Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Squash Risotto

We originally found this recipe on the back of a Aidells sausage package. Ironically, we are no longer buying those sausages because we found that we like Alfresco better.
The original recipe calls for onion and white wine and Parmesan cheese, but we left those out because we didn't have some of those ingredients on hand and we wanted to make the recipe dairy free.

We have since made our version of Squash Risotto countless times. It's a warm, hearty comfort food, and we usually eat up the whole pot! (The original recipe says serves 6-8. There's 6 of us, some of which are teenagers.) Unfortunately, it does take some time to prepare, especially if you want to make your own chicken stock, and roast your own squash, but it's worth it.

2020 UPDATE: We also made this sweet potato, and I could not tell the difference.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons coconut oil
2 Tablespoons butter (Or just use all coconut oil)
3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 cups Arborio rice
7-8 cups of chicken stock. (We have used organic "Better than Bouillon" brand chicken bouillon to make stock, and we have also used our own homemade bone broth, or Meijers organic chicken broth.)
2  cups roasted butternut squash* OR sweet potato, for roasting instructions see below. 
2 packages Alfresco Apple Maple sausage and 1 package Alfresco Breakfast sausage. (A more traditional spicy flavor--The exact amount and flavor are not important.)

Directions:

Melt the oil and saute the garlic in a large pot.
Add the rice and stir. Turn down to simmer, and gradually add the chicken stock, stirring constantly. This is the longest step. It takes about 20-25 minutes. 
Update:  We've rushed this process, and it still turns out fine!
Just keep adding some stock, stirring till it is mostly absorbed, and then adding spoonfuls of squash and more liquid. The rice will swell up as it cooks. When it is close to being done, boil the sausages in another pot. When all the stock and squash are stirred in to the rice, add salt and pepper to taste.

Looking for more squash recipes? Check out Squash Bake

*Roasting the squash: We buy butternut squash from a farmers market. Then we cut it in half length-wise, and place it cut-side-down in a 9x13 pan. We pour in enough water to cover the bottom of the pan, and roast it at 350º for an hour. The squash has to cool, and then we scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff and discard it. Last but not least we scrape out the squash from the shell. We've also roasted and used Hubbard squash, which is huge so it has to be chopped up more, but you get the idea.

UPDATE: click the print friendly button at the bottom of the post to edit a printable version of this page.