Roasted Butternut Risotto is the ultimate fall comfort food! It is packed with sweet roasted butternut squash, and has a perfect creamy texture, and is even vegan!

Roasted Butternut Risotto

I was intimidated to make risotto for the longest time because I had always heard that it was so time consuming. And while it does take a little more work than just making regular rice, it is not too bad, and is SO worth it. This creamy, dreamy dish is the perfect answer to your fall comfort food cravings.

I kept it pretty simple when it comes to ingredients, I didn’t want too many elements to overpower the creamy rice and roasted butternut squash. Butternut is hands down my favorite of all the winter squashes, so I really wanted it to shine. I used chopped onion, fresh garlic, vegan butter, and chopped parsley to bring out all of those amazing savory flavors.

Ingredients for Roasted Butternut Risotto

arborio rice – a short-grain rice is best for making risotto because it has a higher starch content
butternut squash – you can use any type of winter squash for this, but I prefer butternut. It holds up well to being stirred into the risotto, and adds a perfect sweet roasted flavor.
vegan butter – you have to have some type of butter in a risotto to give it that creamy consistency
onion – adds a ton of flavor and texture to the dish
garlic – onion and garlic go together like peanut butter and jelly, so it is in perfect in this dish
salt & pepper – the staples, of course
extra virgin olive oil – I have also used avocado oil for this and it works as well
vegetable stock – you can use any type of stock/broth you want, but to keep it vegan, use veggie stock

Tips & Tricks for Making Risotto

Stir the rice often, but not constantly

I have heard that you have to stand over the stove and constantly stir your rice to make a creamy risotto, but then I learned from my girl, Rachael Ray, that you don’t actually have to do that. You want to stir it often, but not every single second. Stirring it constantly will make it kind of gluey, so you want to let it cook for a couple of minutes before you agitate it again. But you do need to stir often so that it doesn’t burn on the bottom.

Use warm stock

Never add cold stock to the rice when it is cooking because it will cook everything down and mess up the cooking process. Keep your stock warm in a saucepan on the stove and add it in from there.

Add the stock slowly

Don’t add all of the stock to the rice at once, because then you are just boiling rice like you regularly would. You want to add it in increments, let it cook into the rice, then add more later.

Don’t cook the rice until it is mushy

You want to cook the rice like you would paste, to al dente. You want the rice to still have some texture to it, not a mushy bowl of rice.

Cook it at a medium simmer

You don’t want it to cook at too low of a heat because it will take forever to cook, you want to keep it at a medium simmer.

Don’t cook the butternut in the risotto

You want to cook most vegetables separately before you add them to the risotto, like we do when we roast the butternut separately for this. This results in much better texture.

Add a little extra butter at the end

This results in an ever creamier texture!

This recipe makes a good amount of food, so it is perfect for a dinner party, and makes great leftovers. Go grab all the butternut squash and reward yourself with a bowl of fall comfort food.

Looking for more vegetarian dinner recipes?

FOLLOW ALONG! Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for my latest recipes!

Print Pin

No ratings yet