Roasted leftovers risotto

 

Butternut squash risotto, with chicken and asparagus too.

I spoil my children, I really do. They of course ignore this fact on a daily basis. Such is the life of a parent with teenagers. Mind you today I spoiled them with very little and they loved it. As the weather has turned cooler I felt the need for a heartier dish then the salads and BBQs we have had recently. Rooting about in the bottom of the fridge turned up a very small butternut squash and some slightly limp asparagus. Now my two are not in any way vegetarians and prefer meat with their meals so I treated us all to a share in just one small chicken leg portion. Maximising flavours is the name of the game when eeking out meals so roasting the chicken and the squash before adding to the risotto was my first task.  Adding a couple of cloves of unpeeled garlic, salt, pepper and a slug of olive oil makes all the difference. I have been sent some Knorr vegetable stock pots, not a product I use at all as I usually have chicken stock in the freezer or use vegetable bouillon powder. I was very pleasantly surprised, no one flavour overpowered the other and for my tastes the resulting stock wasn’t too salty either.

Roasted butternut squash with garlic.

Ingredients (serves 3)

375g risotto rice

500g butternut squash peeled and cubed

2 cloves of garlic unpeeled

6 asparagus shoots

1 chicken leg quarter

1 Knorr vegetable stockpot made up according to the instructions.

Salt Pepper olive oil

Knob of butter

 

How to

• Preheat the oven to 200c
• Place the chicken, butternut squash and garlic onto a baking sheet.
• Drizzle with olive oil. Season well and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
• Place the roasted vegetables onto a plate. Strip the chicken from the bone and leave to one side.
• Add enough hot water to the roasting tin to pick up the chickeny cooking juices.
• Cover the base of a large pan with olive oil. Add in the risotto rice and cook until it becomes translucent.
• Pour in the cooking juices and keep stirring. As the liquid is absorbed begin adding the vegetable stock made from the stock pot.
• When the rice is becoming softer stir through the roasted squash, the chicken pieces and squeeze out the roasted garlic. Chop the asparagus into 2 cm lengths, reserving the tips for garnish, and mix that through too.
• Add the last of the stock and stir until absorbed.
• in a pan quickly toss the asparagus tips in a little butter, salt and pepper ready to garnish. If this is too much faff just sling them into the risotto, no one in my house minds at all.
• Pop in a final knob of butter,giving the risotto a gloss,  check the seasoning and serve.

A vegetarian version of this risotto works well but I always have to remember how sweet squashes can be so this has to be balanced with the umami from roasted garlic or perhaps some parmesan rind dropped into the stock and risotto at the beginning of the absorption process, No one can quite put their finger on the flavour in the dish but OMG it tastes divine. The rinds of parmesan freeze well so just keep it until your next risotto.

Advertisement