Friday afternoon drinks, friends or family over, date night; there is always a good reason to conjure up a drinks board on the table. Usually, drinks boards, or the well-known ‘charcuterie’ contain huge amounts of ham hocks, sausages and dairy. Nina's vegan Italian drinks board shows that this is absolutely unnecessary.
Vegan Italian drinks board: vegan cheese tips
Since cheese is among my biggest guilty pleasure belongs, it is a challenge for me to completely eliminate it from my plant-based diet. In my search for the perfect vegan cheese, I asked the founders of Vegaliano meet; an online shop with the best selection of Italian products, but 100% vegan. As an Italian, you know better than anyone how vegan Parmesan cheese or mozzarella should really taste, and Vegaliano is totally entrusted with that. The vegan cheeses I used on my vegan Italian drinks board really amazed my guests and me. The texture and flavour are amazingly good. It even has the ability to melt. What more could you want?
Vegan Italian drinks board with arancini
A typical Italian dish is arancini. Arancini are - originally Sicilian - deep-fried rice balls with a coating of breadcrumbs. In short: a bitterball, but made of risotto. And, of course, we Dutch like bitterballen! For the arancini on this vegan Italian cocktail plate, I made my own risotto, but you can also very easily make arancini from your own leftover risotto. The arancini on this drinks board includes risotto with various mushrooms and vegan Parmesan cheese from Vegaliano. The Gran Murgiano has the capacity to melt and let that be just perfect for arancini.
Toppings on vegan drinks board
Besides the arancini, this vegan drinks board includes many more delectable toppings, namely: caprese from mezzerella with colourful tomatoes and basil, crostinis, loaded hummus with vegan rocket pesto and fried vine tomatoes, bruschetta with tomato salsa, vegan tapenade, olives, sundried tomatoes, marinated artichoke hearts, grilled sweet pointed pepper, fresh figs and red grapes. These are my favourite toppings anyway, but of course there are many more ingredients you can add. Above all, I hope that with this Mediterranean plant platter I offer you lots of inspiration for a vegan drinks board to leave an incredible impression on you and your company!
One of the favourites of this vegan drinks board are the risotto balls.
Vegan Italian drinks board
Kitchenware
- cutting board and knife
- come
- casserole
- saucepan (or fryer)
- large drink board
- ladle
- whisk
Ingredients
Arancini
- 150 gr risotto rice
- 200 gr mushroom mix
- 2 units vegetable stock cubes
- 1500 ml water
- 1 dash white wine
- 1 shallot
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 handful of fresh rosemary
- 100 gr vegan Parmesan cheese (Gran Murgiano of Vegaliano)
- 200 ml vegetable milk
- 100 gr patent flour
- 75 gr panko
- salt & pepper
Caprese
- vegan mozzarella (Mezzerella from Vegaliano)
- 3 tomatoes (different colours)
- extra virgin olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- salt & pepper
- fresh basil
Loaded pesto hummus
- your favourite hummus
- vegan pesto
- 10 vine tomatoes
Bruschetta
- 1 ciabatta
- 1 clove of garlic
- 3 tomatoes (different colours)
- 1/2 red onion
- 10 leaves fresh basil
- extra virgin olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- salt & pepper
Other toppings
- vegan tapenade
- red grapes
- fresh figs
- crostinis or toasts
- olives
- sun-dried tomatoes
- marinated artichoke hearts
- grilled sweet pointed pepper
- nuts
Instructions
Arancini
- Bring 1500 ml of water to the boil with 2 cubes of vegetable stock.
- Finely chop the shallot, garlic, mushrooms & rosemary.
- Heat a frying pan on low heat with some olive oil and fry the shallot first, then add the garlic. Fry briefly.
- Add the risotto rice and fry briefly until the rice grains become translucent.
- Deglaze the glazed rice grains with splash of white wine and reduce for a while until the wine is almost completely absorbed.
- Using a ladle, ladle 1 to 2 scoops of stock over to the pan of risotto so that the rice is submerged.
- Add the mushrooms and rosemary to allow the risotto to absorb all the flavours in time.
- Stir frequently so that the rice does not stick to the pan and keep adding some stock as soon as the rice has absorbed the stock previously ladled over.
- Taste regularly to check how far the risotto rice is cooked.
- Cooked? Turn off the heat and grate the Parmesan over the pan and stir well until the cheese is completely melted. Season to taste with salt & pepper.
- Let the risotto cool (stir occasionally in the pan so it cools down faster).
- Meanwhile, make a mixture with the whisk of the vegetable milk and flour in a bowl or deep plate.
- In another deep plate, add 75g of panko.
- Once the risotto has cooled, you can turn it into balls by hand.
- Dip each ball in the vegetable milk-flour mixture and then in the panko.
- Before serving, deep-fry for +/- 6 minutes at 200°C until the panko turns brown and the arancini become hot inside. Don't have a deep fryer? Then do so in a pan with ample oil.
- Sprinkle with some salt and serve on the Italian cocktail board.
Caprese
- Remove the mezzarella from the fridge an hour in advance to allow it to come to room temperature.
- Thinly slice the mezzerella and tomato.
- Serve the mezzerella and tomato alternately and garnish with some fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper.
Loaded pesto hummus
- Fry the vine tomatoes in some olive oil in a pan until they soften.
- Add the hummus to a bowl topped with the vegan pesto and the vine tomatoes.
Bruschetta
- Preheat the oven to 200°C. Cover the oven rack with baking paper.
- Slice the ciabatta, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and bake for 5 minutes until crisp. Leave to cool for a while and scrub a clove of garlic over the toasted bread.
- Make a tomato salsa from finely chopped tomato, red onion & basil. Add 2 tbsp olive oil extra virgin & 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar. Season to taste with salt & pepper.
- Serve on the ciabatta up to half an hour before you eat it, to keep the bruschetta crispy.
Notes
My vegan Italian drinks board: the end result
I am very curious to see your own creation of this vegan Italian drinks board. If you like it, share the end result of your creation in your story and tag @thegreenlist.nl & @niensgreens and inspire your followers with this amazing dish.
View more recipes from thegreenlist.nl
- Earlier, Nina made: vegan bao buns with jackfruit.
- A delicious recipe from the cookbook Vegan with Friends: vegan pumpkin curry quiche.
- Make your own vegan pesto? You can do that in no time with this recipe.
Photo credits: Nina van Gils.
