It doesn't get dreamier than vegan arancini. Crispy on the outside, melty & gooey on the inside. Made with cold risotto, leftovers have never been this good! Bake in the oven or air fryer. Makes 12 to 15 Italian rice balls
If you plan to bake the arancini, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. If you like, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. (Parchment paper helps with browning and easy clean-up.) If you're planning to use the air fryer, skip this step.
Form a rice ball in your hands using about ¼ cup of cold vegan risotto. Keep forming balls until you have finished all of the risotto. (One full batch of creamy vegan risotto will make 12 to 15 rice balls.)
On a plate, combine panko bread crumbs with granulated onion, salt, and pepper. Roll each ball in the bread crumb mixture, until completely coated.If you run low on breadcrumb coating, add more breadcrumbs, granulated onion, salt, and pepper to the plate, and keep going. (Breadcrumbs adhere best when dry. So it's best to just add more breadcrumbs as you need them.)
OVEN INSTRUCTIONS: Evenly spread the balls across the baking sheet. Spray the arancini with oil. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until they are nutty brown. (Do not turn them. They brown better if they are left on their own.) Remove from the oven, and serve with warm marinara sauce for dipping.
AIR FRYER INSTRUCTIONS: Put a few rice balls into the air fryer. Do not overfill. If the basket is too full, they won't brown as nicely. (A 3.7 quart air fryer basket will hold about 6 rice balls.) So you'll need to work in batches. Spray the arancini generously all over with oil. Air fry at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. (Do not turn the rice balls. They brown better if they are left on their own.) Continue air frying the remaining balls until finished. Keep in mind that as the air fryer heats up, the subsequent batches may cook in less time. So keep an eye on them in the final minutes & remove early, if necessary. Serve the arancini with warmed marinara for dipping.
Notes
Storage instructions: Store leftover arancini in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They will keep for about 4 days.Reheating from refrigerated: Reheat in the air fryer. Cook at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, carefully turning occasionally.Freezing instructions: To freeze arancini for future use, form the risotto rice balls, and coat them in panko breadcrumbs. Don't cook them. Instead, move them to a glass freezer-safe dish. (A large Pyrex works well for this.) Make sure the arancini aren't touching, so that they won't freeze together. Cover and freeze.Reheating from frozen: When you're ready to re-heat, remove the arancini from the freezer, and put the rice balls into the air fryer. Air fry at 400 degrees for 13 to 15 minutes.Variation: This arancini is also delicious stuffed with vegan meatballs. For this option, you can leave out the seitan in the vegan risotto recipe, if you like. (Feel free to add a few more mushrooms in the seitan's absence.) Then once the risotto is cold, form a ball in your hand. Push a divot into a ball using your finger, then stuff it with a vegan meatball. Form the rest of the rice around it into a ball.Gardein meatballs work particularly well. They are a little large, so you can pinch the balls in half and form them into balls. (That means for 12 rice balls, you'll need 6 vegan meatballs.) Remember to thaw the meatballs ahead of time, so that they will be malleable and won't add extra moisture to your arancini.