Pumpkin Risotto

Halloween is long gone but pumpkins are still very much in season. Want some extra-flavoursome pumpkins? Add a few of our kuri squashes to your next order. But, if you’ve got some decorative pumpkins with tough skins that still need eating, cut them in half, scoop out the seeds and roast until soft. Then scoop out the flesh and make this tasty risotto. Risotto is the perfect one-pot, soothing, feed-a-crowd, mid-week-meal don’t you think?

Liz x

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Ingredients (serves 6)

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 onions, peeled and diced
• 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp thyme
• 400g risotto rice
• the juice of a lemon or a large glass of white wine
• 700g roasted pumpkin
• 2 stock cubes dissolved in 1 lite of just-boiled water
• salt and pepper to taste
• nutritional yeast, pumpkin seeds and more olive oil to serve

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Method

1. Heat the oil and butter in a wide, heavy bottomed pan/pot.
2. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon until soft and starting to turn golden brown.
3. Then add the garlic, bay leaves and thyme and stir until fragrant.
4. Pour the rice into the pan and stir to coat it in the flavours and fat. Then add the lemon juice or white wine. Stir for a minute or so until the pan is nearly dry again.
5. Start adding the vegetable stock, a ladle at a time, stirring pretty constantly until the stock is nearly all absorbed before adding the next ladle.
6. Once half the stock is used up, add the roasted pumpkin and stir it in with another ladle of stock. Use the back of the wooden spoon to smoosh the pumpkin into a rough purée as you go. Keep adding stock until the rice is cooked through and creamy. You may run out and need to add water.
7. Taste the risotto and adjust the seasoning if needed with salt and pepper. Then serve with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast and pumpkin seeds and a drizzle of good, peppery olive oil.