Eat Your Greens September Round Up

Here we go with the September Eat Your Greens Round Up. September seemed to be a quiet month for green cooking, but here are a couple of entries. I still keep seeing wonderful greens in the vegetable market, so I'm sure that this autumn will be quite green.

Now to the recipes.

Shaheen, my Eat Your Greens co-host from Allotment 2 Kitchen blog, shared a Lemon Marrow Conserve Jam Jelly. This is a very creative jelly, and a great use for some excess marrows, especially if you grow them yourself. The conserve contains plenty of lemon, which is a wonderful flavour combination with the marrow. I would be very curious to taste this jam, as it's such a great seasonal idea.

My own contribution was a pea and courgette rice, which also contained many other veggies like corn and carrots. In this dish I still mainly used the summer vegetables, but in a more comforting bowl. Now my favourites the fresh peas are slowly disappearing, so I have reverted to more autumnal vegetables and mushrooms in my other cooking.

Shaheen will be hosting Eat Your Greens again next month, so head over to her blog to take part! Have a nice October!

Your VegHog

Onion squash lasagne

Today we will be flying to Finland, so here is a quick post before we'll have to leave to the airport. I'm excited to see, if there are more autumn colours in Finland already. Here the colouring has started, but it could be more. I think that the weather has still been fairly mild over there, and it's main crops harvesting season in my village, so it should be cosy.

Today's dish is another comfort food recipe. Onion squashes are now everywhere, and I would like to buy one every time I go shopping. Unfortunately I can't do that, as they are quite substantial and I wouldn't be able to cook them all. However I managed to squeeze one full onion squash into this lasagne. I roasted the squash first and then puréed it, which was quite a nice way of doing it. It nicely added its sweetness to the lasagne. I also added some grill cheese, which is a squeaky cheese similar to halloumi, and then poured a garlicky tomato sauce over the whole thing. This was so comforting and seasonal, really lovely basic grub.

Onion squash lasagne

Ingredients

1 onion squash

3 tbsp olive oil

1 can plum tomatoes

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Handful of fresh basil leaves

200 g grill cheese or halloumi

100 g grated mozzarella

Lasagne sheets

Method

Peel and cut the squash into small wedges. Brush them with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and roast until done. Then purée the squash.

In the meanwhile start reducing the sauce. Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. Add the plum tomatoes and seasoning, and let simmer for about 30 minutes.

Cut the grill cheese into slices and fry them in a pan until they have some frying marks.

Assemble the lasagne by layering the tomato sauce, squash mash, grill cheese, mozzarella and lasagne sheets.

Bake at 180 C for about 40 minutes. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Quesadillas with pinto beans in tomato sauce

I'm now in a situation that I've cooked a couple of dishes a week or two ago, but not posted them yet. Of course I didn't take notes of the recipes while I was cooking, and now need to think really hard what went into them. These quesadillas are one of those dishes, but I think I remembered now pretty well how I made them, as the sauce inside was just one of my basics. I try to catch up with the other recipes as soon as possible, before I fully forget them!

I'm on holiday now and will be heading to Finland next week. I'm very much looking forward to this small autumn break at home. Let's hope that I'll have a little bit of time to catch up with posting as well.

And now to these quasadillas that were very much inspired by a local taco place that makes such lovely veggie quesadillas. They have brilliant salsas too. Instead of making my own salsas, I used these two new salsas that I recently detected in the shop. I got a tomatillo and a chipotle one, and can't decide which one is better. I also adore these pinto beans, which I decided to use as the main protein in this dish.

Quesadillas with pinto beans in tomato sauce

Ingredients

1 cup dried pinto beans

1 can plum tomatoes

1 fresh onion

2 garlic cloves

2 red chillies

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

1 lime

Grated cheese

Tortilla wraps

Salsas

Method

Soak the pinto beans overnight and then cook in water until done.

Chop the onion, garlic and chilli finely and cook them in oil until soft. Add the tinned tomatoes into the saucepan and let simmer and reduce.

Season the sauce, and also add the beans to the sauce once they have been cooked.

