This rich Japanese-inspired shiitake mushroom risotto is filled with umami in every bite. The perfect dish to elevate your next vegan meal!
Risotto can be extremely traditional - cooked down onions, butter, arborio rice, splash of white wine, and a rich stock. But it's also incredibly easy to dress up using your favorite ingredients. Some of my favorite risottos are squid ink, seafood, or butternut squash risottos. For this recipe, we're giving it an Asian twist and using sesame oil, shiitake mushrooms, and dashi broth to complete the dish.
Ingredients
- Arborio rice
- Neutral oil: If you do not need this dish to be vegan, you can also sub butter for the oil to get a richer flavor.
- Shallots or onion: Use shallots if you're able to find them, but you can also easily substitute with an onion.
- Shiitake mushrooms
- Light soy sauce
- White wine or sake
- Dashi: Dashi is a foundational base stock for many Japanese soups and accentuates the umami in any dish. You can find it in powder or granule form at most Asian supermarkets.
- Scallions
- White toasted sesame seeds
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
- Heat up a pot of water and add dashi stock. Once it comes to a boil and stock has fully dissolved, turn heat down and set aside.
- Heat up a pan and add oil. Sweat down the shallots until translucent.
- Add sliced mushrooms. Try not to crowd the pan and give the mushrooms space and time to cook down. Add light soy sauce over mushrooms. Let sit undisturbed for 2 minutes and then give it a stir.
- Add dry arborio rice. Toast the arborio until the kernels start to become a golden brown.
- Add white wine or sake to deglaze the pan.
- Add ½ cup of dashi stock at a time. Constantly stir so the rice doesn't stick to the pan. When the liquid is almost completely absorbed, add another ½ cup of dashi stock.
- Repeat the step of adding in ½ cup of dashi stock and constantly stirring until rice is tender but al dente. The final result should look like a thin oatmeal. This should take around 5 cups of dashi stock to achieve.
- Add in chopped scallions and white toasted sesame seeds and serve!
Variations
If you're not looking for a vegetarian/vegan dish and would like to add more protein, add pan-fried seafood. In a separate pan, pan-fry a couple scallops, shrimp, or seafood mix in butter. Season with salt and pepper. Top risotto with seafood.
Storage
It's possible to store the leftover risotto in a air-tight container in the fridge for 2-3 days, however, the liquid will continue to be soaked up by the rice kernels so the final texture won't be exactly the same as freshly cooked risotto.
Key tip
Patience is key with risotto. Don't try to add in all the stock at once to get it to cook faster and always stand by your pan. You don't want to risk the dish drying out or sticking to the pan, so keep stirring the rice during the entire cooking process!
📖 Recipe
Japanese Mushroom Risotto
Ingredients
- 1 cup arborio rice
- 1½ tablespoon dashi stock
- 6 cups water
- 2 tablespoon neutral oil
- 1 small shallot (or yellow onion)
- 150 grams shiitake mushrooms (sliced)
- 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- ½ cup white wine (or sake)
- 2 scallions (chopped)
- Toasted white sesame seeds
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Heat up a pot of water and add dashi stock. Once it comes to a boil and stock has fully dissolved. Turn off heat and set aside.
- Heat up a pan and add oil. Sweat down the shallots until translucent.
- Add sliced mushrooms. Try not to crowd the pan and give the mushrooms space and time to cook down. Add light soy sauce over mushrooms. Let sit undisturbed for 2 minutes and then give it a stir.
- Add dry arborio rice. Toast the rice until the kernels start to become a golden brown.
- Add white wine or sake to deglaze the pan.
- Add ½ cup of dashi stock at a time. Continue to stir so the rice doesn't stick to the pan. When the liquid is almost completely absorbed, add another ½ cup of dashi stock.
- Repeat the step of adding in dashi stock and stirring until rice is tender but still al dente. The final result should look like thin oatmeal. This should take around 5 cups of dashi stock to achieve.
- Add in chopped scallions and white toasted sesame seeds and serve! Feel free to also add more salt and black pepper to taste, if needed!
FAQ
You won't get the correct risotto texture if you're not using arborio rice. Arborio rice is a short-grain rice that is particularly high in starch. This starch cooks down in the liquid (the stock) and gives this dish the firmer and creamier consistency that risotto is known for.
If you are not able to get dashi powder at a store near you, you can also substitute dashi with a miso paste or simply just replacing with a low sodium vegetable broth.
You're free to use whatever mushrooms your heart desires! I use shiitake as its a common Asian mushroom, but it's also possible to use just regular brown mushrooms or the always delicious oyster mushrooms. Make sure there's enough oil on the pan to give the mushrooms a nice brown color.
Leave a Reply