Chicken, Pumpkin & Asparagus Risotto

I love a good risotto. I love eating it for sure, but I especially love cooking it. Standing over a stove, slowly stirring and ladling stock into the rice is very satisfying. Plus, as there's wine in the recipe, no-one seems to question the bottle of white standing right beside you, keeping you company.

You will need:

Pumpkin, 500g, diced into cubes
Chicken stock, 4 cups
Butter, 1 tablespoon
Onion, 1, diced
Garlic, 2 cloves, minced
Arborio Rice, 1 cup
White wine, 1/2 cup for recipe (rest of bottle for you)
Chicken, 3 thigh fillets, diced
Asparagus, chopped into 1cm bits
Lemon, 2 tablespoons
Parmesan, 1/2 cup, grated


Bring pumpkin and stock to boil for 5 minutes then turn off and cover. Melt butter and saute onion, adding garlic and continue to chase it around the pan for a couple of minutes. Add rice and coat in butter mix. Now add the wine and when it's mostly absorbed start adding pumpkin mix a couple of ladles at a time, waiting until previous liquid is mostly adsorbed before adding more, until all used. Add chicken near end of process to allow it to cook through. Add asparagus with the final ladles of stock mix. Make sure you continue to stir the whole time you're cooking - use the leftover wine to occupy yourself. Remove from heat and add lemon juice and parmesan.

Finally, make cheese toasties for rest of family then sit down to enjoy this risotto by yourself. Trust me, unless you're trying to impress a new boyfriend or something, you won't want to share this dish.