Mac'n'cheese sandwiches

Did you have a nice Christmas time? I had a good and relaxing time with my family in Finland, where there was snow, so it looked really Christmassy. Now I'm back to the rather grey and rainy Copenhagen.

Tomorrow we will just have a relaxed vegan taco dinner at home and go out a bit when there are fireworks at twelve. Last year everyone was shooting their own fireworks around the lakes closeby, and that looked quite impressive, so that's where we will be heading again.

I recently made these very comforting mac'n'cheese sandwiches from left-over mac'n'cheese, and I could actually see these as New Year's eve food. The contrast between the toasted crispy bread and the cheesy soft macaroni was great. For some more flavour, I added green jalapenos and fried red bell peppers as an extra twist to the sandwich filling. I served a fresh salad and tomatoes on the side to make the dish feel slightly more healthy. These sandwiches made a great evening snack for this season, and I will surely make them again.

Happy New Year everyone!

Your VegHog

Cheese, onion and potato pie

I have been into comfort food even more than usually lately. I don't know, it must be the chilly weather and darkness. And what could be more comforting in this season than a warm cheese, onion and potato pie in shortcrust pastry? I think that offers pretty much the ultimate comfort, at least for me.

I roasted the potatoes that went into the pie, and I also slow-cooked the onions first. Then I filled the pie with them and a lot of Cheddar. Off to the oven the whole thing went, and baked until the crust was crispy and golden brown. That's the recipe in all its shortness.

I got so full after eating a couple of slices of this pie, so it should be consumed carefully. It should be fine when shared with some good friends though.

Your VegHog

Broadbean and rice frikadelles

How has your week been? I hope not too busy. Mine was just fine with normal routines, but today I'll need to do some Christmas shopping. I won't be buying many presents this year, but just small trinkets to a few people. I'm actually quite looking forward to it, as I haven't been to shops much lately. Afterwards we will stop by at our favourite street food market, which will be closing for the winter after this weekend. Otherwise there aren't many plans, we will just try to take it easy.

I made a vegan version of a beloved Danish food, frikadeller or frikadelles, which traditionally are fried meat patties. I thought that they would be nice with a bean and rice mix, as I once already tried vegan frikadelles with lentils and rice. I used three types of broadbeans in my frikadelles: whole dried ones, split dried ones and dried broadbean crush. They were all of course cooked prior to making the frikadelles. I'm not sure, if this is necessary, but I just happened to have broadbeans in different shapes, and had to use some ends of packets.

On the side I served crispy roast potatoes and pan-fried brussels sprouts and carrots. I again used the cabbage karma spice in the brussels sprouts, which was very nice. So here is my recipe for the broadbean and rice frikadelles.

Broadbean and rice frikadelles

Ingredients

½ cup rice

1 cup cooked broadbeans

¼ cup cooked split broadbeans

¼ cup cooked broadbean crush

½ red bell pepper

fresh thyme

chilli powder

salt

black pepper

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Cook the rice and beans and mix them together by slightly mashing the whole broadbeans.

Grate the bell pepper and also add it to the mix.

Season the mix and shape frikadelles from it. You can add a little bit of flour in case the dough is too moist.

Cook the frikadelles on both sides in hot oil until crispy on the outside.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Potato and chickpea curry with roasted purple cauliflower and naan bread

December just seems to be flying by without much time for posting. I'll try to make up for it, but can't promise anything yet.

This recipe isn't very Christmassy at all, but maybe it's nice to enjoy different kind of cuisines in December too. I happen to like such comforting vegan curries very much, so here comes another one of them. 

This time I made my curry with potatoes, carrots and chickpeas and served roasted purple cauliflower and homemade naan bread on the side. I didn't add the naan bread recipe here, but you can refer for example to this older post, as I made these pretty much the same way. So have a look below how I made the curry.

