
Last night we had a delicious Zucchini Lemon Risotto. Risotto is one of the best dishes that Italian cuisine has to offer. Actually, we had the vegan sister of the risotto, without parmesan cheese, butter or cream.
Nutritional Yeast – The Vegan Allround “Cheese”
As always, we imitated the cheesy taste with yeast. We tried once with fresh yeast, once with yeast flakes and twice with dry nutritional yeast. The best result was with dry yeast and the second best was fresh yeast. Both can be easily mixed in when you’ve just taken the risotto off the stove. You can also leave out the yeast if you don’t like it or you have an allergy to it. Instead, you may add a little more salt, but be careful, don’t oversalt it. Just try it out if you like it. For me, yeast has become an all-round tool in the kitchen since I became vegan. You might have already noticed this in several recipes.

Equipment-wise this recipe is really practical. A pot, a knife, a grater is enough.

A delicious Italian meal, like the creamy Zucchini Lemon Risotto and the great summer weather make me want to travel again. Unfortunately, this dream seems to remain a dream for now. How do you feel about that? Did you already have vacation plans for this year? Are you also waiting eagerly until you can start your next journey? I honestly can’t wait, and we simply bridge the time until then with lots of great vegan recipes from all over the world.
If you love everything that has to do with rice or rice noodles, you will also love our
VIETNAMESE RICE NOODLE SOUP (VEGAN PHO) and our
ROASTED ZUCCHINI RICE WITH POMGRANATE SAUCE




Zucchini Lemon Risotto
- Prep Time: 15 min.
- Cook Time: 30 min.
- Total Time: 45 min.
- Yield: 4 Portions
Ingredients
170–180 g risotto rice (canaroli or arborio)
4 soup ladles of vegetable broth
1 soup ladle of white wine
1 tsp. dry nutritional yeast
4-5 sprigs of thyme
1/2 zucchini
1 medium onion
1 large clove of garlic
Salt, pepper, to taste
1 lemon, juice and zest
1 handful of basil leaves
Instructions
- Finely dice the onions, grate or chop the garlic. Braise in a saucepan with a little olive oil.
- When the onions are glassy, add rice and let it sautée for about 5 minutes. Salt a little and then deglaze with white wine. Wait until the white wine has evaporated a little, this should happen after about 3 minutes. Now add a good ladle of broth. Simmer gently and stir again and again so that the rice does not get stuck.
- Add the broth one ladle at a time until the rice is cooked. Do not add a new ladle until the rice has completely absorbed the previous one. Try after 15 minutes. When the rice is almost ready, it should look like in the photos and still be slightly firm. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir well.
- While the rice is simmering, quarter the zucchini lengthways and cut it into fine slices. Then sautée it in a seperate pan with a little oil until the zucchinis are soft and slightly browned, see photo. Don’t forget to add salt and pepper to taste.
- After the rice has absorbed the 4 ladles of broth, it should be ready. Now take the pot off the stove, add 3 sprigs of thyme, stir well so that the aroma can be distributed. After about 2 minutes add the yeast, a good dash of lemon juice and the zest of half a lemon. Stir and season again with salt and pepper. Now add the zucchini and stir again.
- Arrange with basil and the rest of the finely chopped thyme.
Keywords: vegan risotto, vegan lunch, vegan rice dishes, lemon risotto, zuchini risotto, vegetarian risotto


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