Mushroom Risotto: A Meatless Main for Catholic Lent
A mushroom risotto lives or dies by generosity: three-quarters of a kilo of mushrooms, cooked hard until they are properly golden, half of them stirred through the rice and half piled on top so no spoonful is without one. The rice itself — arborio, cooked in batches of hot stock in a wide pot — turns silky on its own starch, with butter, cream and Parmesan beaten in at the end. It is comfort food of a high order, and it contains no meat.
But risotto is also a dish where the meat question hides in the one ingredient nobody sees. The best-known version of this recipe cooks the rice in chicken stock — five cups of it — and a risotto made that way is not a meatless dish, no matter how many mushrooms it carries. This post makes the substitution the Lenten kitchen requires, and makes it without apology: vegetable stock, or better still mushroom stock, which deepens the very flavour the dish is about. Mushrooms browned properly and a mushroom-forward stock give a risotto that loses nothing to the chicken version. On a Friday of Lent it is a main dish to look forward to; on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday, a full bowl of it is a meal in the strict sense, which is why it carries this collection's strict-day tag.
Ingredients
- 500 g (1 lb) mushrooms, sliced 3 mm (1/8 inch) thick
- 250 g (1/2 lb) mushrooms, quartered
- 4 tbsp butter, divided (3 tbsp for the mushrooms, 1 tbsp for the rice), plus 2 tbsp more to finish (optional)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced, divided
- 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper, divided
- 2 eschallots (French shallots), finely chopped (or 1/2 an onion)
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 1 1/4 cups arborio rice
- 5 cups (1.2 litres) warm vegetable or mushroom stock — never chicken stock in this post
- 1/2 cup cream (optional)
- 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan, plus more to serve
- Finely chopped parsley or chives, to serve
Method
- Cook the mushrooms first, in two batches so they brown instead of stewing: melt 1 tablespoon of olive oil and half the mushroom butter in a large heavy pot over high heat, add half the mushrooms, and cook until deeply golden, about 4 minutes. Add half the garlic and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper and cook 1–2 minutes more. Tip into a bowl and repeat with the rest.
- Lower the heat to medium and melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in the same pot. Add the last clove of garlic and the eschallots and cook for 2 minutes, until the eschallot is translucent.
- Pour in the wine and let it bubble hard for about 2 minutes, scraping the base of the pot, until mostly evaporated. Add the rice and stir for 1 minute, until the grains turn semi-translucent at the edges.
- Add the warm stock about 1 1/2 cups at a time. Stir, then leave the risotto to absorb it — about 3 minutes — stirring only a few times, before adding the next batch. After the last addition (about 10–12 minutes in total), the rice should be just cooked and the risotto still loose and creamy, never stiff.
- Stir in the cream if using, the extra butter if using, and the Parmesan, beating vigorously for a few seconds — this is what wakes the rice's starch into the sauce. Season with the remaining salt and pepper.
- Fold half the mushrooms through the risotto. Warm the reserved mushrooms briefly, then ladle the risotto into bowls, pile the mushrooms on top with their buttery juices, and finish with parsley and more Parmesan. Serve immediately — risotto waits for no one.
Rule source: Catholic abstinence rule: Code of Canon Law c. 1251 and the USCCB norms — on days of abstinence (every Friday of Lent; Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are also days of fasting) the meat of land animals and birds is excluded, while fish, dairy and eggs are permitted. Risotto is where stock choice decides everything: this post uses vegetable or mushroom stock only.
Notes
- The stock substitution is the recipe, for our purposes. The famous version of this dish uses chicken stock. Ours never does: vegetable stock keeps it honest, and mushroom stock — from dried mushrooms soaked in hot water, or a good shop-bought one — makes it better. Check the label on powdered stocks; some "vegetable" blends are fine and some mushroom stocks are cut with chicken fat.
- Brown the mushrooms in batches. Crowded mushrooms steam in their own juice and stay pale; pale mushrooms are where this dish's flavour leaks away. Two batches, high heat, no stirring until they colour.
- You do not need to stir constantly. In a wide pot, adding the stock in a few batches and stirring regularly — especially toward the end — gives the same creamy result as the ladle-by-ladle vigil. Serious recipe testers have verified this; home cooks can relax.
- Loose is right. A finished risotto should ooze when ladled, not stand in a mound. If yours tightens up at the table, beat in a splash of hot water.
- Leftovers keep 3–4 days in the fridge. Reheat with a splash of milk, stirring, until creamy again — or roll cold risotto into balls, crumb them, and fry them into arancini for the weekend.
Frequently asked questions
Is mushroom risotto allowed on a Lenten Friday?
Yes — in this form. The rice, mushrooms, butter, cream and Parmesan are all permitted, and the stock is vegetable or mushroom. The same dish made with chicken stock would not be meatless, which is why the stock is specified so firmly here.
Can it be the one full meal on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday?
Yes. It is a rich, complete main — rice, a full load of mushrooms, dairy — and a full bowl of it is a meal. That is why it carries the strict-day tag.
Can I leave out the wine?
Yes. Replace it with a ladle of the stock and a small squeeze of lemon at the end. Alcohol is not restricted by the abstinence law in any case, and what wine goes in cooks down in the pot. ---
