About:

Arancini have long been one of my Italian favorites, especially when dipped in a warm plate of basil-tomato marinara sauce. What? You’ve never heard of arancini? They are basically Italian rice/risotto balls stuffed with cheese, usually mozzarella. They are DIVINE. Normally arancini is a rice ball coated with breadcrumbs and deep fried but here I baked them to make it guilt free.  To lighten up this Italian favorite I used brown rice, fresh herbs and baked them instead of frying.  Let me tell all of you these still came out fantastic!

Yields-15-20 balls
Preparation time-30 minutes (including cooking time of rice)
Soaking time for rice-30 minutes
Baking time-25-35 minutes

Ingredients:

For rice balls:

• Brown rice-1cup
• Vegetable broth/water-2cups
• Chopped onion-1medium
• Chopped basil- 4-5leaves
• Chopped parsley-2-3sprigs
• Salt- 1/2tsp
• Olive oil-2tsp

For stuffing:

• Olive oil-2tsp
• Mushroom-200gms (stems removed, wiped and sliced)
• Crushed garlic-2 cloves
• Ground black pepper, salt- to taste
• Light mozzarella cheese-50gms
• Bread crumbs- for coating
• Oil spray for baking

Procedure:

For rice balls:

• Wash and rinse brown rice thoroughly and soak for 20-30minutes, after soaking time drain and set aside.
• Add water/ vegetable stock in a sauce pan bring it to boil add soaked and drained rice and cook until rice is fluffly enough.
• Meanwhile heat oil in a saucepan; add onion stir fry and when the onion is translucent add fresh herbs, salt and saute for a minutes or two.
• Once the rice is cooked – transfer the rice to the sauted onion-herb mixture mix well and allow it to cool completely (alternatively left over rice can also be used)

For the stuffing:

• Heat oil in a pan add sliced mushrooms and saute for 3-5minutes.
• Season with ground pepper, salt mix well and take off the flame, let it cool a bit
• And then stir in cheese and set aside.

For baking:

• Pre-heat the oven at 200deg C/ 180 deg C(for fan assisted). Line the baking tray and set aside.
• Wet your hands and take a heaped tablespoon of rice mixture and flatten, mould this around a teaspoonful of mushroom-cheese mixture and then cover the filling with rice completely by closing it.
• Roll this rice balls in the breadcrumbs until they are completely coated.
• Place on the prepared baking tray.
• Repeat with the remaining mixture – spray the rice balls with oil and then bake for 25-30 minutes.

Serve hot with flavoured dips (Recipe link)

Note:

• Left over rice/risotto can also be used alternatively to brown rice
• Spice and herbs can be personalised as per the taste
• Filling can also be personalised alternatively with vegetable filling or any filling of choice