Applewood Spreadable challenge : Pork & Pumpkin Risotto

As you can't have failed to notice, it was Halloween yesterday. Hands up if you had a fun carving a pumpkin yesterday like we did ! Sophie's funky Jack o' lantern wasn't the only pumpkin creation we came up with though.

You may remember me telling you about Applewood sending me through a fabulous hamper of goodies to take part in the Applewood Spreadable blogger challenge, in order to come up with some recipes using the new spreadable variety of their smoked cheese. I decided it was the perfect day to use the pumpkin.

While Sophie carved pumpkin number one in the living room, I hacked the other one to bits in the kitchen ! The next question was, what should I do with it and I decided to go with risotto. Here's the recipe I came up with :

Pork & Pumpkin Risotto

ingredients : 

1 pumpkin

2 onions

2 cloves garlic

3 mushrooms

600g pork, cubed

drizzle of olive oil

1 packet (500g) risotto rice

chicken or beef stock (aim for 500ml then use more or less as required)

seasoning : salt, pepper, oregano, smoked paprika, cumin seeds

3 tbsp Applewood Spreadable

First prepare the vegetables. Peel and roughly chop the onions. I decided to peel the pumpkin so it would be nice and tender but apparently you can eat the skin too. Slice the mushrooms.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Gently fry the onions for 3 minutes until they start to soften but not go brown. Add the garlic and the pork. Stir fry for about 10 minutes until the pork is almost cooked through.

Add the pumpkin, mushrooms and the herbs and spices and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring often so that it doesn't stick or go too brown.

Add another drizzle of olive oil if necessary then toss in the risotto rice. Cook, stirring continually for 5 minutes so that the rice starts to cook then add a few ladlefuls of hot stock.

Cook for about 20-30 minutes, stirring very often and adding extra stock as needed, until the rice is cooked through.

Stir through the Applewood Spreadable just before serving.

I wasn't sure what the kids would think of eating pumpkin but they loved it !

Disclosure : I received a hamper of goodies from Applewood in order to take part in the challenge and come up with three recipes using the products.

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Madhouse recipe : Cheesy Bacon and Mushroom Biscuits

Recipe : Hairy Bikers' Meat & Cabbage Buns (Bierocks) #TeaTimeTreats

Madhouse recipe : Greek pasta bake