One-Pan Butternut Squash Risotto with Mushrooms

Soon, I’ll start calling butternut squash my favorite standby cooking ingredient. I was cleaning the kitchen counters and looked at the last couple butternut squash still hanging around and couldn’t resist coming up with another recipe. This will be the fourth recipe in an unplanned series. All in one autumn season.

Jump to:

• 🔪 Preparing the squash
• 🍲 Making the risotto
• 👨🏻‍🍳 A word about stock
• ⭐ Did you know that squash is one of the three sisters?
• 📝 Recipe

So far, we’ve made a creamy, luxurious roasted butternut squash soup. Next, we created a scrumptious (egg free) butternut squash carbonara pasta.

Thanks to all the positive feedback from these butternut recipes, I was motivated to create a sheet pan butternut squash with spicy Italian sausage dish. And I thought, that’s it for this year’s butternut squash dishes. 

But let’s go butternuts, just one more time! Before sitting down to watch the latest adventures of Rick & Morty, the nuttiest cartoon on TV in my opinion, I’ll try a one-pan butternut squash risotto. 

🔪 Preparing the squash

In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil and add cubed butternut squash for about 10 minutes (or until soft). Drain and roughly mash with a fork, season with curry powder, and set aside.

🍲 Making the risotto

Place pan back on burner and melt butter over medium heat. Cook shallots until translucent (and delicious smelling) for about two minutes. Add olive oil, wait a minute for it to heat up, then add rice and garlic, and constantly stir for one minute.

Add mushrooms and stir for another minute. Now is a good time to season with salt and pepper. But be careful...the stock contains salt, the cheese is salty, and the butternut squash was cooked in salt water. If you want to be safe, only season at the very end before serving.

Next, add about one cup of stock and stir occasionally until most of the liquid is absorbed (which will take about five minutes). Add second cup of stock. Once this liquid has also mostly absorbed, add mashed butternut squash, cheese, and herbs. 

Stir and add remaining stock. Keep stirring, and after a total rice cooking time of about 20 minutes, the rice should be al dente and you’ll have a creamy, fantastic smelling risotto that can't wait to be served on pre-warmed dishes.

Garnish with herbs and some more cheese, if you like. Then sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

👨🏻‍🍳 A word about stock

Of course the best stock is a homemade stock. No doubt. I’ve made some myself over the years and oh my… But that’s not everybody's cup of stock.

After experimenting with an ever-growing selection of store-bought stocks, I always fall back to the one my mother used when I grew up...simple bouillon cubes from Knorr, any flavor. They’re easy to store, easy to use, easy on the wallet (buy in-store, not online), and have consistent and reliable flavor. I’m not saying it’s the best, I’m saying that this is the one I use most of the time.

But like the ever-growing selection of stocks, there’s also an ever-growing number of opinions about stock. Find or make your own. That’s the way to go. 

⭐ Did you know that squash is one of the three sisters?

• Squash is one of the Three Sisters of the northeastern tribes of Native Americans, so-called because corn, squash, and beans were traditionally planted together by Native American farmers. They grow in the same mound in the garden. The corn provides a ladder for the bean vine and together they give shade to the squash.
  
• Squash comes from Native American language and is an abbreviation from askutasquash, the word for squash in the Narragansett language.
  
• In addition to squash's important role as a food crop, the dried gourds were also used as dance rattles in some Native American tribes, and squash blossoms - which were considered a delicacy in many southwestern tribes - were an important cultural symbol and artistic motif, used in dance regalia, jewelry designs, and even the traditional squash-blossom hairstyle of marriageable Hopi maidens. 
  
• Squash is also a clan symbol in some Native American cultures, such as the Squash Clans of the Navajo (whose Squash Clan is named Naayízí Dine'é) and the Hopi (whose Squash Clan is called Paatangngyam), the Calabash Clans of the Pueblo tribes, and the Gourd Clans of the Kiowa and Osage.

Love one-pan meals? Check out more of our one-pan recipes:

• One Pan Pasta, Deliciousness from the Pantry and Two Fresh Ingredients
• One Pan Chicken Pasta from the Essential Pantry
• Deliciously Creamy One Pan Chicken and Beans
• Sheet Pan Dinner: Hanger Steak with Mushrooms and Carrots
• Sheet Pan Butternut Squash with Spicy Italian Sausage
• Super Easy Sheet Pan Shrimp Boil

Did you make this Butternut Squash Risotto recipe? Let us know in the comments below!

📝 Recipe

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