Baked risotto sounds a little bit too good to be true. You get the same delicious texture with none of the waiting by the pan, constant stirring and a very straightforward dish. This baked squash risotto is great for anyone slightly less confident in the kitchen, or looking for a less hands on dish than traditional risotto.
Suggested Recipe: Sundried Tomato Red Wine Risotto
Ideally, for this recipe you want to be cooking your risotto in a casserole dish, but certain pans will work if you don’t have one/ don’t have one that’s an appropriate size. Although this isn’t a huge serving size recipe, as it starts with a large amount of squash, you will need a relatively large dish for this squash risotto recipe.
Nutritional Information
Per serving (¼ recipe), this dish contains 7g of protein and 6g of fibre. Each serving contains 40% of the RDA of vitamin C, the full recommended daily amount of vitamins A & K, 15% of your daily calcium and 3mg of iron.
How to store and reheat
This is a four serving recipe, if you don’t want all of that in one go, you can store the remaining servings in the fridge for 4-5 days and reheat when you’re ready. Avoid freezing.
As I’m sure you’re aware, reheating rice is a very tricky one, especially risotto as you don’t want it to lose that bite.
You can reheat this recipe, but it won’t reheat well in the oven.
The best way to reheat is to add more liquid, either more stock, wine or water and reheat in the microwave for approximately 4 minutes, pausing to stir frequently. Make sure the majority of your added liquid is gone before serving. Start with approximately one third of a cup and add more if necessary.
Baked Squash Risotto Recipe
A fuss free, low maintenance way of making a traditionally ‘difficult’ dish. One pot simple recipe.
This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, soy free, nut free and vegan.
Baked Squash Risotto Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegan butter
- 1 small red onion diced small
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 ½ cups Arborio rice
- 180 ml dry white wine
- 400 g butternut squash cubed
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 80 g spinach roughly chopped
- Vegan parmesan to serve
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 200c (400F).
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In a medium casserole dish or heavy ovenproof pot with a tight-fitting lid, heat vegan butter over medium heat. Ideally you want to do the prep in the same dish you’ll be roasting your casserole in. If not, pick a heavy based pan.
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Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add rosemary and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 1 extra minute.
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Add rice and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until opaque.
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Then add the wine and cook, stirring, until completely absorbed, about 2-3 minutes.
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Finally, add the squash and stock; bring mixture to a boil. Stir in chopped spinach.
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Cover, transfer to oven, and bake until rice is tender and most of liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. If you’re using foil rather than a casserole dish with a lid, see notes.
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Approximately 5 minutes before it’s ready, remove the lid/ foil and sprinkle the top layer with vegan parmesan (if using). Cover again and return to the oven for the final 5 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
If you’re using foil, pack the dish as tight as you can, but expect it to take much longer. I tried this with foil to make sure it would work. It did, but it took around 45-50 minutes rather than 20-25.
Do you like the sound of baked risotto rather than constantly tending to the pan?
Until tomorrow,
Sophie
I love low maintenance ways of making food, I do like the idea of baked risotto. I like risotto, but I’ve never actually made it. 🙂