RecipesPasta & Co

Healthy and delicious Pumpkin Risotto

by Micaela Harrasser

I just love pumpkin, so while it lasts I keep buying these super delicious and sweet pumpkins that will be turned into easy and super tasty meals, like this one. I love how versatile ‘risotto’ is: you can virtually add anything you want to it! And in case of pumpkin (and other ingredients), you can add it as a creamy sauce (as I will show you here) or simply diced up. Because this version basically only has pumpkin, make sure to go for a tasty variety: we don’t really want to spend 1h in the kitchen to make a super dull and tasteless dish, trust me 😉

Almost as important, the quality of the rice speaks to itself: you would never use sushi rice to replace basmati rice, so the same rule applies here! Nowadays you can find rice for ‘risotto’ (see below for the exact varieties) in most supermarkets.

Cooking: as first thing, we need to ‘toast’ the rice to help preventing it to become too mushy. Let’s not go there. Also, for the best results, you want to cook your risotto on a gentle heat for longer times. If you are in a hurry, you can speed up the process by keeping the heat a bit higher. Just make sure to keep stirring it and eventually adjust the stock volumes as it might get absorbed/evaporate more quickly! And at the end, we do the so called ‘mantecatura’ where you add fat (butter in this case) to give your dish that extra creamy and soft final touch. For a meatier version, add sliced sausages to it: your carnivorous friends will love you for that! For a dairy free version, just omit the butter and the cheese, or add dairy free alternatives 😊

[rating]

Healthy and delicious Pumpkin Risotto

Serves: 3x as main Prep Time: Cooking Time: Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

  • 240g risotto rice (carnaroli or arborio)
  • 400g cleaned pumpkin
  • 1L good veggie stock
  • 1 small onion
  • ½ glass of wine or ½ tsp of wine vinegar
  • Some oil
  • Nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste
  • Optional: 20g grated cheese in the end
  • Optional: a knob of butter for extra creaminess

Instructions

  1. First: set the oven at 200C, then clean, dice the pumpkin and cook it with a dash of oil in the oven until ready but not burned/darkened (20-30min).
  2. Meanwhile, in a small pot heat the vegetable stock.
  3. Finely chop the onion and place it into a heated and oiled large non-stick pan.
  4. Cook on gentle flame until translucent, then add the rice.
  5. Gently toast for a few minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the rice to stick.
  6. Then add the wine (or vinegar), being careful to stay away from the top of the pan to not catch the steam.
  7. Quickly stir for a few seconds, then add some vegetable stock, just enough to get all the rice off the bottom of the pan.
  8. Keep the rice on a gentle heat, covered, and stir occasionally.
  9. Let it rest until all the stock is absorbed, then add a bit more (a ladle is usually ok), stir and repeat.
  10. When the rice is almost al dente: in a small stand mixer, blitz the pumpkin to a smooth cream with the help of some of the stock. Then add it to the risotto.
  11. Add a generous sprinkle of the nutmeg, mix well then taste and adjust for salt and pepper.
  12. Keep cooking the risotto until it’s just ready (not too hard, not too mushy).
  13. At this stage, turn off the heat and eventually add the butter for extra creaminess.
  14. Cover with the lid immediately and let it sit to rest for about 5 minutes. The risotto is now ready to be dished out!
  15. Sprinkle generously with grated cheese (like parm or grana) for that extra umami gorgeousness. Enjoy!

Notes

An alternative way of cooking leftover risotto, is to press it down into a ‘tortilla’ shaped cake, then heat it on a pan on medium heat to create that lovely super tasty crust. You won’t regret it! Storage: you can keep it in the fridge for 2 days, or can freeze too.

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