BUTTERNUT SQUASH RISOTTO

My daughter Lauren has been encouraging me to embrace a vegan diet for quite some time.  I finally gave in and promised her I would try it for a month.  I researched and bought what I believed was one of the best vegan cookbooks out there.  So far I have only made one dish that was good, and for all the trouble, it was not great.  Instead I began looking for recipes I could adapt to vegan.  My son Logan loves butternut squash so when I saw this recipe I thought it was promising.  It is so good that I made it one week and Logan requested it to be part of his birthday dinner the next week – and believe me my boy does not embrace a vegan lifestyle.  I have put the non-vegan version in italics, but honestly you should try it the vegan way first.  Leaving out the pancetta and parmesan cheese will greatly decrease the calories, and if you’ve never had it with them you won’t miss those flavors – we sure didn’t.  Of course 4 weeks into this diet I’m thinking the pancetta and cheese would probably be pretty darn tasty.  So as a vegan dish a larger portion can be the main course, or it can be a side dish for carnivores.  Either way it is fantastic.  BTW if you have never had butternut squash it tastes more like a sweet potato or pumpkin than squash.

½ c. coarsely chopped walnuts

1 TB Canola oil (or melted butter for non-vegan)
1 t. brown sugar
1/8 t. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 of butternut squash (about 3 c.), peeled and cubed in ½” pieces
1 TB olive oil
2 t. minced fresh garlic
4 c., vegetable broth (or chicken broth for non-vegan)
½ c. water
2 TB lemon olive oil (or 2 TB olive oil and juice of half a lemon) (or ¼ c. pancetta, finely chopped and juice of half a lemon for non-vegan)
1 c. onion, finely chopped
1-1/4 c. uncooked Arborio rice
½ c. chardonnay
Pinch dried thyme leaves
¼ t. salt
¼ t. freshly ground black pepper
¼ c. shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for non-vegan

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Arrange nuts in a single layer on a baking pan.  Bake for 5 minutes or until toasted, stirring twice.  Place nuts in a bowl and drizzle Canola oil (or butter) over warm nuts; sprinkle with sugar and 1/8 t. pepper.  Toss well to coat and set aside.

Combine squash and 1 TB olive oil, tossing to coat.  Arrange squash in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan.  Bake for 15 minutes or until squash is just tender.  Remove from pan and stir in garlic.  Set aside.

Bring broth and ½ c. water to a simmer a saucepan (do not boil).  Keep warm over low heat.

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add lemon oil until it is hot but not smoking (or pancetta and cook about 5 minutes until browned, stirring frequently).  Add onion and cook 3 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.  Add rice and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add wine and cook 1 minute or until liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly.  Add broth mixture, ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly until each portion of broth is absorbed before adding the next (about 20 minutes total).  Stir in squash, thyme, ¼ t. each of salt and pepper.  Stir in nuts (and cheese).