These Luxurious Risotto Recipes Taste Gourmet, But Are Surprisingly Simple to Make
You need not be a professional chef to ace these dreamy, creamy side dish recipes.
If you reserve risotto recipes for restaurant meals only, it’s time to go with the grain.
These homemade risotto recipes featuring cheese, peas, mushrooms, and more showcase how doable it is to transform rice into a silky, chef-quality risotto recipe in the comfort of your own kitchen. Who’s ready to spoon?
Gruyère Risotto with Arugula Gremolata
With a foundation built upon arborio rice, broth, white wine, butter, and garlic, the base of this risotto recipe is quite classic. You might not guess it by first glance, or even by first bite, but one secret makes this one of our editors’ favorite risotto remixes. Since we’ve perfected how to make risotto in an Instant Pot or slow cooker, this creamy dish asks for next to no stirring. While the hands-off risotto comes together, mix up the refreshing arugula gremolata to shower over the top to cut through the richness.
Summer Risotto with Corn Butter and Shrimp
Most risotto recipes fit firmly into “comfort food” territory, so they’re often reserved for cooler weather. This creative and colorful rendition has entered the chat to convince you that risotto can be a summer dish, too. For double the farmers market flavor, we stoke this stovetop recipe with fresh corn kernels as well as “corn butter” that’s made in a similar way to apple butter. “This was phenomenal!!! There are not enough stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐️,” one BHG home cook says.
Mushroom Risotto with Peas
Invest just 20 minutes of hands-on time and you can sit down to a risotto recipe that will have your fellow diners asking which restaurant you ordered takeout from. The slow cooker once again comes in clutch to make this silky rice side dish easy—as does a bag of frozen peas. The bright, mildly sweet flavor of those peas play nicely with the savory mushrooms.
Test Kitchen Tip: Use a vegetable peeler to create Asiago shavings to shower over each bowl for a gourmet-looking garnish.
Verde Risotto
There’s no need to add a separate salad to your meal when you have this risotto recipe on the menu. This vegan and gluten-free dish showcases that vegetable-forward eating need not include an ounce of deprivation. A whopping 2 cups each of fresh basil and spinach wild down to give the creamy rice its vibrant hue. Asparagus, artichoke hearts, shredded zucchini, and peas pack in even more fresh flavor along with plenty of vitamins and fiber. Pair this with your favorite protein main and dinner is done.
Chicken with Marsala Risotto
Speaking of protein partners, this risotto recipe has that handled so no other meal prep is required beyond this umami-rich dish. (Well, except for perhaps opening a bottle of light red wine to enjoy alongside.) Quick-cooking chicken tenderloins are a lovely echo to the savory mushrooms in the risotto underneath.
Test Kitchen Tip: This risotto recipe currently takes less than an hour to make, but to trim down on prep time, multitask by grilling the chicken while you wait for the mushroom-infused rice to soak up the broth.
Risotto with Caramelized Onions, Bacon, and Mushrooms
Marty Baldwin
You’re probably more familiar with enjoying bacon as part of breakfast. And perhaps we’ve convinced you to set aside some strips for these showstopping sweet-and-savory bacon desserts. But have you ever tried bolstering your risotto recipe with the popular pork product? Here, the bacon works like its cured Italian cousin prosciutto; its fat helps caramelize the onions, then the crumbles themselves echo the umami flavors found in the mushrooms.
Fresh Pea Risotto
Don’t be turned off by the name of this risotto recipe if it’s not pea season. Fresh and frozen vegetables work equally well in this lemon- and fennel-infused rice side dish. Once you taste a bite that includes those sweet and juicy peas, the savory prosciutto, the garlic-scented silky rice, and the nutty cheese—all brightened by a burst of lemon zest—you’ll want to add this to your menu all year long.
Risotto
This is it: Our best classic risotto recipe. This is a fantastic place to start if you’ve never made risotto before. We bet you’ll be surprised how easy (5 ingredients) and fast (30 minutes) the Italian side dish can be.
Slow Cooker Pumpkin Farrotto
If you’ve been hanging for us a bit here at BHG, then you know that we love a solid mash-up. Some of our favorite creations exist because we decided to play around with blending two ideas we already loved together. (See: Crab Rangoon Mozzarella Sticks and Pumpkin Spice Latte Pie.) That’s the hook for this easy slow cooker recipe, which marries the idea of risotto but features another whole grain that absorbs liquids and flavors well without becoming mushy: farro. The nutty notes of that grain are a lovely counterpoint to the earthy-sweet canned pumpkin.
Pressure Cooker Butternut Squash and Apple Risotto
Risotto and butternut squash both have reputations for taking a long time to prepare. Tag in your Instant Pot and both cook up beautifully—at the same time, in less than an hour, and scented with sage, broth, and wine—in this Test Kitchen-favorite risotto recipe.
Test Kitchen Tip: Heat the chicken broth in the microwave as you toast the rice in the Instant Pot using the Sauté setting. This will help bring the pot up to pressure even quicker than the 7 minutes listed.
Tarragon Shrimp with Easiest-Ever Risotto
What makes this risotto recipe easier than the rest? The fact that we cracked the code about how to make this rice side similar to steamed rice. Simply combine sautéed onion, arborio rice, and chicken broth in a pot. Bring that all to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and in 15 minutes you’ll be left with luscious risotto that’s ready to be doctored up with rice and Parmesan, and paired with shrimp or any other protein. (Rotisserie chicken would make this the ultimate no-sweat supper!)
Risotto with Chicken and Spring Peas
Feel free to choose your own adventure with this well-balanced dinner risotto recipe. You can either opt to follow the shortcut, no-stir method we just explained or stick to the traditional hands-on technique. Either way takes about the same amount of total time—a mere 30 minutes—thanks to savvy store-bought additions like frozen peas, shredded carrots, and shredded rotisserie chicken.
Vegetable-Pesto Risotto Casserole
Casseroles and risotto are generally viewed as sweater weather dishes. We’ve blended the two and gave the mash-up a makeover for spring and summer in this surprisingly light and bright-tasting meal. Zucchini, summer squash, corn, eggplant, and tomatoes check off a vegetable serving, and a generous scoop of store-bought or homemade pesto drives home the summer vibes. Since this bakes in the oven, stovetop time is minimal. That means you can mostly keep your distance from the toasty appliance.
Carrot Orzotto
Technically, orzo is pasta, true. However, we treat the rice-shaped noodles like arborio here, so we couldn't resist sneaking this carrot recipe in. It’s another example of how a risotto recipe can also act as your vegetable side; this feat-crowned dish features both carrot juice (which teams up with broth to act as the cooking liquid for the orzo) and shredded carrots (which melt down beautifully as the orzotto comes together). Don’t just take our word for it that you should try this side: “Just made this for a quick dinner,” one five-star reviewer says. “It was easy and exceptional.”
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