Pumpkin & cinnamon risotto
Posted by kathryn in Vegetable recipes and Main courses
We had risotto for dinner last night – this beautiful pumpkin and cinnamon risotto. I started with a recipe from Rose Gray&Ruth Rogers’ River Cafe Cook Book Green * and made a couple of tweaks. I’ve been quite intrigued by this recipe for a while and after my recent experiment with chermoula risotto , I decided to give it a go.
The combination of cinnamon, chilli and oregano gives the risotto a beautiful, rich flavour. It’s not super-hot, with the chilli and cinnamon combining to give just a slight warmth.
Cook’s confession time – while I’m sure the best risottos are made by stirring the rice and stock constantly, I rarely do that – my stirring tends to be much more sporadic. Each time I add stock, I let it cook for a couple of minutes before stirring. I suspect this is risotto heresy, but to be honest I find the results are still really good, without you having to be chained to the stovetop.
This month’s Hay Hay It’s Donna Day , hosted by Il Cavaletto di Bruxelles is based on risottos, so this dinner was good timing.
Pumpkin&cinnamon risotto
Serves 2- 900g pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1.5cm cubes
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 red onions, peeled and finely sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- 1 dried chilli
- 1 cinnamon stick, broken into three
- 200g arborio rice
- 2 large handfuls of baby spinach leaves
- 4 tablespoons ricotta
Preheat the oven to 220°C.
Toss the pumpkin together with half the oregano and half the olive oil. Season with salt and paper, then place on a baking tray and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until soft and slightly browned.
In the meantime, heat the other half of the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan. Add the onions and garlic, stir, turn the heat down to low and place the lid on top. Leave the onions to gently sweat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Heat the stock in another pan and keep warm.
Add the rest of the oregano, the chilli and the cinnamon stick and continue cooking for another couple of minutes. Add the rice and stir to coat each grain with the oil. until the rice grains become opaque (about 2 – 3 minutes).
Start adding the stock, about a quarter of a cup at a time. Add the first amount and then cook until that liquid is absorbed, stirring sporadically. Once this is done, add another quarter cup of stock and continue cooking and stirring until it’s absorbed. Continue doing this until the rice is cooked (this will take about 20 minutes). Fish out the cinnamon stick pieces and then add in the pumpkin and stir through, slightly mashing as you do so. Finally, add the spinach leaves, stir through and serve immediately topped with the ricotta.
Nutritional information per serve:
Total kilojoules: 2885kJ; Protein: 23g; Total Fat: 16g; Saturated fat: 4.5g; Carbohydrate: 113g; Fibre: 10g; Sodium: 452mg (without adding any extra salt); Number of vegetable serves towards daily total: 4 serve; Additional nutrients: potassium, beta-carotene, calcium antioxidants.
*Gray R&Rogers R, River Cafe Cook Book Green , Ebury Press, London 2000.
Technorati tags: risotto , cinnamon , pumpkin , spinach , vegetarian , hay hay it’s donna day
28 November, 2006
Comments
Hi Kathryn – Thanks for joining us for the latest Hay Hay Its Donna Day. I love your entry.
Thanks Barbara, I’m always happy to cook a risotto.
Chili, cinnamon, and pumkin…I must try this! And ricotta too…yum! :)
Mmmmm, I’m sure the cinnamon added something wonderful to this risotto!
Hi there Brilynn and Joey – it’s a great recipe – the combination of cinnamon and pumpkin with the rice works really well. It’s an unusual flavour for a risotto, but it’s fab.
sounds tasty, interesting twist with the cinnamon.
Loved it! Thanks!
Hey Kathryn, fantastic recipe, nice and spicy and with a rich taste and mouth feel. Made even us non-vegetarians consider switching sides. (grin)
I found a couple of “issues” with the recipe, though, that people might want to take note of.
Firstly, I couldn’t find cinnamon sticks for love nor money at my local supermarket, and I was a bit pressed for time and couldn’t travel anywhere. I used a quarter teaspoon of ground cinnamon and that seemed to work OK, though.
Secondly, the order of assembly would probably be better if you chopped the onions and set them sweating, and then chopped and seasoned the pumpkin. After following the order of steps given, I found I had the pumpkin sitting on the bench for quite a while before I was finished incorporating all of the stock into the rice.
They’re minor things, though—the important bit is that the dinner was delicious, and I’ll definitely be making other recipes from your site in the future. Your general articles on food-related things are also very informative and well-balanced. Thanks.
Feel the Love – hey there, how lovely to hear from you and thanks for the feedback on the recipe, it’s always really interesting to hear how people have found recipes and the methodology.
Re cinnamon sticks – most supermarkets do stock, although the supply can be erratic. Most supermarkets have a main spices section, which is made up of McCormick’s brand glass bottles. But next to that there’s a section of small bag packets, hanging from hooks (does that make sense?) – the cinnamon sticks are usually there.
A quarter of a teaspoon of ground cinnamon sounds like a good amount to use though – it should be a fairly gentle and subtle flavour. I shall have to try this out for myself.
And you’re completely correct about the order! You know I’ve made this risotto about three times, exactly as per the above instructions and never thought to change it around. For some reason my brain still thinks the above instructions are the “logical” way to do it. But you’re completely correct – so doubly thanks for commenting.
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