If you're looking for inspiration for what to serve with risotto, you've come to the right place. We've selected 25 of our best sides, appetizers, and easy recipes, that can easily up your risotto to the main meal.
Browse through this list and pick your favorite for your next serving of risotto: roasted and healthy vegetables, fresh salads, protein-rich dishes, and many more. These recipes will surely give you new inspiration for what to serve with a creamy risotto.
Best Veggies to Serve with Risotto
You can easily eat risotto as a main dish, simply pick your favorite(s) of these vibrant veggies and you'll quickly level up your risotto to dinner status!
Shaved Brussels sprouts salad
Our first side dish recipe to serve with risotto is a raw salad with shaved brussels sprouts. Since risotto is a hearty and creamy dish, fresh salads and raw vegetables pair well and will cleanse your palate.
Side Salad
You can never go wrong with a serving of easy side salad. It's a quick and refreshing way to add fresh greens to your risotto dinner.
Fennel and orange salad
Crunchy and juicy, this fennel orange salad will add a fruity and colorful twist to your creamy serving of risotto.
Zucchini Salad
If you're serving risotto as a summer dinner, you can serve a raw zucchini salad with roasted pine nuts on the side. Marinated in lemon juice, and fresh herbs, the zucchini becomes amazingly flavorful and aromatic.
Air Fryer Asparagus
This asparagus is slightly crispy on the outside while soft and juicy inside. They're perfect with a creamy plate of risotto and they are ready in just 10 minutes.
Sautéed Zucchini
This sauteed zucchini is the easiest and most versatile of all zucchini recipes, and perfect with risotto. You can eat it on its own, as a side dish, or use it in lots of other recipes.
Sauteed Eggplant
A classic Italian recipe that you can eat as an eggplant side dish, or as a crispy side on toasted bread next to your risotto meal.
Eggplant Pizza
Here's a fun and indulgent side dish for risotto: eggplant pizza. It's a colorful and easy recipe to get your loved ones to eat more veggies.
Italian Salad
You can quickly upgrade your risotto to dinner status by serving it with an Italian salad. Add croutons, fresh veggies, and olives, and you'll have a vibrant and crispy side dish.
Tomato Cucumber Onion Salad
A crispy and easy salad that you can enjoy as a starter or as a side dish with risotto. It's perfect for hot summer evenings, or as soon as you start finding ripe and local tomatoes.
Tomato Confit
Tomatoes made this way can elevate any kind of meal; as a juicy side dish, a starter served with toasted bread, or as a topping on your risotto.
Grilled Asparagus
Smokey, tender-crisp, and juicy grilled asparagus is one of the best ways to enjoy this delicious, flavorful vegetable. Serve next to your main dish for a vibrant and healthy meal.
Grilled Zucchini
Tasty, juicy, and perfectly charred, these grilled zucchini are easy and quick to make! You can customize them with your favorite marinade, and serve in summer and autumn with your favorite risotto.
Air Fryer Eggplant
Air fryer eggplant is so easy you can make it in 15 minutes and enjoy it as a healthy and tasty side dish with risotto.
Eggplant Salad
Here's a great way to add healthy protein and veggies to your risotto dinner: tender eggplant salad with fresh veggies and a quick dressing.
Breaded Eggplant
A slightly more indulgent veggie side for risotto, this breaded eggplant complements creamy mains very well with its crusty and aromatic breading.
Best Sides for Risotto
If you're serving risotto as a main dish, you can pair it with bready sides and creamy soups. Most of these side dishes can be prepared in advance, so you'll free up time on the day of making your risotto.
Tomato Bruschetta
A crunchy, juicy, and perfect appetizer and starter. You can make it in just 10 minutes with a few basic ingredients, so it's a perfect easy side dish with risotto.
Stuffed Eggplant
Our stuffed eggplant is delicious and easy to prepare, made with tender roasted eggplant boats and three different quick and easy stuffing. Serve it as a starter, or serve it next to risotto to increase your veggie intake.
Crostini Recipe
Crostini are small slices of crunchy toasted bread you can eat as an appetizer or with soups, risotto and stews. Everyone loves crostini because they are tasty and fun to eat.
Zucchini Soup
Zucchini soup is easy! And it's also incredibly creamy, tasty, healthy, and silky smooth. This soup will easily make your risotto dinner extra green and velvety smooth.
Zucchini Boats
You are going to love our zucchini boats because they are filled with an earthy lentil tomato mixture that tastes so good you won't believe there's no meat in it. They add extra veggies and protein to your risotto dinner, and they can be easily prepared the day before eating.
Focaccia
Our focaccia bread is golden and crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. Serve it as a side with risotto along with a side salad.
Eggplant Soup
A light, healthy, and tasty dish that is easy to make with a few simple, fresh ingredients. A great way to add extra veggies and fiber to your serving of risotto.
Eggplant Bruschetta
This delicious appetizer is made with tender diced eggplant cooked with a few simple ingredients and served on crunchy bread. A perfect Italian side dish with risotto and pasta dishes.
Roasted butternut squash soup
Roasted butternut squash soup is an easy and hearty recipe for colder autumn and winter days. It's perfectly paired with a plate of creamy risotto.
What protein goes well with risotto?
Risotto can easily be upgraded to dinner status if you serve it with protein. In fact, vegetable-based risotto pairs well with protein as it becomes a complete meal from a nutrition standpoint. Here are some examples of good plant-based protein sources:
- Tofu: try serving your risotto with fried tofu, marinated tofu, or aromatic vegan fish roasted in the oven.
- Chickpeas: serve with a 20-minute chickpea salad or add roasted chickpeas to an easy side salad next to your risotto.
- Lentils: use canned lentils or dried lentils and make a lentil stir fry or quick marinated lentils.
- Chickpea flour: such an easy zucchini frittata, egg-free muffins with vegetables or this easy chickpea farinata.
- Tempeh: you can top risotto with strips of tempeh bacon or cubes of air fryer tempeh. With 15 grams of protein per 3-ounce serving, you're sure to get satiated after eating tempeh.
- Nuts: you can add extra healthy fats and protein with shaved and roasted almonds, or pine nuts. With our asparagus risotto, we sometimes sprinkle roasted almonds on top, which give bold flavor and crunch.
Risotto as a side dish or main dish?
Whether you're having a vegan risotto or a vegetarian risotto, you can easily eat this Italian delicacy as a main meal or enjoy it as a starter. Here are some of the ways you can eat risotto:
- Starter: Italians typically serve risotto as a primo piatto (starter), and without veggies or any sides.
If you're hosting a dinner party, you can spoil your guests by serving a 3-course dinner where your risotto is the starter, and it's followed by a plant-based main course, such as vegan steaks, a portion of vegan pasta, or any of these dinner ideas. - Main meal: Serve risotto for dinner by pairing it with an easy side salad, or any of the veggies and side dishes on the list above.
Risotto is a grain-based meal and combined with greens and protein, you'll get a complete and satiating meal.
For many more side dishes ideas, check out our sides category page.
What to serve with Risotto: 25 Easy Ideas
Ingredients
- Check each individual recipe for ingredients required.
- Cook your favorite recipe and serve with risotto.
Instructions
- How to store: Keep these meals stored in the refrigerator, ideally in an airtight container, for up to 3 days.
- How to reheat: Warm it up on the stovetop or in the microwave. Before serving garnish with fresh herbs.
Notes
Nutritional Values
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