Date night roasted butternut squash risotto

This date night roasted butternut squash risotto is perfect for a special occasion or dinner for two. It’s simple to make but tastes mega fancy!

Some nights are all about quick and easy dinners like weeknight lentil soup or quinoa chili. And other nights are for spending a little more time and care to prepare dinner and eating something that makes you feel pretty damn fancy.

Vegan butternut squash risotto:

This date night roasted butternut squash risotto is one of those dishes. 

It starts with roasted butternut squash that gets pureed and added to the pan with our short grain brown rice, white wine, and veggie broth and cooked down until tender and creamy. Yeah. FANCY. 

I call this one date night roasted butternut squash risotto because I think it seriously makes the perfect dish to cook on a date night. Whether you’re cooking with someone or cooking for someone, this is the recipe for you!

That being said, you can also cook this up on any night, and can definitely still make it with no date night required. (Like the time I made it and enjoyed it by myself on a Tuesday night.)

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What to Serve with Butternut Squash Risotto

I like to serve the risotto as the main dish.

If this is what you are planning to do, then I recommend pairing it will a side salad and perhaps a soup. I would recommend using citrus and acidic flavours in the salad because this will help cut the richness of the risotto. As for the soup, keep it on the lighter side. A nice tomato bisque or this vegan beet soup would work great!

If you are looking to serve a more traditional Italian dinner, this risotto would probably be considered more of the first course or “primo piatto”.

Feel free to combine this with an eggplant parmesan, or for my meat-eaters, saltimbocca or fish dish. That’s what makes this recipe so great – it can be the main attraction or not, either way, it is delicious and impressive!

Tips for making this recipe perfectly

• Use arborio rice or any short-grain rice. For this recipe, I use short grain brown rice to keeps things extra healthy, but technically any short grain rice will work. (Though I’d recommend sticking to the short grain brown rice as in the recipe, or to use arborio rice.) 
• Adding a splash of white wine to the recipe gives a little kick of acidity to the risotto. If you don’t have any white wine, you can add a tablespoon of lemon juice instead. 
• One of the key secrets to making a perfect risotto is patience. That’s right! No quick tricks here my friends. So go ahead and use this as an excuse to pour yourself a glass of wine, put on your favourite playlist on Spotify, and just ENJOY the process of making some risotto! Can you say #selfcare?

Now if you’re wondering, can risotto be reheated? The answer is YES, YES IT CAN!

But do yourself a favour and reheat your risotto in a pan rather than a microwave. Add a little extra splash of water or vegetable broth in the pan along with the risotto to help loosen it up and get that nice smooth & creamy texture. 

If you’re feeling a little intimidated about the process of making risotto, tasty has a great how-to video you can watch here!

Other great date night recipes to try

• Heart beet ravioli
• Veggie pot pies
• Vegan pumpkin alfredo

If you tried this date night roasted butternut squash risotto or any other recipe on the blog let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment/rating below! Be sure to follow along on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook for even more deliciousness!

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