I’d wanted to make my best risotto for a dear friend who was visiting Mumbai and said would come by. But she had one request -- could I make it without white wine because she was off alcohol in any form?

I spent a few days trying to get my head around making wine-free risotto but I wasn’t giving up on the idea. Then one day, while raiding my pantry for an ingredient, I saw my white wine vinegar sitting pretty. I thought, “why not mix some apple juice – or grape juice -- in it and develop wine flavour?

After some bit of mixing the two, I managed to get that dry white wine flavor. I immediately put it to use and my non-alcoholic risotto turned out just as it should be. So here’s the method for days when you run out of white wine:

You’ll need:

Sparkling apple juice or grape juice.
White wine vinegar – the best quality.

Mixing proportion: 

Though only several tastings will get you to the proportion you like most, there are basic guidelines you can stick to. Substitute for a sweeter wine will call for a higher proportion of apple or grape juice to vinegar and if you are looking to recreate dry wine flavor, the proportion of vinegar to juice will be higher.

For non-alcoholic options for chardonnay and chenin blanc, you can go for 60-40 (in percent) ratio of apple juice to vinegar.

You may also like to see:

The review of my favourite white wine vinegar brand.
My 3-minute Hollandaise Sauce video recipe that uses white wine substitute.