Eat Your Greens November Round Up

Thank you dear friends for taking part in the last Eat Your Greens challenge of 2017! Shaheen and I will be taking a little break from the challenge in December, but of course we will be posting other recipes. I would like to thank you all on behalf of both of us for taking part in Eat Your Greens, reading our blogs and commenting. It has been a great year, and hopefully you will follow us into the new year.

Now let's have a look what was shared with the challenge in November. I love it how vibrant you made this mostly gloomy month of November look. There is everything from seasonal comfort food to fresh smoothies covering all the possible shades of green, just a perfect mix.

Corina from Searching for Spice shared this fresh Fruity Green Ginger Smoothie. It contains spinach, ginger, apple, banana and kiwi fruit, and has a lovely bright shade of green. I already start feeling healthier by merely reading about this smoothie! I'm sure that it really keeps some winter colds away.

Sudha from Simply Spicy, Quirky and Serendipitious posted a Green Onion Pancake with Chickpea Flour. It also looks very beautiful and inviting to eat. It's Sudha's version of a Korean style pancake. She makes it with green onions, chickpea flour, garlic and spices. Sounds incredibly warming for this season.

Laura from Touch Wood revealed one of her favourite quick recipes for busy days: Soft Polenta and Spinach. Here are also various shades of green running through the dish. Laura's secret is to leave the residue of the spinach in the pot and then cooking the polenta in it so that it will also get some green bits. The pale green avocado crowns this meal.

Sadhna from Herbs Spices and Tradition shared with us Cheesy Jalapeño Poppers. I just adore a good Jalapeño popper, and these look very nice. These poppers contain mozzarella, cream cheese and cilantro among a few other things. I wouldn't mind these as a snack any day.

Shaheen my Eat Your Greens co-host from Allotment 2 Kitchen posted a fragrant Preserved Lemon Coriander Salsa. I can just imagine how herby, punchy and zesty this salsa is. It's full of parsley, coriander and preserved lemons, and isn't that lime bowl just gorgeous!

My recipe for November was Laverbread Scones adapted from an original recipe by Shaheen, and also made with the laverbread that she sent me. Laverbread is Welsh seaweed paste and it gave these spelt scones a nice hint of green.

So this was Eat Your Greens in November, see you again next year!

Your VegHog

Chickpea and spaghetti squash curry with homemade garlic roti

How has your weekend been? I can't believe that it's Sunday again, the weekend went past so quickly! But I guess there's still time to enjoy Sunday. I will head to the vegetable market after writing this post. Then soon after I will start preparing our Sunday dinner, another vegetarian comfort dish. But first I wanted to share this vegan curry recipe with you.

I've been making a lot of vegan comfort curries lately, and this was just one of them. I also used roasted spaghetti squash in it, which added something nice, and served the curry with homemade garlic roti bread. I didn't make the garam masala mix myself this time, as I've found the cutest little spice shop that make a wonderful garam masala mix.

Here is my recipe for Chickpea and spaghetti squash curry with homemade garlic roti.

Chickpea and spaghetti squash curry

Ingredients

1 spaghetti squash

3 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 cup cooked chickpeas

½ cup red lentils

3 onions

3 garlic cloves

2 cm fresh ginger

1 red chilli

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

2 tbsp tomato purée

1 large can coconut milk

Fresh coriander

Garlic roti

200 g spelt flour

125 ml water

1 tsp salt

2 garlic cloves

¼ tsp chilli flakes

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

Method

Cut the spaghetti squash in half, brush it with rapeseed oil and roast in the oven until tender.

Chop the onions, garlic, ginger and chilli finely, and start sautéeing the onion in oil. Once it's soft and slightly browned, add the garlic, ginger and chilli into the pan and also sautée them for a while.

Add the spices and mix them in, then pour in the coconut milk, lentils and chickpeas and let simmer. Once the lentils are cooked and you want to simmer the curry some more, scoop the flesh of the spaghetti squash out with a fork and add it to the mix.

While the curry simmers, you can prepare the bread. Knead the spelt flour with the water and salt, and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.

Stretch small breads from it, and fry them on both sides in a hot pan until they get some frying marks. Pour garlic and oil mix onto them. I fried the garlic briefly in the oil. You can also add it raw, if you want it to be more punchy.

Serve the curry with the roti and enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #113, which is hosted by Archana from The Mad Scientists Kitchen this month. The challenge was conceptualized by Susan and hosted by Lisa.

Have a nice Sunday!

Your VegHog

Laverbread scones

We had Welsh breakfast this morning. I got the inspiration and the main ingredient from my blogging friend Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen. She sent me some laverbread as a going away present from Britain, and I finally got around making something with it. Laverbread is a traditional ingredient in the Welsh kitchen, and it's basically a seaweed paste. 

