Chanterelle and harlequin squash spelt risotto

Here comes another harlequin squash recipe of mine. I coupled it with another seasonal treat, chanterelles, and made a spelt risotto with them. I'm not fortunate enough to get fresh chanterelles at the moment, but definitely do use them instead of dried ones, if you can get some. Otherwise this is quite a basic risotto recipe, rice of course substituted by my favourite, pearled spelt.

These are the things you'll need and the instructions to make it are below.

½ harlequin squash (or a whole small one)

25 g dried chanterelles (or other wild mushrooms, for example porcini would be fine)

1 large shallot

2 garlic cloves

1 l vegetable stock

1 tsp chanterelle fond

1 tbsp olive oil

25 g butter

1 dl dry white wine

1 cup pearled spelt

Fresh savory to taste

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

30 g mature cheddar

Cut the harlequin squash into cubes and remove the seeds.

Soak the chanterelles in water for about 10 minutes. After that, drain them well.

Chop the shallot and garlic finely.

Heat the vegetable stock.

Heat olive oil in a large pan and cook the shallots and garlic until soft. Then also add the harlequin squash cubes and chanterelles to the pan. Cook for a further couple of minutes.

Add the butter to the pan and then the pearled spelt. Cook again for a couple of minutes and make the white wine addition. Let the wine mostly evaporate, and then also add a few ladles of the warm vegetable stock.

If you can get chanterelle fond somewhere, add it to the pan. Alternatively you can also use the soaking water of the mushroom for some extra mushroom taste.

Let the risotto simmer under the lid and keep stirring it and making vegetable stock additions before the pan dries out.

Cook until the spelt is soft, or I prefer al dente, and season with savory, salt and pepper. Season to taste, and add even more wine, if you think it's needed.

Mix in the cheese before serving. I also made some cheddar crisps as decorations on the top.

Enjoy warm! The taste usually gets better when heated up the next day, but I'm rarely patient enough to leave any.

Your VegHog