Mushroom Risotto (Stovetop & Instant Pot!)
I find the stovetop will produce a more classic, creamy risotto, but it is significantly more involved than the Instant Pot method. I reserve the stovetop method for special occasions and the Instant Pot method for day-to-day eating.
Equipment
- medium saucepan
- large saute pan
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 4.5-7 cups vegetable broth [note#1]
- 1 large shallot finely diced; sub 1 yellow onion or 1 leek
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 stalk celery finely diced
- 16 ounces white or cremini mushrooms cubed
- 2 cups Arborio rice sub Carnaroli or Vialone Nano rice [note #2]
- 1 tsp dried thyme sub 1 tbsp fresh thyme
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
Stovetop (see cooking tips in notes)
- While doing your prep and sautéing, warm 7 cups of vegetable broth in the microwave or a medium saucepan over a low heat; turn off once bubbling to prevent too much from evaporating.
- Over medium heat, saute shallot, garlic & celery until soft, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add mushrooms and cook until water has released and cooked off, about 8-12 minutes.
- Add rice and dried thyme, stir and cook for an additional minute, then deglaze the pan with 1 cup of vegetable broth [note#1]
- Begin stirring in reserved vegetable stock one cup at a time and waiting until it has almost completely absorbed before adding the next, stirring continuously until rice is cooked through and creamy. Stirring constantly while the risotto is cooking is essential for producing it's signature texture!
- Season with salt & pepper and serve.
- Enjoy!
Instant Pot
- While doing your prep and sautéing, warm the vegetable broth in the microwave or a medium saucepan over a low heat; turn off once bubbling to prevent too much from evaporating.
- Directly in your Instant Pot on the Sauté setting (or over medium heat if using a stovetop pressure cooker), sauté shallot, garlic & celery until soft, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add mushrooms and cook until water has released and cooked off, about 8-12 minutes.
- Add rice and dried thyme, stir and cook for an additional minute, then turn the Instant Pot off (or turn off the heat on your stovetop pressure cooker) and deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of vegetable broth [note#1] and stir well to remove anything stuck to the bottom.
- Add the remaining vegetable broth, cover with the pressure cooker lid and set the cooker to manual, high pressure for 5 minutes [note#3].
- Once Instant Pot or pressure cooker has come to pressure and 5 minute timer has gone off, release the pressure using the quick release (using an oven mitt) right away, and remove the pot insert (or the pressure cooker from the heat) to prevent the rice from overcooking.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- While you can just substitute water for most of my recipes, with something like a risotto where you aren't making your own broth (as a opposed to a soup or stew) the vegetable broth is necessary to get really good flavor. You can sub the 1/2-1 cup of vegetable broth first used to deglaze your pan with a chardonnay or other white wine. Just make sure to cook off the alcohol smell before moving on to the next step (if you are using the Instant pot, leave the Saute setting on until the alcohol has cooked off).
- You definitely need a risotto-specific rice to make risotto (at least in my opinion). Lower starch content rice like Jasmine or Basmati will just end up mushy rather than that creamy, rich, puffy and slightly chewy texture risotto is known for. I have tested all three types of high-starch-content rice, and tend to just use Arborio because it's the most affordable. The other two are much more expensive but will result in an even creamier, richer risotto. I would personally only use Carnaroli or Vialone Nano if I was really trying to impress someone because they are so dang pricey!
- While risotto typically needs to be stirred continuously to produce the starchy, creaminess risotto is known for, this is not necessary in an Instant Pot or pressure cooker because the pressure will naturally agitate the rice while it's cooking. It will not be quite as starchy as stovetop, but it still comes out great for much less effort.
- Use a large enough pan with good surface area, so the rice can actually get in contact with the bottom of your pan, rather than piling up.
- Use a hot vegetable stock. Using cold or lukewarm broth will cool down the risotto every time you add your broth to the pan, slowing down the cooking time and resulting in crunchy, undercooked rice.
- Keep extra hot stock available while stirring, just have a good amount on hand so you can add as need and keep it cooking until it reaches the right texture.
- Only toast your rice for a minute. Over-toasting it can create a harder shell or coating on the rice kernels, making it harder for them to absorb the stock and resulting in crunchy, undercooked rice.
- Aim for a slow, gentle bubble of a simmer as the rice is cooking, just enough to provide a little bit of movement in the rice as your stock reduces.
- Avoid cooking your rice at too low a heat for too long to avoid it becoming gummy.
- Perhaps the biggest misconception is that you have to constantly stir risotto while it's cooking. If you have your pan with good surface area and it's set to the right heat, you just need to stir it every few minutes to check on it, make sure nothing is sticking, and know when you're ready to add the next round of stock to the pan.