Pumpkin risotto

We love pumpkins! Pumpkin is very popular at this time of year and Katrin (Katrinshine) would like to share with us the pumpkin risotto recipe today. It is a simple but tasty and you will cook it in about 40 minutes. Perfect dish for the autumn supper!

 You will need:
200 gr rice
300 gr pumpkin
50 gr butter
50 gr parmigiano, grated
1 medium size onion, chopped
500 gr hot water or vegetable broth
100 ml white wine
Salt & pepper to taste

Remove the peel and the seeds of pumpkin. Cut it into pieces and boil. Remove the pumpkin from the water and whip it up with the blender. Reserve the liquid, this is your vegetable stock.

Saute the onion until golden in color in about half of amount of butter. Add rice and stir. Cook for about 5 more minutes and add some wine to the mix. Stir onion, rice and wine together.

Add some reserved vegetable stock or hot water to the pan, stir. Add pureed pumpkin and the rest of liquid. Stir and cook all together until rice will become tender.

Add the other half of butter and the parmigiano. Stir and leave for a couple of minutes under the lid.

It's ready to serve!

If you like add some chopped parsley when serving.

Enjoy!

Recipe by Katrin Katrinshine
Translated by Natalia Grimme

Vegetable Turkey

This recipe is not new, but maybe some people have not seen or tried it before.


A dip has to be prepared a couple of days or at least an hour in advance.
For the dip you will need:
~ 400 grams of cream cheese
~ 4 table spoons of sour cream
½ cup of finely chopped parsley
1/4 tea spoon of black or white grinded pepper
2 tea spoons of grinded lemon zest

*Cover the bottom of 10-12 cm wide bowl with cling film. Cling film has to be firmly attached to the sides of the dish.
* Mix cream cheese and sour cream in a blender until the consistency is smooth. Take the cream cheese out of the fridge some time in advance, as mixing warm cheese is easier.
* Add the lemon zest, parsley and pepper to the mixture. 3-4 table spoons of Tabasco can be added if you prefer spicy food. Mix in a blender again.
* Put the prepared mixture into the bowl covered with cling film. Carefully bend the corners and cover the cheese dip.
Put the dip into the fridge. It has to be used over 3 days.
Now let’s prepare vegetables for the turkey. You will need:
- celery
- baby-carrot
- parsley
- 1-2 cucumbers
- red and yellow bell peppers
- lettuce
- broccoli
- radish
- 1 small tomato
- ½ cup of pecans or walnuts

* Evenly distribute lettuce leaves on the top half of a round plate or a tray. Then put bell peppers cut in long stripes on top of the lettuce leaves alternating the colors.


* Afterwards lay 2-3 rows of rounds of cucumber. It is possible to stick short branches of parsley between the rows of bell peppers and cucumbers. Carefully place the dip on the lower side of the plate by overturning the bowl with caution. Remove the bowl and take off the cling film.



It’s time to form the turkey’s "body ".
*On the top side of the dip lay a row of baby carrots slightly pressing them into the soft dip by one side. Then place small leaves of celery on top of the carrots.
*Make the turkey’s "neck" from a celery stem, slightly pushing it into the "body". The bird’s claws can be made of carrots and don’t forget the "head" – place a tomato on top of the neck


*"Feathers" will be made from pecans. Start laying them from bottom progressing towards the top.
* Place broccoli on both sides of the turkey on the remaining empty space on the plate.

* Draw eyes and bleak with sour cream or mayonnaise, and the bird is ready. Bon appetite!

PS. I also had radish, so I used it too (see the first photograph).
It is not necessary to use exactly the vegetables mentioned for the turkey. Use your imagination and use other vegetables if you wish to experiment. Your relatives and guests will be surprised that it is possible to make a "bird" from vegetables.

Recipe by Albina (GoodWeather)