Ingredients
- 2ltr vegetable stock
- 1kg pumpkin peeled, deseeded and diced (you can shave some into thin circles for the pickle, if you wish)
- 25ml olive oil
- 100g diced shallot
- 100g diced leek
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 500g arborio rice
- 100ml white wine
- 1 bunch sage
- 200g vegan butter
- 10g miso paste
- 1 lemon, zest of
- 1 small bunch parsley
- 30g walnuts, roasted
- 30ml white wine vinegar (chardonnay if you have a choice)
- 30g caster sugar
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 100g vegan cheese (optional)
- Roast 800g of pumpkin on a tray with two cloves of garlic, 10ml olive oil, salt and pepper for 45 minutes at 180C. Heat one litre of the vegetable stock and combine with the roasted pumpkin in a blender. Blitz until smooth and set aside.
- In a wide bottomed saucepan, add the remaining olive oil and gently sauté the shallot, leek and two cloves of garlic for 10 minutes. Add the rice and cook for one minute. Add the white wine and stir. Add the pumpkin purée, remaining vegetable stock, miso and 100g of the vegan butter. Cook on a low heat, stirring often, for 25 minutes (check the rice is cooked by tasting, it should be almost soft with a very light bite).
- For the gemolata, add the remaining vegan butter to a pot and once hot, add the sage. Cook the sage leaves in the vegan butter until crispy and remove the sage from the pan. Add 100g of the diced pumpkin, the walnuts and one garlic clove into the pan with the butter and cook for two minutes. Add the finely chopped parsley and the zest of one lemon.
- Heat the sugar and vinegar in a pot and once simmering, add the remaining diced or thinly cut pumpkin. Take off the heat and allow the pumpkin to pickle in the residual heat.
- To assemble, spoon the risotto into a bowl (adding extra stock if necessary beforehand), and garnish with the pickled pumpkin, the gremolata and the crispy sage. Shave the vegan cheese on top. Of course, you can use dairy butter and Parmesan or another hard cheese of your choice, if you don’t want to make this a vegan dish.
