- Serves 4 - Ready in 1.5 hours -
* Uses up most of a small (1kg weight-when-whole) pumpkin*
Gather together...
1 small pumpkin (circa 1kg weight pre-cutting and seed-removal) OR use approx. 750g of skin-less pumpkin flesh hacked from a carved pumpkin OR use 1 large butternut squash. This recipe works best with firm chunks of pumpkin (if you want to use up the stringy parts of a pumpkin then see the Pumpkin Soup recipe, or the Pumpkin Tea Loaf recipe or the Pumpkin Nutella Loaf Cake recipe or the Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie recipe.)
2 tbsp olive oil / rapeseed oil.
2 onions, peeled, sliced and finely diced.
4 garlic cloves (peeled, crushed and chopped) or use 4 tsp of 'lazy' garlic paste.
1.5 cups risotto (Arborio) rice.
4 cups (1250ml) of boiling water.
2 tsp bouillon powder e.g. 'Marigold Less Salt Swiss Vegetable Bouillon powder' (available in bulk 1kg tubs), sieved, OR use 2 tsp gravy granules.
1 tsp wholegrain mustard.
Pinch of ground black pepper.
200-300ml tub of full-fat soft cheese (Philadelphia-style).
Get cooking...
1. Knife-peel, de-seed and weigh out 750g of usable firm flesh from your pumpkin. (You can use a potato peeler if you are peeling a butternut squash). Remove any seeds and most of the stringy bits. Set aside the pumpkin seeds as they could be made into a tasty snack - see the 'Roasted Pumpkin Seeds' seasonal recipe blog post if you are interested in doing this. The stringy bits of the pumpkin can be used in the Pumpkin Soup recipe or in any of the sweet recipes requiring pumpkin puree (the Pumpkin Tea Loaf, the Nutella Loaf Cake or the Thanksgiving Pie).
2. Cut up the 750g of firm pumpkin flesh into small cubes, 1cm x 1cm x 1cm in size.
3. Heat the 2 tbsp oil gently in a large, oven-proof, lidded casserole dish, on the hob.
4. To the casserole dish, add the pumpkin cubes, the 2 diced onions and the 4 diced garlic cloves, stir to coat in oil and heat on LOW for 20 minutes, stirring a few times, until the onion and pumpkin pieces are just starting to soften.
5. Towards the end of the hob-heating time, boil a full kettle of water.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C (180 C fan) or Gas 5.
7. Add the 1.5 cups of risotto rice to the casserole dish of pumpkin chunks, stir to coat in oil and heat through for 1 minute, whilst stirring.
8. Now add the 4 cups of boiling water and sieve in the 2 tsp of bouillon powder (sieved to avoid unpleasant clumps). Stir.
9. Bring the casserole dish to a simmer on the hob (this will take up to 5 minutes), stirring often.
10. Now put the casserole dish into the oven, with the LID ON, for 30 minutes.
11. After the oven time has passed, remove the casserole dish and use a potato masher to flatten some (NOT ALL) of the chunks of pumpkin, to give a silky texture to the dish.
12. Finally add the 1 tsp of wholegrain mustard, the pinch of ground black pepper and the tub of full-fat soft cheese. Stir well and enjoy!
Adapted from this recipe on the New Idea Food website.