Fill the tortilla wraps with the bean-tomato mix and cheese and bake in the oven until the cheese has melted.

Serve with fresh lime and salsas and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Pea and courgette rice

I can't believe that a week has passed again so quickly. We are in mid September and the autumn has arrived. It's starting to get more chilly and rainy, and I have my first cold of the season. I'm still not going to let it defeat me. We have a Mexican independence day street party to attend today, and it's actually sunny so far. There will be Mexican food, beers, wrestling and live music, and I'm quite looking forward to it. We'll pop over to the vegetable market first to get some fresh stuff for the weekend and the busy next week.

But now first to this vegan pea and courgette rice recipe. Well, it actually contains loads of veg, but I just named it that. These summer vegetables are still tempting me very much, but now I start combining them in more autumnal dishes. But it's also so nice to see more and more squashes appearing. I can't wait to make some nice squash dishes soon.

Pea and courgette rice

Ingredients

1 corn on the cob

1 small courgette

2 cups fresh peas

1 carrot

1 onion

1 garlic clove

Fresh parsley

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

1 l vegetable stock

1 cup brown rice

2 tbsp olive oil

Method

Chop all the veggies into smallish pieces.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and sautée the onion and garlic there.

Then add the chopped carrots, courgette and corn there too, cook for a while and then add the rice and vegetable stock.

Add the seasoning and let simmer until the rice is nearly cooked.

Towards the end also add the peas so that they can briefly cook in the mix. I like the fresh peas quite firm, but feel free to cook them more, if you prefer.

Serve as a bowl of rice and veggies and enjoy!

I'm hosting Eat Your Greens myself this month, and this dish will be my entry to the challenge. Take part in it now, if you haven't yet! I always take turns hosting with Shaheen.

I would also like to share this recipe with Sowmya from Tuma's Tongue Treats, who is hosting the 111^th edition of My Legume Love Affair this month. The challenge was created by Susan and is now hosted by Lisa. I haven't been taking part in this wonderful challenge for quite a few months now, and I need to get better with my legumes again!

Have a good weekend!

Your VegHog

Light vegan lunch and weekend plans

It's going to be a rainy weekend here, which means that it will be a Nordic Noir binge watching night on the sofa tonight. First however I would like to visit a couple of museums and the vegetable market to buy some nice stuff to cook for dinner tonight. I'm thinking of fennel and potatoes and perhaps some kohlrabi. Maybe it'll be a white vegetable night. Nordic Noir and white vegetables, what a contrast!

I'm not sure about tomorrow yet. Maybe we'll go to Ikea, as some book shelves are still needed for our apartment. Today I just want to relax and maybe walk around in town a bit. It's not raining at the moment, but it is looking quite cloudy, and the forecast isn't too good, so we'll see. As a good student, I also need to do my Danish homework tomorrow. The classes have been great fun so far, and I'm starting to get the hang of it. We have a nice group of learners from all over the world, which makes it quite interesting.

This lunch was just one of my typical assemblies that don't require that much work. I roasted the aubergine and carrots, and had some tomatoes, pomegranate seeds and crackers with them and hummus. That's olive hummus, which I quite prefer at the moment.

What about you, what will you be up to this weekend? Whatever you do, I hope you'll have nice time!

Your VegHog

Green tahini cauliflower with quinoa cabbage roulade

The weather has become more autumnal here, and I'm turning to my comforting seasonal autumn favourites in food. There will be a lot of roasting, stews and steaming bowls of soup in my near future.

This dish was widely improvised around the ingredients I had. I bought a green cauliflower for a change. It's a bit paler than broccoli, and still tastes like cauliflower, so it sends a confusing message to the brain. I roasted it with a tahini-lemon-garlic-coriander sauce, which is always such a good choice, definitely one of my vegan comfort food favourites!

On the side I served a large cabbage roulade filled with quinoa and pearled spelt that were cooked in vegetable stock with onion and garlic and some spices. It was quite basic and rustic, but actually very tasty. I just couldn't resist the lovely purple cabbage. Does anyone have good cabbage recipes by the way, as I always tend to make only roulades or casserole, and would appreciate some inspiration?

