Healthy recipe: This pumpkin risotto from BOSH! is an ideal vegan dinner-for-two

If, like many people, restaurants and bars in your area are currently closed as a result of the global health crisis, you might be looking for a new recipe for yourself and your partner to spice up your evenings in. 

Fortunately, the team at BOSH!, authors of one of our Best Vegan Cookbooks, have you covered with this Pumpkin Risotto recipe. It's a nourishing, warming winter dish which is perfect as an easy, healthy dinner-for-two. It's rich in Vitamin A and it's got a high antioxidant content, making it great for supporting healthy immune systems and better eye health. 

Romantic pumpkin risotto: Ingredients

• 300g pumpkin or butternut squash 
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 sprigs sage
• ½ tsp chilli flakes 
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion
• 1 celery stalk 
• 150g risotto rice
• 2 Kallo organic vegetable stock cubes
• 1 tbsp pine nuts
• 1 nutmeg for grating

Romantic pumpkin risotto: Method

Cut the unpeeled pumpkin into small chunks, no bigger than 1cm and spread out on a baking tray. Add the unpeeled garlic cloves, sage leaves and chilli flakes to the tray and drizzle over ½ tbsp olive oil.

Season with salt and pepper and place the tray in the hot oven for around 20-25 minutes, until tender. While this is cooking, you can make the risotto base. 

Peel, trim and finely dice the onion, while trimming and slicing the celery. Prep the stock cubes with two litres of boiling water, then pour 150ml aside to use later. Once this is done, heat the remaining olive oil in the pan over a medium heat, add the onion, celery and a pinch of salt to the pan and stir for 4-5 minutes until soft.

Now, you can add the risotto rice to the pan and stir for 1 minute. Add 300ml of the stock, put the lid on and cook for 5 minutes or so, until the liquid has been absorbed. Remove the lid, add 200ml more stock, put the lid back on and cook again for another 7 minutes, so the next lot of stock is absorbed by the rice mix. Take the lid off and stir the risotto for 1 minute. Continue to add the remaining stock, a ladle at a time, stirring constantly .

Take the tray out of the oven and transfer half the pumpkin, along with the sage leaves and garlic cloves, to the food processor. Remember that little bit of stock we put to one side? Add it to the food processor and blitz into a puree.

Finally, add the pumpkin puree to the pan and fold it into the risotto. Taste and season to perfection with salt and pepper. Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan, and sprinkle them on top of the risotto with a generous pinch of nutmeg and the remaining pumpkin. You're ready to serve with some leafy greens on the side!