CFD* - nuttelex pumpkin risotto

 CFD* - Comfort food discovery

I am 18 miles into a marathon here and it seems it's been uphill all the way. ...

Me time? Those moments caught generally within my car with podcast or audiobook or my own thoughts and silence.  Or in the kitchen.

...

I am currently in love with a pumpkin risotto from an advertisement within a free supermarket magazine.

I am sure that the advertising worked as far as brand awareness goes. However I am a girl for the substitute and so it won't translate into sales.

I made it tonight. It's dead easy. If the originator of this wants acknowledgement I will gladly do so because yum.

First, remember to have ingredients. I mean I had the main ingredient - pumpkin in the form of a beaut little pumpkin from my Dad's.

Onion, however, was in short supply when sought. A half of a large red onion was found in the good round container with the screw-top in the fridge. And luckily I only needed 2 cloves of garlic, because that's what we had.

When I peeled and deseeded and diced the pumpkin, I had 660g.

30g nuttelex (substitute butter if you are a filthy cardio-clog-loving foodie afraid of fats from vats of numbers type) melted in an ovenproof pan with a lid (I have a beauty).

Then add onion and garlic and cook to translucent. (Until the new cooktop comes in and we get someone to install said new cooktop, we have to cook on the existing cooktop and it only has one speed and that's gallop like hell.) (This is why I would never tell you how hot to cook something - how the heck would I know?)

I use brown rice. Sorry Italians. I steal your perfectly good cuisine and adulterate to the inner -1970s- crunchy-hippie wannabe palate. Chuck in 1 1/2 cups - I gave it a little rinse for the dust and stuff (and a silent prayer for the potential chemicals) (and the taste) and let it sizzle the moisture out rather than use white wine (dry July - and V was having some).

Then put in pumpkin and 3 1/2 cups of veg stock (it says nuttelex because again, they paid for the ad but nobody's checking.)

I used to have containers of frozen stock in the deep freeze - and prior to that jars of stock vacuum sealed. Who is this woman with store bought stock?

So yes, put the lid on and put it in the oven. 1/2 an hour on the timer.

While that was happening, I needed to get together some vegan parmesan - again, V, but as I am pretty lactose intolerant these days, me too.

I had some cashew pieces, so reserving a handful I put the rest - a bit more than about a cup - in the whizzer and whizzed to powder. Then I chucked in some nutritional yeast - magic stuff! Maybe a few tablespoons? 

I also got 20 sage leaves from the garden and roughly chopped them and those reserved cashew pieces (the recipe had hazelnuts) and fried then in a little pan with 30g of the outcome of the earlier moral dilemma until crispy.

At the 30 minute ding, take the pan out of the oven. Put it on a heatproof surface (turned off stove works a treat) and remove the lid. 

Admire the fact that it's pretty well cooked to perfection. Then take another dollop of your fat of choice and a cup of previously slapped together vegan parmesan and mix through, squishing the pumpkin a bit. You can add a little water if you need a bit more glug.

Put the crispy sage, nuts and oil on top as a garnish and serve.

Verdict? Yum.

Good night.