Butternut squash risotto

By Jana Kalalova

I nicknamed this recipe the 'Wolverine risotto' because I first saw it on the Instagram of Hugh Jackman, the famous protagonist of Wolverine in the X-Men movie series! It's an old family recipe from his mother and it's absolutely delicious! You could also call it 'boozy risotto' because it has quite a bit of white wine in it... which never hurts! :)

Ingredients

For 5 portions:

85g butter or vegan margarine
1 finely chopped onion
2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 glass white wine
1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped into small cubes
1,5 litre vegetable stock
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese or a vegan alternative (needs to melt and be creamy)
1 smaller pack of baby spinach
1/2 jar sundried tomatoes
Salt, pepper

How to prepare

In a large saucepan, melt the butter or margarine and then fry the onion in it for a few minutes (don't let it go brown).
Add the Arborio rice and stir it so that it gets coated by the melted butter/margarine.
Add the wine and butternut squash and stir it all together.
Now comes the time when you need to gradually add boiling water with dissolved vegetable stock to the saucepan, first enough to cover all the ingredients in the pot and then once the water is absorbed, keep adding some boiling water with stock every 5-10 minutes (always wait for the previous batch to be absorbed). Do this until all the water with vegetable stock is used up, this should take approximately 30 minutes. Keep stirring occasionally so it doesn't burn.
When all the water has been absorbed and you can see that both the rice and the butternut squash are soft and cooked through, add the baby spinach and sundried tomatoes to the saucepan and stir it all together. Add some more white wine if you feel like it needs it :)
In the very end, add the Parmesan cheese or a vegan alternative and stir it in, it will make the risotto nice and creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

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