This is one of my favourite risotto recipes but I have to admit I usually make it with ladles full of butter and cheese making it the ultimate comfort food, however, I have adapted the recipe to make it a little lighter on the hips for all of us trying to loose the extra pounds we piled on over Christmas but it is still bursting with all the flavour.
What you need..
- 1 Whole Butternut Squash
- 2 x Small Red Onions
- 2 Cloves of Garlic
- 1 and a half bags of Risotto Rice
- 400g of Bacon cut into cubes
- 50ml of White Wine Vinegar
- 2 Pinches of Dried Chilli Flakes
- Handful Chopped Sage
- 1 Litre of Vegetable Stock
- Juice of 1 Lemon
- Salt and Pepper
- Fry light
Serves: 6 Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 40 Minutes on gas mark 180 and 20 minutes to simmer
Syn Free on Slimming World
How its done…
- Firsts things first you want to take your butternut squash, remove the skin and seeds, cut in to cubes, place on a tray, spray with little Fry Light, lightly season and cook for around 35-40 minutes until soft.
- Whilst your butternut squash is cooking, chop your onions and put your garlic through a garlic press, pop in to a large pan with some fry light and saute. Once your onions and garlic is sauteed add the chopped bacon in to the pan and cook.
- Slowly add the risotto rice to the pan and mix with the onion, garlic and bacon, then add your white wine vinegar and chopped sage and continuously stir.
- Add your stock in a ladle full at a time making sure that all the stock is absorbed in to the rice before adding another ladle full in. Make sure to continuously stir the risotto and once the rice is soft and the stock is absorbed in, there is no need to add further stock.
- Once your butternut squash is cooked blend the butternut squash in to a puree and stir in to the risotto a spoonful at a time, add in your chilli flakes, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste to finish.
- For all of us on Slimming World, If you want to make the risotto Syn Free stop here and you will still have a tasty risotto, however, if you have a few syns to spare or haven’t used your Health Extra A and wan to make this a little more indulgent finish with 30g of grated Parmesan. I also like to put a few sages leaves in to a pan with a little butter to melt and stir in to the risotto to give it a little buttery texture, I then take the crispy sage leaves from the pan and crumble over the top given it the perfect finish.
- For those of us Gluten Free and Dairy Free make sure that your vegetable stock is the gluten free variety and I personally use Vio Life’s Prosociano to finish.
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