This risotto is the best bowl of comfort food perfect for chilli autumn evenings. It’s super easy to make and it’s making the most of seasonal squashes or pumpkins. Please don’t skip on the crispy sage as it really adds tons of flavour and a lovely crunchy texture.

Serves 2-3 people 

Ingredients:

1 small white onion or 1/2 of a very large one – very finely chopped (I have blitzed it in my food processor to save some tears and because I am not very good at chopping)

1/2 of a butternut squash – peeled, deseeded and chopped into small cubes

2 cloves of garlic – crushed

About 1 litre of veggie stock

1 teaspoon of brown miso paste

1 cup of risotto rice (you can also use brown rice but risotto rice helps massively to have a creamy and gloppy consistency)

3-4 tablespoons of nutritional yeast ( or even more, in my books the more nutritional yeast, the better!) + extra for sprinkling

A glug of olive oil for frying

Salt & pepper to taste

For the crispy sage:

A small handful of sage leaves

A glug of oil for frying 

Place the finely diced onion in a pan with the glug of olive oil. Saute the onion on a medium heat until it starts to soften and becomes translucent. Add in the crushed garlic, cook for another minute and keep stirring to prevent from burning. Add in the chopped butternut squash and the rice. Add in the miso paste. Pour in some veggie stock until the rice is covered and place the lid on. Cook on a medium heat for a total of 25-30 minutes (it also depends on what kind of rice you are using). The key with risotto is to keep stirring from time to time and keep adding the veggie stock and equally some of the porcini mushrooms soaking water. The rice will gradually absorbed the liquid and eventually one it’s cooked it will be quite gloppy (kind of like porridge). Once the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is cooked adjust with salt & pepper and add in the nutritional yeast. Switch off the heat and let the risotto rest for few minutes. Please feel free to stir in some vegan cheese if you fancy!

For the crispy sage simply add a glut of oil to a pan and once hot add in the sage leaves. Cook for only few minutes until very crispy. Serve them with the risotto.