Creamy Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Rice with Bacon (Gluten-Free)

Creamy pumpkin and sweet potato rice is risotto rice cooked slowly in stock with diced Hokkaido pumpkin and sweet potato, which melt into a golden sauce around the grains, with crisp diced bacon, red onion, butter and a pinch of chilli flakes. Rice is naturally gluten-free: use rice from a sealed pack and read the label, and skip loose bulk bins and flavoured rice mixes. The rest is gluten-free when the stock and the bacon are: use a stock cube labelled gluten-free. Bacon with nothing added usually contains no gluten, but it is a processed meat: read the label. It serves 2 as a main and takes about 50 minutes.

Cooked in our kitchen: we cooked this at home from this recipe in September 2025.

This is a dish from our own kitchen table in early autumn. We eat it straight from deep bowls, soft and loose enough to spread to the rim, with little cubes of bacon all the way through. Before you cook, three labels are worth a look: the rice (why plain rice is fine and what to check anyway), the stock (why stock cubes need a label check) and the bacon (what to check on a bacon label). The chilli flakes are a single plain spice; if you reach for a ready-mixed seasoning instead, read why spice blends need a label check. And if a label leaves you unsure, run it through Label Lab.

Creamy Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Rice with Bacon (Gluten-Free)

Risotto rice cooked slowly in stock with Hokkaido pumpkin and sweet potato until they melt into a creamy golden sauce, with crisp diced bacon, red onion, butter, black pepper and a pinch of chilli flakes. Gluten-free when the rice, the stock and the bacon are: read each label.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Servings: 2 servings

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: European

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

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• 250 g Hokkaido pumpkin about 9 oz, weighed after removing the seeds; skin on
• 250 g sweet potato about 9 oz, peeled
• 180 g risotto rice a scant 1 US cup; arborio, from a sealed pack
• 100 g diced bacon about 3½ oz; plain bacon, check the label
• 1 red onion finely diced
• 800 ml hot vegetable stock about 3⅓ US cups; from a cube labelled gluten-free, or water
• 30 g butter 2 tbsp
• salt and black pepper go easy on the salt: the bacon and the stock are salty
• 1 pinch chilli flakes plus a little more on top, optional

Method

 

1. Prepare: Cut the pumpkin, skin on, and the peeled sweet potato into 1 cm dice (or grate them coarsely for a smoother sauce). Bring the stock to a simmer and keep it hot.
2. Bacon and onion: Fry the diced bacon in a wide, heavy pan without oil over medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes, until crisp and the fat has run. Add the red onion and cook for 5 minutes more, until soft.
3. Rice: Add the rice and the chilli flakes and stir for 1 to 2 minutes, until the grains look glossy. Add the pumpkin, the sweet potato and a ladle of hot stock.
4. Simmer: Cook over medium-low heat for 18 to 20 minutes, stirring often and adding the stock a ladle at a time as it is absorbed, until the rice is soft with a slight bite and the vegetables have broken down into a golden sauce. Press a few pieces against the side of the pan with the spoon to help them along.
5. Finish: Take the pan off the heat and stir in the butter. It should be loose and creamy; if it has gone stiff, add a splash more stock. Season with pepper, and with salt only if it needs it, and serve straight away in warm bowls with black pepper and a little chilli on top.

Notes

Coeliac notes
• Rice: plain rice is naturally gluten-free. Buy it in a sealed pack and read the label. Skip loose or bulk bins: the Celiac Disease Foundation advises against buying grains from bulk bins because of possible cross-contact with gluten. Flavoured rice and rice mixes can contain wheat flour, wheat starch or soy sauce, so read their ingredients.
• Vegetables and butter are naturally gluten-free.
• Stock: Coeliac UK advises checking the labels of stock cubes and seasonings. Use a cube labelled gluten-free, or water and a little more salt. Chilli flakes on their own are fine; read the label on any blend.
• Bacon: bacon with nothing added usually contains no gluten, but it is a processed meat, and Coeliac UK names processed foods like sausages among those where gluten can hide. Read the label, and skip glazed or marinated bacon unless it is labelled gluten-free.
• Ready-made risotto mixes are a processed product: read the ingredients.
• When a label is unclear, treat it as "not for me".

Storage and swaps
• Rice leftovers need extra care: chill them as quickly as possible, ideally within an hour, keep them in the fridge for no more than a day, and reheat them only once, until steaming hot all the way through. You can also freeze them if they go into the freezer within an hour of cooking (Food Standards Agency, Home food fact checker).
• Vegetarian: leave out the bacon and soften the red onion in half the butter instead; a pinch of smoked paprika adds a little depth, if you like.
• Butternut works instead of Hokkaido; peel it first.
• Dairy-free: stir in a spoonful of olive oil instead of the butter.

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Sources: Coeliac UK, “Cooking at home” (stock cubes, seasonings, sauces and processed foods like sausages are labels to check); Celiac Disease Foundation, “Gluten-Free Foods” (grains from bulk bins can pick up gluten through cross-contact); Food Standards Agency, Home food fact checker (cooked rice: chill as quickly as possible, ideally within an hour, keep for no more than a day, reheat only once). Recipe: our own kitchen, September 2025. Last checked: 11 October 2026.