Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto with brown rice

Mark Bittman is a genius.

When I found out sometime last year that I had an intolerance to white rice, I was very disappointed. I don’t eat white rice very often but there are a few key dishes that don’t lend themselves to brown rice. Sushi for example. Or risotto. The key to a nice, creamy risotto is using the right kind of rice. Arborio rice, that short, round rice, has the right amount of starch to produce the creamiest of risottos. I was very disappointed since I had just learned to make it just so. That’s when Mark Bittman comes in. In his book How to cook everything vegetarian, he claims that the secret to replacing white rice with brown rice in any recipe is to parboil the brown rice. That means boiling the brown rice for 12-15 mins, draining it, and setting it aside. You can then use the same amount of liquid and timing that the recipe calls for the white rice. He explicitly claims that this technique works even for risottos. I have to confess I was very sceptical. But I decided to give it a go. I made roasted butternut squash risotto based on this recipe. I’ve altered it slightly by roasting the garlic unpeeled with the squash, which I then crushed and added to the risotto halfway through alongside some rosemary (when it calls for the saffron). I also used red onion instead of white onion and instead of coriander I used a 1/4 cup of chives. When it was nearly done, I got my cast iron pan really hot and quickly fried some mushrooms with salt, pepper, and herbs. It was perfect. Super creamy with that al dente taste of true risotto.