Baby, It's cold outside.

As we are now heading into Winter I thought I would share some yummy Winter warmers to keep you snug during the coming months(all recipes I put on here serve 4 unless I say otherwise).

First is a Pumpkin, Spinach and Pine Nut Risotto.

1kg pumpkin
50g pine nuts
2cups spinach
2 cloves garlic
1 onion
1/2c butter
1/2 c dry white wine
1L vegetable stock
1 1/2 c aborio rice
1/2c parmesan
salt and peppper

Turn oven onto 140 degrees celsius
Chop the pumpkin into 1cm dice and place on a oven tray, season with salt and pepper and oil and roast in the oven for about half an hour or until soft. Toast your pine nuts in a pan taking care not to burn them.
 Finely dice the onion and place in a large saucepan with some oil and the butter and cook until translucent. Add the finely chopped garlic and cook  for 1 minute.
 Add the rice and stir it around untill all of the rice is coverd in the melted butter, add the wine and let that cook for another minute. Slowly add about 1 cup of the stock stiring the risotto continuously. 
Keep slowly adding the stock bit by bit taking care not to add too much at one time. Once your risotto is cooked add the roasted pumpkin and stir it in, trying to colour the risotto all throgh it but not breaking up the rice. Add the chopped spinach and  parmesan cheese. Stir them through.
Place in serving bowls and sprinkle with the pine nuts.

And the second recipe I want to share with you today is a Broccoli and Butter Bean Soup, That I found on http://sortedfood.com/#!/ it is a really nice soup and an awesome site.

 Beoccoli and Bean soup with Brie toasted Sandwiches

• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
•  oil
• 1 broccoli
• 750ml Veg stock
• 250ml Milk
• 400g Butterbeans
• 1 lemon
• 8 slices of bread
• 5 Tbs butter, room temperature
• 200g brie 

   Dice the onion and sweat off in a saucepan with the oil for about 3 minutes.
crush the garlic and add to the pan  and cook for 1 more minute.
 chop up the broccoli into pieces,stalk and all, andadd to the saucepan along with the stock.bring it to boil and simmer for 10 minutes before adding the butterbeans, milk and zest/juice of the lemon.
Let it Simmer for about another 5 minutes before liquidising the soup until smooth( I used a normal blender as the stick blender I have is not that great). 
Heat up the sandwich press and butter one side of each slice of bread and then lay 4 of the slices butter side down, slice the brie as finwly as you can and lay the slices over the bread. sandwich the other slice butter side up onto and place onto the sandwich press and let them cook away for about 3 minutes. Serve the soup with a toasted sandwich. (Note: I also added 1/2 cup of baby spinach just before I blended it just for a bit of extra iron for my vegetarian sister)
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( Just a little side note: the photos are not that great, I know, it was bad lighting and I'm not a photographer. But both dishes sure tasted great!)