So it's almost the weekend, my friends. Do you have any good plans or are you mainly just going to take it easy? Have fun whatever you do!

Your VegHog

In My Kitchen in September

It's time for a little peek into my kitchen. I'm glad to have all my own stuff in the cupboards and on the shelves now. Cooking is so much easier with your own familiar stuff! I still need to replace some of the items that we gave to charity in the move, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with the current gear. Here is something new from the kitchen.

I bought this pineapple plant from the Copenhagen Cooking & Food Festival. I just couldn't resist its cuteness, and now it's riding my hedgehog in the kitchen. Will we get some crops from it? Well at least now it's super cute to look at.

I bumped into prickly pears aka cactus fruits in the vegetable market, and of course they found their way to my basket. They are supposedly extremely healthy, so that's a plus, as they also taste really good. I've only had them in fruit salads so far, but what else could I make with them?

Corn cobs have become our favourite ingredient of the season. We just can't get enough of the juicy seasonal cobs. They go very well with so many different dishes and add some nice colour to the plate. This quick dinner was just some corn cobs with chilli butter, grilled cheese and salad.

This bowl with a birch tree motif was really cheap and fits my other rustic kitchen items really well, so I had to get it, even though I don't have shortage of bowls...

Coco peanut butter granola, do I need to say any more, the breakfasts are saved! Even my partner is now crazy about this granola.

I've also had some supermarket macarons lately, but mainly for the reason that this packet contains liquorice flavour, my favourite. All the other flavours go down just as well.

I'm quite addicted to these sugarfree raspberry and lemongrass sweets, and I've actually stopped now carrying a packet with me at all times, because then I tend to eat them all at once. 

Here are also a couple of things that I've eaten out that never made it to my kitchen. I had this beautiful vegan ramen at a music festival here in Copenhagen. It was so comforting and warming. Those guys have a ramen restaurant here, and I think it would be well worth a visit.

I also had a falafel salad platter recently at Copenhagen Street Food, and it was so amazing. It was a huge portion with crispy falafel, nice fresh veg, hummus, and even fries on the side.

I'm sharing this In My Kitchen post with Sherry from Sherry's Pickings, who is hosting the event.

Have a good week!

Your VegHog

Chanterelle and kale tart

I wanted to share this chanterelle and kale tart with you that I made for our Finnish Your Dinner event last week. It was a very simple recipe, but so tasty with the fresh seasonal chanterelles. I haven't made many tarts this summer, which is a shame, but I think that they would be great in the autumn too.

This weekend has been very relaxing, as we didn't have any particular plans. I think we'll go for a walk in the park now and maybe have a light lunch or snack out. How has your Sunday been so far?

Chanterelle and kale tart

Ingredients

100 g chanterelles

25 g butter

2 cups shredded kale

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Few sprigs of fresh thyme

100 g cheese

200 g pastry

Method

Chop the chanterelles coarsely. Smaller mushrooms can be left as a whole. Also chop the onion and garlic finely.

Sautée all these ingredients in a pan for a few minutes so that the excess liquid from the mushrooms evaporates.

Season the mix with salt, ground black pepper and a little bit of fresh thyme.

Roll out the pastry and place it in a tart tin. Blind bake it in the oven for a few minutes.

Then put the shredded kale and mushroom mix onto the pastry, followed by the cheese and bake at 200 C for about 20 minutes or until done.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Eat Your Greens welcoming September recipes

So my friends, I'm back here hosting Eat Your Greens and have to break the news to you: It's September!! It's slightly shocking to notice, but I'm actually quite happy. I'm a fan of autumn and am looking forward to the cosy evenings on the sofa when the rain drizzles outside, let alone all the squash dishes!

I would also like to say that the August round of Eat Your Greens was extremely beautiful, and I encourage you all to go and read Shaheen's round up and visit all our participating cooks' blogs! I can't believe what variety of greens and vibrant recipes came together once again.

I'm convinced that we can do the same in September, so please share your green vegan or vegetarian recipes with us, and we will all be thrilled to get some new cooking inspiration.

Read the full instructions here on how to participate and get cooking!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Your VegHog