V/GF Pumpkin, Carrot and Baby Spinach Risotto!

I *love* risottos, so expect many versions up here.
I made this up the other day because I had so many carrots lying around and hate to waste food. Normally this would be made with little more than pumpkin, baby spinach and pine nuts (courtesy of my lover Dana) but as you can see I’ve added my own twists.

Note: Not everything has specific measurements as I add things to taste. A good guideline is to use one to two cups of each type of vegetable.

INGREDIENTS

Pumpkin, diced
Carrot, diced
Baby spinach (I usually use an entire pre packaged bag)
1L of stock (I use Massels chicken or veggie stock)
2 1/2 cups arborio rice
Pepper, to taste
Oil (I use extra virgin olive oil)

METHOD

Have your vegetables chopped and ready to go.

Put a few teaspoons of olive oil in the bottom of a large saucepan or frypan and heat. Fry the rice for a minute or two until it looks coated with oil.
Add the stock, one or two ladelfuls at a time.

Stir the rice continually until the stock absorbs.
Since carrots take much longer to cook than pumpkin, I added them after about a quarter of the amount of stock had been absorbed.

After about half the stock has been absorbed, add the pumpkin.

Season with pepper to taste.

Continue to stir, adding more stock when required. When all of the stock has been absorbed, add all of the baby spinach.

Stir until the spinach leaves have wilted.

If at any point, the mixture is sticking too the saucepan too much, add more water or extra stock if you prefer a stronger flavour. Continue to stir, this should take about twenty minutes to fully absorb. Season to taste.

If you are not vegan, you can whisk two or three eggs through the mixture to make it hold better. (I don’t usually do this, but I was teaching a friend how to make risotto, she and her husband are obviously fans of eggs!)

Allow to cool for at few minutes and serve!