I must confess. I have jumped on the pumpkin bandwagon.
Yup. It’s true.
Pumpkin can happen to good people.
Sometimes it comes in the form of a sweet, piping hot espresso drink from the nearest coffee shop. Sometimes it comes in the form of a creamy scoop of cold ice cream. And sometimes it comes in an unexpected form like hummus.
But this time it happened to me in the form of one of my favorite dishes – risotto.
Since I got pumpkin happy at the grocery store (I bought a large quantity of canned pumpkin), I pondered the ways I could use pumpkin in everyday dishes. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks (or several cans of pumpkin)! Why not make a risotto? Of course! Why not? I did make a butternut squash risotto, so a pumpkin version made complete sense.
So the first thing I did was raid my fresh herb collection to find the perfect match for this pumpkin risotto. It took some TIME but I finally found the perfect herb, THYME! OK, enough cheese 🙂
Or maybe not. We need CHEESE for this dish – Parmesan and Pecorino Romano to be exact.
Next, I inspected the spice cabinet. Hmmm. What spices to use?? And the winners are…nutmeg and white pepper! Congratulations! You’ve been selected to appear in this recipe for pumpkin risotto!
OK, but seriously…the final part of my mission was to search for the perfect garnish. Eureka! I finally found a use for that bag of organic pumpkin seeds I bought at the store a few weeks ago!
Time to get cooking! 🙂
To make this Pumpkin Risotto, start by warming chicken broth in a pot. Then heat butter and olive oil in a wide pan. Next, add minced onion and cook over medium heat until onion is translucent. Add the rice and stir until it is well coated. Then add one ladleful of the broth until absorbed, stirring constantly. Next, add the wine and stir until absorbed.
Continue to add the broth to the rice one ladleful at a time until absorbed, stirring constantly until the rice is tender and has a creamy consistency (will take about 20-25 minutes minutes from this point).
Stir in the pumpkin, cheese, thyme, nutmeg and white pepper, and cook for 2 more minutes.
Salt to taste and top with pumpkin seeds! Enjoy!
- 58 oz. less-sodium, fat free chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup minced sweet onion
- 2 cups Arborio rice (not rinsed)
- 1 cup white wine (preferably Pinot Grigio)
- 1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin (not pie filling)
- ¼ cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- Sea salt to taste
- Pumpkin seeds for garnish
- Warm chicken broth in a pot over medium to medium-high heat.
- Heat butter and olive oil in a wide pan until butter is melted.
- Add the onion and cook over medium heat until it becomes translucent, about 2 minutes.
- Add the rice and stir until it is well coated.
- Add one ladleful (approximately ¼ cup) of broth and stir.
- When broth is absorbed, add the wine and stir.
- Once wine is absorbed, add one ladleful of broth until it is absorbed, stirring constantly.
- Continue to add one ladleful of broth at a time to the rice and stir constantly until broth is absorbed and rice is just tender and has a creamy consistency (will take about 20-25 minutes minutes from this point).
- Once the rice is creamy and you have used all or most of your broth (you might not need it all), stir in pumpkin, cheese, thyme, nutmeg and white pepper. Cook over medium heat for 2 more minutes.
- Salt to taste and garnish with pumpkin seeds.
My goodness this looks delicious! Such a fun fall recipe! Risotto is one of my favorites 🙂
Thank you Liz! 🙂
Looks so comforting and creamy for a chilly, fall day!
Thanks Rachel! 🙂
Hi Sherri, I wanted to let you know about a new web site I started for Food Bloggers. Easy concept, directly linking to your Blog. Go to https://wegrazetogether.wordpress.com or thread through my main site https://clwiser.wordpress.com to “Participating Food Blogs” – Post or We Graze Together-Post. Love to have you join us! Best Regards from sunny Florida, Cheryl
PS Risotto looks YUM!
Thank you Cheryl – glad to be a part of it! 🙂
My pleasure, delighted to have you join us! See you there and TK! Cheryl
Hey Sherri! Popped over to your blog after reading your sweet comment on mine! I love all things rice, and with the colder months setting in, risottos are going to have frequent appearances in my kitchen! Just made a mushroom risotto last friday, and this pumpkin risotto looks heavenly! thanks for the inspiration! pinning!
Thanks Felicia! I really appreciate it! Risotto is one of my favorites and a dish I learned to make from my dad. Look forward to seeing your mushroom risotto soon – loooove mushrooms! 🙂
I share the same love of cheese (and pumpkin!) as you and this definitely sounds very comforting and inviting… cheese and pumpkin and all the spices…yummy! Love the personal stories on each of your posts…brings back some memories and also helps to personalize the recipes for your readers.
Thanks Neetu! Hahaha! Yes, cheese is sooooo good! 😉 I’m glad you enjoy the stories and you can relate to them!