Pumpkin risotto

I needed a quick, nourishing, tasty lunch. The fridge was almost bare, but there was a piece of pumpkin, a carrot and some sour cream. I nearly always have rice. So risotto it was. Mind you, I don’t know enough about it to say how close this recipe comes to a truly Italian risotto.

I’m guessing “riso” probably means rice, though, and anyone can add the “t”. So that’s rice and this ’n’ that – “ryż i to to”, as you might say in Polish. And the this ’n’ that is pumpkin, carrot, shallot and assorted other bits you can read about below.

So yes, even if it isn’t Italian, it’s Polish rice-and-this-’n’-that. Just don’t order risotto that way if you ever happen to go to Italy, because I’m fairly sure that isn’t how you pronounce it 😉

Mine certainly isn’t typically Italian, I should point out, because I didn’t have proper specialist risotto rice at home, just common-or-garden basmati. Hence the slight giveaway in the photos 😉

Back to the recipe. It’s a fairly quick dish, but it does keep you busy. The rice has to absorb the water from the stock gradually, which means standing over it and watching it like a small child. Still, for a dish that seems so utterly simple, the flavour rewards your efforts. Good risotto, it seems to me, should be delicate and creamy. A bit like a good cream sauce with plump grains of rice.

Well, maybe I’ve gone a bit far there. Give it a try!

At a glance: 

Preparation time: 40 minutes

Serves: one

Calories: not calo-ries but calo-rice

Ingredients for a quick vegan risotto:

• a 4 cm piece of a medium-sized pumpkin
• two glasses of stock (I’m afraid I made mine from a vegetable stock cube)
• 1 small carrot
• 1 shallot
• 1 garlic clove
• 3/4 of a glass of rice (risotto rice is best, but I didn’t have any so I used basmati)
• ground black pepper
• a teaspoon of nutmeg 
• salt
• olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of thick 18% fat sour cream
• 5 decagrams of Parmesan (if you haven’t got any, you can leave it out)

Recipe for an Italian-Polish lunch:

I prepared the vegetables first. I cut the peeled pumpkin, carrot, shallot and garlic into small pieces. I put them into the chopper attachment of my blender and chopped them into tiny bits, then transferred them to a bowl.

I made two glasses of stock simply by breaking a vegetable stock cube in half and pouring boiling water over each half in a separate glass. I stirred them thoroughly and set them aside.

I heated olive oil (about two tablespoons) in a frying pan and added the chopped vegetables. I fried them gently over a medium “flame” (5 on a scale of 1–10 on my induction hob).

When the vegetables had released some of their juices, I added the rice to the pan. I mixed it in thoroughly and fried it for about 3 minutes. Then I poured in the first glass of stock.

The rice has to absorb the water from the stock gradually, so a good risotto calls for patience and almost constant stirring. Once the rice had absorbed the first glassful, I seasoned it with salt and ground black pepper and poured in the second glass of stock.

I kept stirring and cooking over low heat until the rice had absorbed all the water. To finish, I added 2 tablespoons of thick sour cream, a little grated Italian Parmesan and a teaspoon of nutmeg. I gave it all a good stir. Lunch is ready. Enjoy!