We love butternut squash here! It is delicious, easy to cook with, and can be used in a variety of ways. Today I made risotto with it. Risotto is awesome and actually quite easy to make. If you haven't made risotto before, you are missing out. We normally use short grain brown rice instead of the usual arborio rice. Brown rice is healthier than white rice and has so much more flavor. This time I used arborio just to mix things up a bit. We decided that we like the brown rice better than the white. Just be aware that using brown rice takes a lot longer to cook than the arborio.Ingredients:
6 cups Chicken Broth (possibly another cup if using brown rice)
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter
1 Onion, chopped
Crushed Red Pepper, about an 1/8 tsp depending on how spicy you like it
1 Butternut Squash, about 1lb
2 Cups Arborio or Short Grain Brown Rice
1 Tsp Dried Sage (or 1 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Sage)
3/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese (Mozzarella works as well)
Simmer the chicken broth in a sauce pot.
Melt half of the butter in a large saute pan over medium-high heat and cook the onion until tender. While the onion is cooking, prepare the butternut squash. Peel the squash, cut it in half, scoop out the seeds (a grapefruit spoon works well for this), and chop it up.
To the onions, add crushed red pepper and the butternut squash. Cook for 2-3 minutes and add the rice. Toast the grains slightly. This will take only a few minutes.
Once the grains are toasted, it's time to start adding the broth. Turn down the heat to medium. Add a ladle full of the simmering broth at a time, waiting until almost all the liquid is absorbed to add more. Stir every time more liquid is added (you don't need to constantly stir though). Make sure the pan doesn't get completely dry because the rice will burn quickly if there is no liquid. Don't worry about using every drop of the broth, just use as mush as you need. It will be done when the rice is tender and creamy. It takes about 15 minutes for the arborio rice and 30-45 minutes for brown rice. Turn off the heat and stir in the remaining butter, sage and cheese.
Now you have no excuse to not make risotto. So easy and so delicious!
Chloe had to have a spoon too while she was watching mommy stir.
