit.
Notes
Nutrition
This information is calculated per serving and is an estimate only.
Brandy says
What are the pressure cooker instructions? I only see to add five additional minutes for brown rice but I don't know what the starting time is.
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Brandy,
when you use pressure cooking, just 1.5 cups (360ml) of water per cup of rice instead of 2. When the water is in, close the pressure cooker, and when it's come up to pressure, cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pressure drop naturally. When safe to open, stir in the nutritional yeast, add small amounts of hot water if it seems too dry. Season to taste and enjoy!
Sorry that the pressure cooker instructions seem to have escaped us when we updated the post and recipe! Will try and fix that soon 🙂 Thanks so much for making us aware, hope you'll enjoy the risotto!
Brenda V Schnell says
Wanting to make this but how much nutritional yeast? Not mentioned in recipe.
Sophie and Paul says
Oops, thanks Brenda for spotting that! I've corrected it now. Stir in two tablespoons, and if you want, sprinkle on some more on the plate 🙂 Enjoy! Paul