Squash Risotto with Oyster Mushrooms for Vegan Wednesday 🎃

I had this beautiful little squashs from my mom's garden. I don't know their english names. In german it's called 'Bischofsmütze' because it looks a bit like a bishops hat. As you can imagine squashs this shape are hard to peel. That's why I had other plans for them  ...

This are all the ingredients I needed for my complete dinner. (The smokey tofu went back to the fridge. It wasn't allowed to stay for dinner ... )

Ingredients for the Risotto:

• two cups Arborio Rise (risotto rise)
• an onion
• two gloves of garlic
• a couple of cups of hot vegetable stock
• a glas of dry white vine (with children or if you don't drink alcohol substitute with apple juice or with vegetable stock and two or three tsp. lemon juice)
• pumkins or squashes (butternut squash is a delicious option too!)
• salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for the Oyster Mushroom "Steaks":

• oyster mushrooms - as many as you like
• sage leaves
• salt and pepper
• toothpicks

Preparations:

Preheat your oven up to 180 degrees. Cut the squashes into halves and remove the seeds. Lay the squash halves in the oven and bake for 30 to 40 Minutes. The flesh should be soft in the end.

Dice the onion and the garlic in small pieces. Heat some vegetable oil in a large pot and sauté the onions, the garlic and the rice until vitreous. Quench with white wine and let it boil down.

Then start to add the hot vegetable stock. Add one cup, stir and let cook slightly. Stir every now and then until the stock is almost soaked into the rice and add another cup of the liquid and so on ...

Do not leave the kitchen at this point!!! 🚷 It burns easily or least sticks on the bottom. Go on to add vegetable stock and to stir the rice until it is creamy outside but still with a little bite inside. Turn off the temperature.

Because you cannot leave the stove, tell the hubby to prepare all the ingredients for a fresh and colorful salad. Ours was with raw red beets, slices of pears and fresh walnuts (The hubby hat to crack the nut shells also. 😉)

Take the squashes off of the oven. It should be soft with a delicious almost caramalized surface. Spoon out the soft flesh and stir it under the rice. Taste and add fresh ground pepper and some salt if needed.

For the oyster mushrooms take the toothpics and fix two or three sage leaves on every mushrooms surface. Be carefully because the mushrooms break easily. That's how it should look like:

Fry them in a pan from both sides and spice them up with salt and pepper.

Arrange the risotto and the mushrooms on a plate nicely, grab a glass of the (leftover 😜) white wine and the hubby by the neck and give him a huge kiss. He was so nice and assisted so well with the salad and everything! 😘

Enjoy this wonderful autumnal dinner. It's perfect comfort food for the cooler getting evenings. 🍴

Thank you @heart-to-heart for the wonderful #veganwednesday contest. If you don't know how to join in, here are the rules for this contest again.