I followed Shaheen's recipe for these savoury Welsh Rarebit Laverbread Scones, but changed it just a little bit by using spelt flour, oat milk and ground mustard seeds. I also made a bit smaller scones. I was happy to find Welsh Cheddar in my local supermarket, which was perfect for these. These scones turned out so nice, and almost fully disappeared already, but I saved a few to take to work tomorrow. Another good thing about these is that they can be made very fast and very easily. What a great Sunday breakfast this was! Thank you so much Shaheen!

This one below is my version, but do check out Shaheen's original here as well.

Laverbread scones

Makes about 14 small scones

Ingredients

250 g spelt flour

1 tsp baking powder

50 g butter

1 tbsp laverbread

1 egg

100 ml oat milk

1 tsp ground mustard seeds

100 g Cheddar

Method

Mix the flour and baking powder and pinch the butter in. Then add half of the grated cheese intot he bowl.

Mix the laverbread, egg, milk and ground mustard seeds in a separate bowl, and combine it with the flour mix.

Roll the dough out and cut scones from it.

Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top of the scones, and also some more laverbread.

Bake at 200 C for about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

I'm sharing this post with Eat Your Greens that I'm hosting this month, and the challenge is co-hosted by Shaheen. It's this year's last edition, and there is still plenty of time to take part!

Your VegHog

Onion soup with potatoes and carrots

It's the soup season now, and I've been indulging in different vegan soups. We had a lovely carrot-ginger-orange soup at work that I definitely have to replicate at home. It was a very good and punchy flavour combination. If I make it, I'll share it here as well. What's your favourite soup of the season? And do you prefer smooth or chunks? I must say that I can't name any favourites, as there are so many good soups, and sometimes I feel like smooth and sometimes like chunky.

Now I made a bit different chunky soup. I love onion soup, but I thought to give it a little twist by adding some potatoes and heirloom carrots to it. I used red wine in this soup, but in my experience also dark beer and cider are an excellent choice for such soups. I guess you can get creative with whatever you happen to have around. See the recipe below, if you want to know how I made it.

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!

Onion soup with potatoes and carrots

Ingredients

4 onions

3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 tbsp spelt flour

½ cup red wine

1 l vegetable stock

5 small potatoes

2 heritage carrots

½ cup fresh parsley

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Method

Chop the onions into half rings and start sautéeing them in the oil. Cover them with a lid and let them sautée until they start turning brown.

Then add the finely chopped garlic and the flour and mix.

Peel the potatoes and carrots and cut them into smallish pieces. Add them to the saucepan.

Pour the red wine in and let it reduce. Then pour the vegetable stock in and let simmer.

Season the soup, and let it simmer until the vegetables are cooked and the liquid has thickened.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Tomato cheatballs

Finally it's the weekend! I hope you have some good plans for it. The sun is shining here, and we are going to take the waterbus to a close by shopping centre, and on the way back, we'll probably fly by the street food market. I hope that I can take some nice autumn shots on my camera while we are out, and maybe even some good food photos. The waterbus is a brilliant means of public transport. It's exciting to take the water route in town and get some fresh air on the deck at the same time. It makes a normal shopping trip feel like holiday. I think that there is a bit of an autumn breeze in the air today, so better wear enough clothing.

Last weekend I made these tomato cheatballs with pasta and tomato sauce. They are called cheatballs of course, because there is no meat in them. It was a very nice dish and a good combination. I used the Finnish protein product “Pulled Oats” in this recipe, but you could substitute it with for example seitan or some soya protein. Whatever you can get hold of. My pulled oats were the ones spiced with tomato, and I made the balls a little bit spicy with chilli.

Ingredients

Cheatballs

This recipe makes about 16 small cheatballs

240 g Pulled Oats Tomato

1 onion

1 clove black garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small yellow carrot grated

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp chilli flakes

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

2 tbsp tomato purée

2 tbsp breadcrumbs

Tomato sauce

1 tin of tomatoes

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Handful of fresh basil

Pasta

250g tagliolini, or any other pasta of your choice

Toppings

Grated cheese

Fresh basil leaves

Method

Start simmering the sauce first and then you can prepare the cheatballs in the meanwhile. Chop the onion and garlic finely for the sauce, cook them in olive oil until soft. Then add the tomatoes and seasoning and let reduce.

Chop the onion and garlic also finely for the cheatballs and cook them in olive oil until soft. Grate the carrot and mix all ingredients with the protein.

Shape small balls from the dough and bake them at 200 C for about 20 minutes.

