Red lentil rolls

What could be better than some freshly baked rolls on a Sunday, especially in this cold weather. I can't think of many things, so I started the day baking.

I made some basic rolls with red lentils. I got the idea from a Finnish bread that is made with lentils, and thought that it would be nice to try making my own. I used a simple cup measuring system, so the recipe is really easy to follow. This recipe makes about eight rolls, depending on the size of course. Have a look below how I made them.

Red lentil rolls

Ingredients

½ cup red lentils

3 cups wheat flour

1 tbsp dry yeast

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp sunflower seeds

1 cup lukewarm water

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp poppy seeds

Method

Cook the lentils, drain and let them cool down after the cooking.

Combine the dry ingredients of the dough first, and then add the water, lentils and oil.

Knead into an even dough. Add more either flour or water, if needed.

Let the dough rise for about one hour.

Shape rolls from the dough and put the poppy seeds on top.

Bake the rolls at 220 C for about 10 minutes or until done.

They are best enjoyed fresh.

I'm sharing the recipe with My Legume Love Affair #124 that I'm hosting this month. My Legume Love Affair was originally started by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Your VegHog

Green broth

It has been snowing here overnight, so the ground is nicely covered in white. Here is a photo from our backyard. Soon we will go to town to see Copenhagen covered in snow and ice, but first I wanted to share this recipe with you.

I made a light but warming green broth with Thai spices and coconut milk. Green pak choi leaves were the star of the show, but I also really enjoyed that spicy broth. If you want to make a more substantial dish, you could add some noodles, fried tofu or tempeh to this recipe.

Green broth

Ingredients

3 pak choi (green leaves only)

1 onion

1 cloveless garlic

1 green chilli

1 cm fresh ginger

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp palm sugar

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

2 tbsp white miso paste

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

2 bay leaves

400 ml coconut milk

1 lime's juice

Handful of fresh coriander

Method

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

Then add the seasoning.

Add the coconut milk and little water and let simmer.

Blend the mix to make a really smooth broth. Remove the bay leaves before blending.

Chop the pak choi leaves coarsely and add them to the broth once it's almost done. Cook for a while longer with the pak choi.

Serve and enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with Eat Your Greens that is hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen blog this month. Check out the other green recipes shared with the challenge.

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Vegan fry up

How has everyone's weekend been so far? Mine has been very nice in a slightly frosty but sunny weather. There is even a little bit snow and ice in places. Yesterday we went on a long walk in the countryside and by the seaside. It was nice to get so much fresh air after a busy week in the office. Today we will also be walking quite a bit, but just in town. I would like to go to a viewing tower, if the weather stays clear.

An English style fry up is a great breakfast to start an active day outdoors. You don't feel like eating anything for a while after a full English. In this vegan fry up I combined small soya sausages, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, potato röstis and chipotle ketchup. It was really easy and quick to make, all in one pan. Of course I also had fresh orange juice and coffee with oat milk on the side. It was a nice way to start the day.

Have a lovely Sunday!

Your VegHog

In My Kitchen in January

It’s nice to start a new year in the kitchen, and as usual I want to share some new items and dishes with you.

I got the new seasonal winter Moomin mug for Christmas, and I bought some Moomin coffee to go with it. The mug has a very serene winter atmosphere, and I gladly drink my coffee and mulled wine from it. Another great Christmas gift was this cute polar bear, fox and hedgehog placemat. I'm sure that you will see it in some future food posts.

I also got some new kitchen gear as a Christmas present from work: two large oven dishes and a set of tea towels, potholders and an apron. Those will surely come in handy, and I actually didn't own an apron before, so maybe I'll start wearing one now.

There was a lot of food over the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. However I didn’t photograph so many dishes. I found some food gems in Finland, like this new product Vegekebakko, vegan wheat protein on a wooden stick that sent me on a trip to my childhood. The stick mimics a 80s classic, a meat version of the product. I was so excited to see that they made a vegan version, and had to buy a packet. They were actually very nice, so nice that I need to go back to Finland soon to get more of them. For this dish I also made some pickled kohlrabi.

I couldn’t resist this festive mature Cheddar (juhla=party), and I’m saving it for a special meal in the near future. I will probably try it with these crispbreads and the rye buttons. One of the crispbreads is a new product FINN CRISP Carrot Crunch, a rye crispbread containing carrots and seeds. The other crispbread is one of my favourites made of oats. 

Of course there were also plenty of chocolates and Christmas beers, some of which are depicted here.

For New Year’s Eve my partner and I had a relaxing jackfruit taco night at home before we went to see the local fireworks by our lakes. For the tacos I followed Meriel Armitage’s recipe for jackfruit carnitas. It was a very nice recipe, especially the pineapple salsa, and I will make these carnitas again.

I didn’t have a big Christmas tree this time, just a mini tabletop one and a small pine outside in front of the window. Of course at my mother’s place we had a proper Christmas tree. I also got a bunch of blue hyacinths for the season.