Potato and chickpea curry with roasted purple cauliflower

Ingredients

1 purple cauliflower

400 g potatoes

½ cup dried chickpeas

3 carrots

2 onions

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

1 cm fresh ginger

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp ground cumin

250 ml coconut milk

1 vegetable stock cube

2 tbsp tomato purée

Method

Soak the chickpeas overnight and then boil them in water until they are done.

Cut the cauliflower into florets, brush them with vegetable oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven until done. I decided not to add them to the curry, because they would have coloured it weird. Of course also plain old white cauliflower can be used in this dish.

Cut the potatoes in halves or quarters depending on the size and boil them in water until they are nearly done.

Chop the onions, garlic, chilli and ginger finely and cook them in the vegetable oil until soft.

Slice the carrots and add them to the pan followed by the potatoes and chickpeas.

Then mix the garam masala and ground cumin in.

Stir for a while and add the coconut cream.

Let the curry simmer slowly and season it with vegetable stock cube and tomato purée.

Serve all components together and enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #123 edition hosted by Archana from The Mad Scientist's Kitchen. The MLLA event was started by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook in 2008, and has been hosted by Lisa from Lisa’s Kitchen since February 2013. Check out the challenge, it's great fun to take part!

Your VegHog

In My Kitchen in December

I'm starting to be ready for Christmas, even though a lot of food planning etc. still needs to be done. However I haven't done that much at home yet, we only put up the Christmas lights on the windows. Below you can see a couple of photos of our tradition of putting the lights up and then going to the yard and in the street to look at them while sipping mulled wine. It's a lovely yet low key tradition that we have kept on for many years in a few different homes. Other than that I've been enjoying our neighbours' festive lights and those in our local streets. It's so nice in this dark period.

I have a new cotton branch in my kitchen, which I think is a little bit Christmassy, as it's white and fluffy like snow. The photo was taken just now. It's darkish even at midday and I'll have to go out to the rain soon. I have a good incentive though, there is a Christmas street party in a small street nearby, so hopefully I'll get some mulled wine again.

I bought this Mikkeller beer gift pack for myself yesterday as a Friday treat, because I quite wanted that glass. I like their beer anyway and these small cans named after Danish phrases are very funny too. They are called “I don't have a red shrimp” (meaning: I'm broke), “Hair in the mailbox” (meaning: to have a tricky problem or to be about to be uncovered) and “Stick a finger in the soil” (meaning: think before you jump into conclusions). 

On that note I wanted to write about another Mikkeller beer that is all Christmassy red: Spontan Double Raspberry, a sour ale brewed with raspberries and aged in oak barrels. I just love these lambic style sour beers that are fruity and so tart. I think that this would be a fine Christmas drink even though it's not a Christmas beer as such.

I made garlic knots as a side to a pasta dish from some left-over pizza dough. They are so easy and quick to make, but with a little frying in butter, garlic and thyme they are just the perfect side to many dishes. A bit more refined version could even make it to the Christmas dinner.

I've lately often made a pasta dish with fried halloumi and roasted bell peppers, tomatoes and garlic. Pine nuts also go well here, but otherwise the dish can be left simple. It gives so much comfort and is one of my absolute favourites and often seen in my kitchen on weekdays. I just feel that the chewy halloumi gives a nice contrast to the soft pasta.

I also tried a new veggie product Oumph! from Sweden. I mean, it's a new product for me, but it has been around for a while, I just haven't got around tasting it. It's a frozen product made from soy beans, and there are currently eleven different variations, like salty & smoky, pulled Oumph! and tandoori bbq. I tried the kebab one and made nice little flatbreads with it. I think that it was a tasty product and had a good texture. I will definitely try some of the other ones too once I spot them in shops.

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

Have a nice weekend and pre-Christmas time everyone!

Your VegHog

Eat Your Greens November Round Up

It's time to present the final Eat Your Greens Round Up for 2018, as we will be having a break in December, and will be back again in January 2019.

November was again a vibrant month for green cooking regardless of the dark and bleak weather. I'm happy to share these contributions with you.

