I feel lucky that my homegrown winter squash has held up so well in storage this year. First deer that found their way into the garden attempted to gnaw through their thick skins. Then we had several huge temperature swings throughout winter, including an extended power outage during subzero temperatures. Yet the squash kept in storage until now, ready for the delicious risotto I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

You can use all sorts of winter squash in risotto, from the pictured kabocha to delicata, butternut, or pumpkin. The same goes for mushrooms; cremini are readily available, but as local mushroom farming becomes more popular, it’s becoming easier to mix in oyster mushrooms, chestnut boletes, or other varieties. I recommend making your own vegetable stock too; it likely won’t be as thick or salty as store-bought broths. If you make a large batch and then freeze it in 1-cup portions, it will be ready to defrost for a range of risottos.

Learn more about making risottos and get the complete recipe for Winter Squash and Mushroom Risotto in my column.

Make it, share it.
Tag @twiceastastyblog and #twiceastastyblog

Twice as Tasty

Excited about making risotto? You should be: it’s really just a one-pot meal that can be ready in about 30 minutes with a little advanced prep and can use ingredients from your freezer, fridge, and garden. Here are just a few other risotto recipes on the blog. I use a basic ratio for many of my risotto recipes, making it easy to adjust to whatever ingredients you have on hand.

• Shrimp and Green Vegetable Risotto
• Sunshine Risotto
• Garden Risotto
• Last-Minute Shrimp Risotto

If you have more squash than you need for the risotto, those roasted cubes are ready to drop into other weeknight meals. These are some of my favorites. To prep two meals at once, I roast the squash in one pan and any other vegetables in another and then store the extras in the fridge.

• Thai Squash Curry (just simmer for less time if using preroasted squash cubes)
• Pasta with Roasted Pumpkin and Parmesan
• Roasted Vegetables with Tofu and Buckwheat

You can find more risotto and squash recipes in the recipe index.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.