Char-grilled butternut squash and pepper risotto

I'm char-grilling again as I'm still excited about my newish griddle pan. I char-grilled the veg beforehand for my risotto and the result was rather spectacular if I may say so myself. There is a nice grilling flavour going through the dish that gives a twist to a normal vegetarian risotto. Making risotto from scratch isn't as complicated as people might think, you only need some patience and stirring strength.

Ingredients

1 Pepper

½ Butternut squash

A few dried porcini mushrooms

1 Cup arborio rice

1 Onion

2 Cloves of garlic

White wine

Vegetable stock

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Olive oil

Groundnut oil

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Parsley

Method

Wash and slice the pepper and butternut squash. The bits for the char-grilling should be much larger than those you put into the risotto. Heat the griddle pan, add groundnut oil and mark these vegetables so that they get grilling stripes on both sides. When the veg bits are grilled, chop them into smaller pieces and set to side.

In the meanwhile prepare the vegetable stock and soak the dried porcini mushrooms. Warm the vegetable stock up in a pan and add parsley into it. Chop the onion and garlic and grate the pasta cheese.

Heat olive oil in a pan and fry onions and garlic there for a while. Add the porcini and fry them for a while. Then add the butter and rice and fry until the rice is translucent. Then make a white wine addition. Let the wine evaporate almost entirely and put the grilled vegetables to the pan and stir through. Make a vegetable stock addition and let simmer under the lid.

Stir often and add more vegetable stock whenever needed. Let simmer at moderate heat until the rice is al dente. Season with grated pasta cheese, parsley salt and pepper and you're ready to serve!

Enjoy!

Your VegHog