Butternut Squash Risotto
“This is a recipe created for a “Practice Thanksgiving,” a Friends-giving designed for recipe testing before the actual turkey day; I brought this the first year and was never allowed to make anything else.”
Kaylee Schaefer
Associate Creative Director
St. Louis
What pairs best with this recipe?
Friendsgivings, though I highly recommend Practice Thanksgiving, dinner parties, holiday gatherings to impress the person you're dating and their family, vegetarian pot-lucks (omit the bacon and do veggie stock, and you're golden), New Year's Day hangover bed rotting.
What were some of your 2024 obsessions?
Chappell Roan, Caesar salads, “English Teacher”/Brian Jordan Alvarez, cava (not champagne), Frenchman street in New Orleans.
Ingredients:
A swirl of neutral oil, like EVOO or Avocado oil (measure with your heart)
2 cups Butternut Squash, cubed (buy the precut & save yourself)
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
Minced garlic (measure with your heart)
Fresh sage
Green onion (sliced thin, for garnish)
1 cup Arborio rice
1 carton (32 oz.) Butternut squash soup
1 carton (32 oz) stock (recommend chicken or vegetable)
Garlic powder, to taste
Ginger
Turmeric
5oz shaved Parmesan
Optional Add Ins:
Bacon
Italian sausage
Shredded chicken
Cranberry sauce (seriously)
Ground fennel seed
Spinach, wilted
Apples
Equipment Needs:
Dutch oven, large
Small saucepan
Measuring cup for liquid transfer
Methodology:
In a large dutch oven or deep pot, add neutral oil over medium-high heat
On a nearby burner, combine a few cups of butternut squash soup and stock and heat enough to sip without burning yourself (do not bring to a boil at any point). Continue refilling this saucepan throughout the cooking process.
To the dutch oven, add sliced onions and cook until translucent, about 2 mins.
Add minced garlic and a few torn leaves of sage and cook 1 min.
Sprinkle with garlic powder, a pinch of ginger and a pinch of turmeric.
Add the Arborio rice and stir, about 2 mins without scorching.
Lower the temperature to medium.
Using a measuring cup, add 2 cups of the heated broth mixture to the dutch oven, stirring constantly until the liquid is mostly absorbed.
Repeat this process a few times, stirring constantly and waiting for most of the liquid to be absorbed before adding more. Increase the temperature slightly if absorption takes longer than 8 mins.
Add the butternut squash after 3-4 rounds of liquid addition and salt to taste; the Arborio rice should be expanding and getting creamy.
Continue adding liquid and stirring until the Arborio rice has significantly expanded and thickened (about an hour); you should be able to "part the Red Sea" with your spoon and have the shape hold for several seconds.
Add 1/2 the shaved parmesan directly into the pot and stir (you're very good at stirring by now); serve immediately and garnish with green onion, more parmesan and any add-ins you like (the author prefers bacon and cranberry).