Cook the pasta, and serve it with the cheatballs and tomato sauce. Add some grated cheese and fresh basil on the top.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Cheese and onion pie

We've had a couple of chilly days here in Copenhagen this week. It hasn't been raining, so I'm quite happy with the dry yet chilly weather. The ground was frosty one morning, and that gave me a nice boost while walking to the train station at 7 am. I have about 15 minutes' walk to my train station with a lovely lake scenery and loads of sea birds, and that walk always wakes me up. Then a 30 minute train ride to work follows, which I spend by reading the news online and doing some Danish language exercises with an app. This all of course has nothing to do with the dish that I was going to share with you today, but sometimes it's nice to give little peeks to my everyday life.

Now to the warming dish. What would this season be without a hearty cheese and onion pie? Nothing, I tell you! I have made this classic again, and it's basically the same one as in this post, but of course it always varies a bit. This time I covered the pie with a crispy griddle of pastry, and it was very nice. I saw the pie recipe once in Simon Hopkinson's cooking programme on the BBC and have been making it ever since in a slight variation. You can find his recipe here.

I'm so glad that it's Friday tomorrow, as this week has been so busy. I have no plans either, so it will be nice just to relax. What are your weekend plans?

Your VegHog

Chilli and nachos

And so the comfort food theme continues... The weather is getting colder over here and the nights are dark, so naturally I crave for warming food. A good old bean and sweetcorn chilli is always nice in these occassions. I served it with cheesy tortilla chips for ultimate comfort on a cosy film night at home.

I hope you've all had a really nice weekend. It was rainy here today, so I just went to town briefly and already bought some Christmas wrapping papers and small bits and bobs. Oh yes, I am ready for the season! I would like to put my Christmas lights up very soon, but maybe I'll wait just a bit more. At least I can already light plenty of candles in the evenings.

Have a good week!

Your VegHog

In My Kitchen in November

It has been quite orange and yellow in my kitchen lately. I've had pretty seasonal plant decorations at home and also seen many nice ones in the markets. This seasonal wreath was just too cute not to get. I have a bouquet of yellow-orange ilyx, aka a sort of holly, and I absolutely love it. I also have a sortiment of squashes on the dining table. They aren't just purely decoration, as I also keep cooking them. I'm also very fond of these cabbage plants in flower pots, and had to get one of them for my kitchen's window sill.

Also these pumpkin and squash displays have been absolutely lovely in my local vegetable market. I will miss them when they're gone. Soon they will be replaced by some Christmas stuff, no doubt.

 

I couldn't resist having these apple tarts from a local bakery, and seasonal apples have been quite a lot in my kitchen anyway, also in the shape of cider. I've been drinking more beer than cider here in Denmark, but couldn't resist getting this seasonal and artisanal November cider. It was so nicely dry and appley. I think I'll have to get another bottle while November still lasts.

I bought this chilli bouquet on the vegetable market, as it looked so cute. I haven't cooked with the chillies yet, but somehow they seem hot. I'm drying them at the moment, but some of them will probably go into my next spicy dish.

I've had a few pomelos recently, and am looking for cooking tips. Does anyone have good citrus maximus recipes? Have you tried it with a Thai curry? I've only eaten it as a side as a fruit, but any other tips for use would be appreciated.

I haven't tried black garlic before, but now I am quite a fan of it. It's savoury, perfect for seasonal autumn dishes, like chillies. Regretfully I didn't manage to make any spooky halloween cooking. Then I'm sure this would've been very handy. Maybe next year.

Same goes for the green pesto cheese. That would've made some wonderful Frankensteins etc. I also had red chilli cheese from the same range, and both were very nice. I will soon utilise them more in cooking rather than just in sandwiches. But I like the strange look of especially the green cheese.

I think I already mentioned this tomatillo salsa and chipotle salsa on the blog before, but I don't think that I added them to an In my Kitchen post yet. Anyway I've still been enjoying these salsas with Mexican veggie food, one of my absolute favourite cuisines. And these salsas are really good, as I've been too lazy to make my own lately.

Here are some of my recent dishes that I've cooked, but that haven't made it to the blog.

Gnocchi with crispy brown sage butter and cheese

Vegetarian steak by Hälsans Kök made with soya and wheat proteins, served with creamy mushroom sauce and roast potatoes

Carrot pasta with heirloom tomatoes, cheese and onion with garlic sprouts and a homemade garlic knot on the side

Vegetarian grilled pieces with kale, tomatoes, beetroot and cabbage in a stir fry

Homemade spelt crust pizza with green olives and pineapple

Homemade garlic roti bread with spaghetti squash jalfrezi

I have been admiring the autumn colours outside so much. It just looks so wonderful everywhere, and it doesn't even matter, if it's a cloudy weather.

I am sharing this post with Sherry from Sherry's Pickings for the November edition of In My Kitchen.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Your VegHog