I quite regret not buying one of these vegetable characters to my kitchen from a Finnish supermarket. Especially the broccoli would've been great.

I’m sharing this post with Sherry from Sherry’s Pickings blog, who is hosting the excellent In My Kitchen series also this year. Go and have a peek into her lovely blog.

Your Veghog

Mac'n'cheese lasagne

It was my 6th blog anniversary yesterday, but I was too busy with work and couldn’t post anything then. I wasn’t able to celebrate it either, but when I think about it, I’m very proud that I’ve kept blogging for such a long time, and hopefully will continue for many years to come. And all that is thanks to you my lovely readers, so thank you so much for reading my posts, commenting and sharing your vegetarian cooking ideas. I couldn’t do it without you!

My first food post on this blog was a halloumi lasagne with grilled peppers and The VegHog’s special tomato sauce. I laughed out loud a bit when reading that first post today, but it was quite amusing. I still sometimes make my lasagne that way, but now I don’t normally make the sauce from scratch by skinning tomatoes etc.

Suitably to the theme, today’s post shall be a lasagne of a different kind. It’s a mac’n’cheese lasagne, and it contains exactly what the name promises, a vegetarian lasagne filled with mac’n’cheese layers. I won’t share any specific recipe for this, because you can basically just layer a lasagne with your favourite mac’n’cheese and then just bake it. I still also used normal lasagne sheets in this one and layered them with a homemade mac'n'cheese, which had been made with a thinner macaroni than my usual ones, garlicky tomato sauce and lots of cheese on the top.

I didn’t add anything else to the lasagne this time, but a range of veggies would also go well here. I just wanted the ultimate comfort and got it. It was a real guilty pleasure, and I don’t expect to make it that often, as it may not be the healthiest dish of them all. What do you think, have I crossed a line?

I hope you all have a really nice week!

Your VegHog

Thai noodles

I hope that you all had a nice festive period and are now ready to return to the normal routines and start the new year. I've already been working for three days this week, and it was okay, but now I'm still happy to have this relaxing weekend. It's fairly sunny today, but also a bit chilly, so it's a perfect weather for January.

So how many of you are having Veganuary? I'm not taking part myself, because I have too much cheese left from the Christmas period, but I admire everyone who takes this challenge. There is also a dry January, which I have sometimes done, but I'm not doing it this year. I'm happy to see these initiatives to be quite popular though. I will try to be more healthy and frugal in January otherwise.

I recently made these Thai noodles just as a change to my usual Thai curries with jasmine rice. I used soya spaghetti as the noodles and fennel and red bell pepper as the veggies. It's basically one of my golden Thai curries, but with noodles instead of rice. It was a really nice vegan meal.

Thai noodles

Ingredients

250 g tofu

1 fennel bulb

1 red bell pepper

1 onion

2 cm fresh ginger

3 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

Vegetable oil

2 tbsp white miso

2 tbsp tomato purée

2 tsp palm sugar

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground turmeric

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 vegetable stock cube

1 lime

1 can coconut milk

Soya spaghetti

Method

Chop the tofu into cubes and fry them in vegetable oil. Set them to side and mix them into the curry towards the end.

Also cook the noodles, cool them down and set them to side. They will also be added to the mix later.

Chop the fennel and bell pepper. Also chop the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli finely and start cooking them in a pan until soft.

Add the fennel and bell pepper and fry them for a while. Then add the seasoning and stir it in.

Add the coconut milk and let the curry simmer until the flavours have blended nicely. Add any more of the seasoning to taste.

Add the noodles and tofu to the mix and heat through.

Serve and enjoy!

Have a really nice weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

My Legume Love Affair #124 welcoming entries

Happy 2019 everyone! I hope that you will all have a wonderful and healthy year with plenty of tasty cooking.

What could be a better way to start the year than a good old cooking challenge. I have the great honor of guest hosting the #124 edition of My Legume Love Affair, a monthly vegan and vegetarian cooking event that is all about legumes. My Legume Love Affair was originally started by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen. Hopefully you will be able to share your recipe with us in January.

Here are the rules on how to participate:

1. Legumes (for example lentils, beans, peas, soybeans or peanuts) have to have a central role in the recipe.

2. Only vegetarian and vegan recipes will be accepted, so please make sure that your recipe is free from meat and seafood. The recipes can contain eggs.

3. Only one recipe submission per month per blogger is accepted.

4. Use the MLLA logo in your post, and please link back to Susan, Lisa and this announcement in your post.

5. You can also use an old recipe, but please repost it on your blog this month.

6. Submit your recipe through the Linky Tool at the bottom of this page including the URL, name of the dish, photo and your details.

7. This event ends on 31.01. and the round up will be published shortly after.

You can also read the full rules here. Have fun cooking! I very much look forward to your recipes.