The "Everything's gonna be alright" Risotto with Butternut Squash

 It's on days like today that I wish I had a dog to welcome me home with his cute funny face, ready to go for a walk in the park helping me to forget all the bad things that happened during the day..
But alas, I have no dog (sad music in the background).. So I'm turning to comforting yet nutritious food instead.
Enter the Butternut Squash Risotto.
This creamy, soul healing comforting bowl of goodness takes only 20 minutes to prepare and it's bound to bring a smile of happiness and joy on the first bite.
It's inspired by the awesome pumpkin risotto my mom makes but here it's easier to find butternut squash so I used that. And I'll tell you more, I used to have mixed butternut squash and sweet potato together but now I just use the first one and the result is a lighter, creamier risotto that I could eat over and over again.
And I love its happy bright orange colour of course!

INGREDIENTS
2 cups of chopped butternut squash
( I buy the pre chopped one and chop it even more)
1 cup arborio rice
1tbsp vegetable stock
2 peeled garlic cloves
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to season
2 pinches of nutmeg
Boiling water

 Start with oil and garlic in a pan on medium heat till the garlic is browning a bit.
In the meantime put the kettle on and chop your butternut squash.
Get your rice and rinse it.
Once the garlic is ready, pop the butternut squash and rice in and mix so they are covered in garlicky oil.
Add salt and pepper and the vegetable stock and mix again.
Then add the water till it covers everything and bring to the boil before lowering the heat to a simmer.
From now on, what you want to do is check and stir every now and then, adding water if you notice that the mixture is becoming too dry.
After 15 minutes (my rice takes about 20 min. to cook but check the instructions on your package), I start squashing the pieces of softened squash against the sides of the pan with a wooden spoon and then stir, by the end of this process everything has become creamy and orange!
That's when I add my nutmeg, stir again, taste to check if I need more salt and pepper and if the rice is cooked of course.
When you stir the rice and see a creamy consistency, not watery (in Italy we call the right consistency ALL'ONDA, onda means wave in italian because when you stir the risotto it should look like a velvety wave), then it's done!
You can add parmesan if you want but as you know I haven't been a fan of dairy lately so I take mine without and it tastes so incredible anyway..

So nothing left to do but cuddle up on the sofa with your bowl of risotto and relax.
Everything's gonna be allright.x