Kath Eats Real Food Presents Brain Food: Mushroom + Butternut Squash Risotto

Hello again to my favorite fungi friends- it’s Kath from Kath Eats Real Food! Many of us are busy studying for finals this time of year and have little time to think about cooking. But you’d be surprised how much a gourmet meal will ease your stress and make you feel like life is normal again. Take just 30 minutes to put this mushroom risotto together, and you’ll feel refreshed and ready to return to the books (and a little wine on the side might help too!)

Mushrooms… butter….wine. Sounds decadent, right? But this recipe still clocks in under 500 calories, includes a plethora of delicious vegetables, and is out-of-this-world flavorful.

It’s very flexible too – use any kind of mushrooms you like (cremini are my favorite), swap out the spinach for any greens you have on hand and use sweet potato instead of squash if you like.

And if you don’t have risotto rice, just use oats! Be sure to use a quality vegetable or chicken stock for maximum flavor in the risotto and mushrooms.

Here’s a link to the inspiration recipe from Cooking Light.

• 8 oz butternut squash, cubed and baked until tender at 400*
• 1/2 cup steel cut oats (*Note* I think this actually would have been better with real arborio rice instead of the oats because the rice has more volume and heft)
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 2 tsp sage
• 1.5 cups (appx.) vegetable broth
• 10 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tbsp real butter
• 4 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated
• Handful baby spinach, chopped

For my version, I baked half a large butternut squash for 40 minutes until tender in a little S+ P (I also microwaved it to give it a head start).

For the “risotto” I sauteed garlic and 1/2 a cup of steel cut oats for a few minutes and then added 1/3 a cup of wine, followed by who knows how much broth, 1/4-1/3 a cup or so at a time. I’m guessing I used about 1.5 cups of broth? I just kept adding it every time the oats dried out on the bottom of the pan until it was time to serve the veggies.

In a skillet, I sauteed the mushrooms in 1/2 a tbsp of real butter (one of the few times I think it’s really worth it because you can TASTE the butter!). Then I added the squash and spinach when the shrooms were done.

When the risotto was done, I stirred in another 1/2 tbsp real butter, 2 tsp sage and 2 tbsp parmesan.

Then I poured the risotto into bowls, topped with veggies, and sprinkled another tbsp parmesan in each bowl.

A delicious dish that proves getting to the bottom of the bowl can bring the best out in your brain!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 7:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.