Risotto végétarien au courge avec une sauce de poivron et de courgette

We had a bit of a slow weekend. Moved some things around in our front yard garden, in our allotment and in our house. We are expecting our first guests in this house and therefore we had to clear out the mess in one of our guest rooms (the second one is still a mess). But besides that, we didn’t do too much.

We did plan a hike to a waterfall, but we couldn’t find the starting point, so we turned back. On our way back, we drove by the Château du Touvet. I had heard of its existence, but never seen the castle before, so we decided to drive stop and have a look around. Unfortunately everything was closed, so we could only enjoy a small part of its garden. The magnolia tree in there did inspire me to make the dish I made for dinner today. A fresh and colourful spring risotto with a lot of homegrown produce.

You can also make it with shop bought supplies obviously. In our case the pumpkin, the two (!) asparagus and the thyme were homegrown. All the other things came from the shop. Normally we make risotto just plain, like the bottom part of this dish. But I had 1/2 paprika and 1/2 courgette left from another dinner, so I decided to use them for the risotto as an vegetable sauce. Finally I topped the plates off with an asparagus (the first ones of the year), parsley, parmesan and some parsley and pecan nuts for decoration. I was really content with the outcome. It was tasty and even though presentation isn’t my strongest point, this plate turned out pretty and happy. Our new – second-hand – plates helped out a lot obviously.

Ingredients (4p)

Risotto

  • 1/2 butternut squash (or an other type of pumpkin)
  • 250gr dry rice
  • 1/2 handful of fresh thyme
  • 1/2 handful of fresh parsley
  • 2 onions
  • 2 tbsp Vegeta (or 2 salted vegetable bouillon cubes)
  • 1L water
  • 0,3L white wine
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 3 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 2 tbsp ground parmesan

Vegetable sauce

  • 2 onions
  • 1/2 red sweet pepper
  • 1/2 courgette
  • 1 tbsp ground red pepper
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 2 tbsp sunflower oil

Toppings

  • pecan nuts
  • parsley
  • asparagus
  • 1 tbsp ground parmesan

Step-by-step

Chop the onions (all of them) and fry them in a wide and high pan. When they turn glazy, you divide them in two and place half of them in a separate frying pan. I now go on with two pans (one for the risotto and one for the sauce) simultaneously. If you find this confusing, you can make both parts separately. Add the peeled and chopped pumpkin onto the risotto pan. Stir it around, add the chopped thyme. Now take a third pan. Cook the water, wine and bouillon cubes in that pan. Let the alcohol evaporate. Now add the chopped sweet pepper and courgette to the sauce pan and let them fry with a bit of oil on a low fire. By now it’s time to add the rice to the risotto pan. Quickly stir this one around and when the rice turns translucent, you can slowly add the wine bouillon (if it has reached the boiling point). I always add two or three soup spoons at a time. It’s important with risotto that you keep stirring the mix and keep on adding the warm bouillon. In the meantime you can keep an eye on the vegetables for the sauce and keep on stirring them. If they are done, you can take them off the fire. Now add them in a blender (or use a hand blender) and blend them up with the ground pepper and some salt and black pepper. Your sauce is ready. By now you are probably 25 minutes in and your risotto might be almost ready. You can test that out by tasting the rice. If the rice is done, then you are done. At this point I added parsley into the mix and some parmesan. I mixed it and left the two tiny asparagus to cook quickly on top of the mix for two minutes. Now you are ready for serving. I served it up as you can see above. You can serve it up like it pleases you.

ENJOY!