This recipe for a baked risotto with pumpkin is delicious, nutritious, and simple to make. It is a perfect family meal for any occasion.
What Do You Need?
This baked pumpkin risotto is a one pot meal. All you need is an oven proof casserole pot with a lid. If you don’t have a Casserole Pot, you can buy one here.
If you don’t have one with a lid then you can cover it tightly with foil instead. You will also need a knife and chopping board to prepare some of the ingredients.
If you want to make the optional crispy sage leaves and brown butter garnish then you will need a small frying pan or saucepan.
The clean up after this dish is quick and easy and the recipe is straightforward. This makes it ideal for a weeknight meal.
Our Ultimate Cob Loaf Dip Recipe would be a wonderful appetiser to serve before this risotto
Tips And Tricks
Here are some tips and tricks that you can use to make sure that your baked pumpkin risotto comes out perfectly every time.
- Pumpkin – The pumpkin in the star of this recipe, so try to use fresh pumpkin if you can. It will have much more flavour and nutritional value. You won’t need the flesh of a whole pumpkin for this recipe, so you could prepare the whole pumpkin and freeze some of it for next time that you want to make this risotto. If you cannot get hold of fresh pumpkin, you can mix unsweetened canned pumpkin through the risotto 10 minutes before you take it out of the oven.
- Flavours – As you fry the onion and the garlic they will release savoury flavours into the butter. When you add the sage, this will also flavour the butter. When the rice is added, stirring and frying it in the butter will transfer those deep flavours into the rice as the rice will absorb some of the butter. The rice will also begin to absorb some of the wine. Only then should you add the stock.
- Baked Risotto – This risotto is baked rather than cooked on the stove top. This means that all of the stock is added at once rather than gradually, and you don’t have to keep stirring it. What a relief! It needs to be covered to ensure that the liquid doesn’t evaporate – the rice needs to absorb the liquid so that it cooks through and takes on the flavour of the stock.
- Mixing – You don’t need to stir the risotto while it cooks, but it will need a good stir at the end to make sure that the pumpkin is broken up and evenly distributed.
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How Can You Customise This Recipe
There are many different ways that you can customise this recipe if you want to.
- Pumpkin – If you can’t get hold of pumpkin, you could switch it out for butternut squash. It would have a very similar flavour and texture, and it goes very well with sage and parmesan.
- Parmesan – The parmesan cheese works really well in this recipe, but you could also use cheddar cheese if you prefer.
- Cream – The cheese and butter make this dish nice and creamy, but if you want it creamier then you can add a splash of double cream at the end when you stir the pumpkin through the rice. This will also help to loosen up the sauce. We’ve also found that a dollop of natural yoghurt works well.
- Stock – Using vegetable stock makes this a vegetarian dish, but you can use chicken stock if you prefer.
A couple more great vegetarian dishes are our Halloumi Salad and Roasted Beetroot Salad.
Baked Pumpkin Risotto
Course: DinnerCuisine: Mediterranean5
servings15
minutes30
minutes422
kcalIngredients
3 tbsp 3 Unsalted butter
1.5 cups 1.5 Arborio Rice
1 pc 1 Onion (diced)
20 ounces/4 heaped cups 20 ounces/4 heaped cups Pumpkin (peeled, de-seeded, diced)
3 pcs 3 Garlic cloves (minced)
0.25 cup 0.25 Dry white wine
3.5 cups 3.5 Vegetable stock
2 tbsp 2 Sage leaves (fresh, roughly chopped)
0.5 Cup (plus extra to garnish) 0.5 Parmesan Cheese (grated)
Salt and pepper – to taste
- Optional crispy sage and brown butter:
3 tbsp 3 Salted butter
15 to 20 pcs 15 to 20 Sage leaves
Directions
- Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Take an oven proof casserole pot and place it over a medium heat. Add one tablespoon of butter and let it melt.
- Once the butter has melted, add the onions and the garlic. Fry them until the onions have softened and turned translucent, then add the chopped sage. Fry for another minute so that the flavor of the sage is released into the butter.
- Add the rice into the pan and give it a good stir to make sure that all of the rice is coated in butter. Fry the rice for about a minute, then add the white wine and stir. Let it cook for another minute until some of the wine has evaporated.
- Turn the heat down low. Add the pumpkin and the vegetable stock. Keep the temperature at just below a simmer. Place the lid on the pot (or cover tightly with foil if your pot doesn’t have a lid) and place it in the oven. Cook it for 25 to 30 minutes until the rice is soft and tender.
- Once the rice is cooked, remove the pot from the oven and add the rest of the butter and the parmesan cheese. Stir thoroughly to mix in the butter and the cheese, and to break up the pumpkin. The pumpkin should be nice and soft by this point, and will mix in to form a smooth sauce around the rice. If it is too thick add a splash of hot water.
- Serve the risotto immediately with an optional garnish of crispy sage and brown butter, or some grated parmesan cheese.
- To make the brown butter and crispy sage leaves, melt the butter in a pan on a medium high heat. When the butter begins to foam, add the sage leaves. Cook them for a minute or two until they begin to crisp. Take the sage leaves out and place them in kitchen paper to drain the excess butter. The butter should be brown by this point, so pour it into a small jug to serve.
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