Laura from Touch Wood blog shared a Beetroot leaves and other greens Pesto. Her pesto is very green and it contains kale, beetroot leaves and herbs. It's the perfect versatile sauce to be added to many dishes, and nice usage of different greens.

Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen posted a Brussels Sprouts Poryial (South Indian Brussels Sprouts with Coconut). Lisa's dish is very creative using brussels sprouts with Indian spices in a poriyal, which is a vegetable curry from the South Indian cuisine. I like the sound of this combination and am tempted to try sprouts in a curry myself.

My Eat Your Greens co-host Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen made a Burnt Green Cauliflower Quiche. She made the creamy and cheesy quiche with a green cauliflower, hence the greenness. Different vegetable quiches are brilliant food to enjoy either hot or cold as Shaheen points out.

Spécialiste de l'éphémère from L'éphémère quotidienneté des repas et autres trucs de magie cooked Soupe de brocoli de Ju. This soup is made for her daughter, who loves her greens, which is always nice to hear. The soup is a comforting potato and broccoli soup, just the kind that I also like very much.

My own recipe was Pan-fried brussels sprouts with roast potatoes, beurre blanc and cauliflower cheese. This is just a plateful of different dishes that I like to eat as a roast dinner or even Christmas dinner. I also used brussels sprouts as my greens, as I really like using them in this season.

Thank you so much everyone for taking part in Eat Your Greens in November and throughout the whole year! Best wishes to you all for a lovely festive season from Shaheen and I, see you again in January 2019 with more green recipes!

Your VegHog

Vegan and vegetarian food scene in Copenhagen – Part 2

I started this Vegan and vegetarian food scene in Copenhagen series in June about good places for vegetarians and vegans to eat out in Copenhagen. If you missed part 1, you can find it here. Back then I introduced three lovely restaurants in Copenhagen offering nice vegan and vegetarian food and where I'm a regular (by the way, Madenitaly have gone fully vegan in the meanwhile).

Today I want to write again about three restaurants in Copenhagen. Two of them are vegan and one is a vegan and vegetarian friendly place.

Plantepølsen

• Jægersborggade 39, 2200 København

Plantepølsen, aka the plant sausage, is a fairly new addition to Copenhagen's vegan scene, as they opened the restaurant this year, but they have already become my favourites.

They make vegan gourmet hot dogs with creative toppings. The hot dogs are so tasty and their different homemade vegan sausages are of very high quality. The menu never gets boring, even if you visit them more often.

This small restaurant is located in Jægersborggade in Nørrebro. It's a nice street with small shops and cafés, and I really like spending time in that area. Next weekend they will have a Christmas street party, which is always a great event. I really hope to get some vegan sausages then!

Souls

• Nørre Farimagsgade 63, 1364 København N and Melchiors Plads 3, 2100 København Ø

Souls is a vegan restaurant offering high quality local food and cocktails in their two branches in Copenhagen. Their portions are colourful and inviting. Unfortunately I've only managed to visit them once, but the food was really tasty, so I'll have to go again soon.

They have a versatile menu for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. Their dinner menu includes for example diverse vegan burgers, ramen, pizza and salads.

When I was there, I had a tasty seitan sandwich and my friend had a pancake stack with fruit. It was a lovely place for a cosy lunch. By the way, my photos were taken in much warmer times, no more outdoor dining here!

La Neta

• Nørrebrogade 29, 2200 København

La Neta is one of my regular places that I like to visit especially for a relaxed Saturday lunch. It's a Mexican restaurant serving tacos and quesadillas, and they have many vegan and vegetarian options. They also serve good quality craft beer by Mikkeller and other brewers.

I like the relaxed atmosphere of the restaurant, and the food is outstanding. My main favourites are potato quasadillas, refried beans quesadillas, Mexican rice and totopos with refried beans, but they have several other options that I also occasionally enjoy.

Here are links to the websites of these restaurants, if you want to have a browse: Plantepølsen, Souls and La Neta. What do you think of these places? Would you be interested in visiting some of them?

Have a great Sunday!

Your VegHog