This vegan butternut squash risotto with roasted, caramelized broccoli is the comfort food that you didn’t even know you could make! Learn how to easily make this comfort food, restaurant-quality dish at home.
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Have you ever really wanted to surprise yourself that you could make something? Was it risotto? Guess what!? I’m going to show you how to do it perfectly.
Risotto can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be.
You, even if you’re new to cooking in the kitchen yourself, can make a deliciously creamy vegan butternut squash risotto that will have any guests shocked that you did this yourself.
I mean you’ll shock yourself too maybe! But if it means you’re leveling up your cooking skills, then we need to get on it, ASAP!
You’ll be left with this insanely decadent and creamy risotto that you won’t be able to get enough of that you might even make it twice in one week.
Jump to:
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Restaurant Quality – Sometimes you just want a dish that will really impress. Whether impress yourself or someone else, this dish will level up your cooking skills without a lot of work and taste like a chef sat it in front of you.
- Great Texture – we love combining texture to really heighten your senses. Between the creamy risotto, the crispy roasted broccoli, and the flavor bursting taste of the sauce, you’ll be in heaven!
- Holiday Worthy – This dish has the ability to impress during any holiday season making it a great main dish to serve.
Ingredients and Substitutions:
Gather your ingredients! See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
- Butternut Squash – When you roasted your butternut squash you get this rich sweetness that comes from the caramelization in the oven and then when we puree that to add into our risotto for this creaminess that you will just want again and again.
- Substitute: Try sweet potatoes instead
- Arborio Rice – this is the classic rice used to make risotto
- Substitute: You could do this with other types of rice, but you’ll want to add all the stock in the rice at one time (cutting it down to 2 cups) and then proceed.
- Broccoli – we are cutting florets and then roasted them for a different texture on top of the soft and creamy texture of the risotto
- Substitute: You can use cauliflower instead, as well as Brussels sprouts, broccolini, or bok choy (steam this one instead of roasted)
- Coconut Milk– I love the sweetness, but more so the creaminess that this brings to the sweet potato puree.
- Substitute: Blend raw cashews and water together with the squash if you want a more savory option
- Onions, Celery, and Garlic – is used for aromatics and base flavor
- Tip: You can use your favorite onions – yellow, white, or shallots
- Vegetable Stock – we like using a low sodium vegetable stock so that we can control the sodium level inside of our recipe
- Spices – We are using a combination of Italian seasoning, onion powder, chili flakes, salt, nutmeg, and smoked paprika for our recipe
- Tahini Miso Sauce – we made a tahini miso for the top of this by combining tahini, roasted sesame oil, white miso, maple syrup, low-sodium soy sauces, and fresh ginger
- Substitute: The miso could be subbed with more tahini. And the soy sauce could be tamari or coconut aminos. Swap the sesame oil for a great olive oil, and tahini could use peanut butter.
Other must try vegan restaurant quality dishes:
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The Best Creamy Butternut Squash Risotto!
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoon olive oil, divided
- 2 cups Butternut Squash, cubed
- 1 head Broccoli, cut into florets
- ½ cup canned coconut milk (120g)
- ¼ Cup vegan parmesan, up to ½ cup if desired (30-60g)
- 1 Yellow onion, diced
- 1 rib Celery, diced
- 3 Garlic Cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional, more or less to taste
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ tsp nutmeg
- 1 Cup Dried Arborio Rice (200g)
- ½ cup Dry white wine (120g) (sub with vegetable stock)
- 4 Cups Vegetable Stock (960g)
- 1-2 tablespoon lemon juice
- Chopped parsley, if desired
For Miso Tahini Sauce, Optional
- ⅓ cup tahini (80g)
- ½ inch fresh ginger root, grated
- 1 tablespoon white miso
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- ½ tablespoon toasted sesame oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200C). Add 2 cups of butternut squash cubes on a parchment lined baking tray. Drizzle 2 tablespoon of oil and toss together to coat the cubes. Sprinkle on some salt as desired. On a separate baking tray, add your broccoli and toss with 2 tablespoon of oil and then sprinkle salt as desired. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until fork tender.
- Once butternut squash is finished cooking, let cool for 5 minutes, and then add to a blender with ½ cup (120g) of coconut milk and ¼ cup (30g) of vegan parmesan. Blend until smooth. Set aside.
- To a large pot, add 2 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Once heated, add in 1 diced yellow onion and sautee until some caramelization has developed, stirring occasionally, about 4-5 minutes.
- Add in 3-4 diced ribs of celery and 3 minced cloves of garlic. Stir together and cook for 2 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, ½ teaspoon onion powder and red pepper flakes (more or less to taste), ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika and salt, and ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg. Stir together and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add in 1 cup (200g) dried arborio rice and tir together. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add ½ cup (120g) dry white wine and stir together and scrap the bottom of the pan to get off anything sticking. Add 2 cups (480g) vegetable stock, stir and let absorb. Do not allow to completely evaporate.
- Once absorbed, add 1 more cup (120g) vegetable stock and allow that to absorb and then repeat with last 1 cup of stock.
- Once your last cup of stock is mostly absorbed, add in 1 cup of butternut squash puree. Stir together well until it's uniform and creamy. Add in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (more to taste). Remove from heat
- Top with your roasted broccoli and serve with chopped parsley and the tahini miso dressing on top if desired.
For the Miso Tahini Sauce
- In a small bowl or jar, whisk together ⅓ cup (80g) tahini, ½ inch ginger root, 1 tablespoon each white miso, maple syrup, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and ½ tablespoon toasted sesame oil.
Video
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions:
We don’t recommend freezing risotto.
Yes! Make ahead and let cool completely. Then, store in air tight containers in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Yes! Sub the coconut milk for creamy oat milk. The soy sauce for tamari, coconut aminos, or a no soy soy sauce if needed. The sesame oil can be swapped for a high quality olive oil, while the tahini can be subbed with a nut butter or sunbutter.
We love added the broccoli on top of this risotto, but you could also toss some chickpeas onto your roasting tray and get a great crunchy texture from them.
Holy Yum! This is a fabulous dairy-free risotto. Loved the broccoli on top. Didn’t have time to try the miso sauce, but I’ll bet it’s bomb! Thank you.
Second time making this and it’s even yummier than I remembered… like it’s magic in my mouth, it’s had such a positive impact on my whole day. Unreal. Thank you!!!
When my picky eater gives it a thumbs up, it’s time to do the happy dance!!!
Thanks you Make It Dairy-Free!
Love when that happens!
This is one of the best risotto recipes I have ever eaten. It’s going in the “every week at least once rotation”. All of it was soooo good (topping it with that delicious broccoli? And the tahini? GENIUS). Thank you!!!!
Oh wow, thank you so much for your kind words
Every time I make one of your recipes, I’m like, “There ain’t no way all these crazy random ingredients gonna work together.” And then they do.
HAHAHAHHAHA
Can I use black rice as a substitute?
Sorry we haven’t tried it to be able to say for sure. I do know that black rice takes a longer cooking nice than arborio (risotto) rice, so you’d want to keep that in mind if you try