Lemony Butternut Squash Risotto
The perfect creamy lemony butternut squash risotto – golden and creamy and totally delicious. Packed full of flavour and easy to make – it’s a winner!
I love risotto, especially at this time of year, as it’s so comforting and wholesome; to be honest, I wouldn’t really make it on a weeknight as I usually need a speedy dinner when I get home from work. However, when I’ve got more time at the weekend, I think it’s a lovely cozy meal for a snowy Sunday afternoon/evening.
When you think about risotto (well me anyway) I think about huge amounts of butter and cheese. No doubt tasty, eh? So how do you get you all that flavour into a vegan risotto?
My healthy squash risotto has tons of favour from the slow cooked onions, garlic and rosemary, is super creamy from the pumpkin and has a yummy cheesy flavour from the nutritional yeast. Plus, adding the zest and juice of a whole lemon gives it so much flavour and a lovely freshness.
I really hope you like this one. It’s super tasty!
Love, Niki xxx
Ingredients
For the risotto
- 1 medium butternut squash or pumpkin
- 2 medium onions chopped finely
- 2 tbsp olive
- 4 cloves garlic sliced
- Fresh thyme
- 1 litre veg stock
- 150 g Arborio rice
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- Zest 1 organic lemon
- Juice 1/2 lemon
- 1 tsp sea salt
- Black pepper
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast.
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil.
For the topping
- Roast squash
- Handful crushed hazelnuts
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Fresh thyme
Instructions
To make the risotto
- Chop off about a quarter of the squash and slice into chunks- no need to take the skin off. Coat in a little olive oil, salt and pepper, then add to a baking tray, then bake in the oven on 180c for approx 40- 50 minutes until roasted nicely.
- Whilst it’s roasting, add your oil and onion to a wide bottom pan and fry gently on a low heat for around 10 minutes until soft and browning.
- Peel and de- seed the rest of the squash and chop into small cubes. Add to the pan with the garlic and fry for a further 5 minutes.
- Add the rice, thyme and a splash of white wine to the pan and stir thoroughly to combine. Pour in about 400ml of the stock.
- Turn up the heat a little and then keep adding more stock when the rice has absorbed the liquid. Repeat until the rice is cooked but still has a little bite and the squash is tender.
To serve
- Add in the zest and juice of your lemon, salt, pepper, chilli flakes and nutritional yeast and stir to combine.
- For soft gooey rice, cover the pan and allow to sit in the pan with the heat off for a further 5 minutes. Stir in the extra virgin olive oil.
- Top with the roast squash and crushed hazelnuts.
3 Responses
Bake on what temp?
Hi Jasmin
A medium heat, 180c
Best
Niki x
It looks delicious. I am going to try it. Thank you for sharing