So after feeling pretty defeated the other day about my ability to make vegetarian food taste good without dairy, I was rejuvenated by a trip to Whole Foods. Something about the rows and rows of delicious treats and friendly ladies in aprons handing out samples of sweets (vegan ones!) made me feel like maybe I am not doomed to a life of tasteless meals. I picked up some Follow your heart vegan cheese (more on this later), So Delicious coconut milk yogurt, and a ton of bulk stuff for really good prices (~1 1/2 lbs of arborio rice for $5!). So I've been craving some good comfort food lately and what better than a meal my father used to cook for me all the time when I was little! He always called these little fried rice balls "suppli" and until now I thought he just made up that word because I've only ever seen risotto balls called "arancini," but it turns out that suppli or "suppli al telefono" is just the roman version and the telefono part is because the cheese looks like sagging telephone wires when you pull apart the risotto cake. When I was little my dad would take any leftover white rice and mix it with some simple spaghetti sauce, stir in some egg, then add some cubes of mozzarella to the middle, roll the suckers in some bread crumbs and fry em up! He would let me help put them together and I would often sneak in an extra cube or two of mozzarella when he wasn't looking. Nowadays cheese doesn't agree with me and often isn't too friendly to cows either :( but that definitely doesn't mean that I don't still crave it or just wither a little when I see someone else biting into a slice of cheesy pizza. Now imagine my surprise when I order some lactose free cheese on my pizza at a restaurant and my pizza arrives and is virtually indistinguishable from the cheese-laden one next to me in both appearance and taste! In walks Follow Your Heart vegan cheese, a deliciously melty gift from above. So if you have followed all of my many tangential stories, I decided to make some suppli that would be delicious and not make me feel awful afterwards! :)
"Nearly vegan suppli al telefono"
Makes about 20 croquettes (isn't that a fancy word?) or ~5 servings
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
2 large shallots, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 cups arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
1 28oz-can whole tomatoes with juice, tomatoes chopped
No-chicken stock (3-4 cups)
Handful basil leaves, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil to fill a skillet about 1/2 to 1 inch
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 oz Follow Your Heart Vegan Mozzarella, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1 cups breadcrumbs
Directions:
Add 2 Tbsp olive oil to a large soup pot or dutch oven, heat over Medium. Add shallots and saute for about 5 minutes, then add garlic and cook another minute. Add rice and cook for a few minutes until fragrant. Add wine and cook over medium until it is absorbed. Add a cup or two of tomatoes with juice, cook until absorbed, then repeat until all tomatoes are added. Start adding liquid a cup at a time and cook until absorbed. Do this until almost all the liquid is gone and rice is tender. Stir in basil and salt and pepper to taste, then remove from heat and let cook about 15 minutes. Stir in 1-2 of the beaten eggs until mixture is moistened. Heat oil over medium-high until shimmering. Place about 2 Tbsp of mixture in your hand and put 6-8 small cubes in the center then top with another Tbsp of mixture and shape into croquettes. Roll in bread crumbs.
Add to oil and cook a few minutes per side until browned. Allow to cool for a few minutes to avoid burning your mouth (believe me, they are worth the wait!) and then enjoy!!!
These suppli filled up my tummy void and my cheese void all at once, so happy!!! I did use eggs in this recipe, but honestly don't know if they are needed as the rice sticks together pretty well on its own, so if you are going totally egg free, try them with no egg and let me know how it turns out!
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