Veggie barbecue in the park

I told you yesterday that we were going to spend the day in the nearby park, as the weather was really nice and sunny. We actually ended up doing it, and I wanted to tell you a little bit about our veggie barbecue in the park. Our local park is the biggest in Copenhagen, and it's permitted to barbecue there. Most tables even have a metal griddle in the middle, which is handy for single-use barbecues. I really like the park, as it has different features: flower garden, playgrounds, football fields, a lake with loads of water birds. I hope you enjoy my photos from the place.

We bought this biodegradable and sustainable single-use grill, CasusGrill, and I was so curious to try it out. I quote from the CasusGrill website: “CasusGrill is made from cardboard lined with lava stone that both retains heat and reduces the risk of burns. The grill rack is made from bamboo.” 

The grill was easy to assemble and to use, and it worked perfectly for our little vegetable barbecue. I can only recommend it, if you need to use a disposable grill. I ruined the ecological theme a bit by using foil for the potatoes and onions, and also cardboard plates, but better than nothing I guess. Those plastic wineglasses, by the way, I have used many times already after we got them at an event. 

We barbecued veggie sausages, grill cheese, onions and pre-boiled new potatoes. On the side we had cherry tomatoes, fresh peas in pods and strawberries. We even had a couple of beers, ciders and a little bit of rosé wine with us. 

It was a nice little picnic, even though our table was most of the time in the direct sun. Otherwise I was happy with the table we found in the busy park, as it was kind of a quiet corner next to trees. Next time I will bring my chess figures, if we can secure the same spot.

This morning started with heavy thunderstorm that is still continuing, or at least it's still raining. I'm glad that the plants got some water. It should clear up for later, but I'm not sure, if we can do as much outdoorsy stuff today. I would like to go for a walk at some point. 

What about you, how has your weekend been? Is it hot where you are?

Your VegHog

Creamy bell pepper pasta

Another July week has passed by quickly, but now summer is at its best. It's really warm here (a bit too warm for me actually, but I'm not complaining), and the atmosphere in town is relaxed. A lot of people are on holiday, so the office is also quieter, which is always a plus. We are planning to spend today in the nearby park chilling.

I just wanted to quickly wish you all a nice weekend and post some pictures of this creamy bell pepper pasta that I recently made. I slow cooked the onions and bell pepper pieces and then infused some oat cream with them and added some basic spices and herbs. What a nice summer pasta it was. I ate a bit too much of it.

I will try to write another post tomorrow, maybe something from today's park adventure.

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Black Eyed Bean Flautas

We had a wonderful day at the beach yesterday. While it was stuffy and hot in town, there was a pleasant breeze by the sea. I was surprised that there weren't too many people on the beach either, so that made it even more pleasant. We just mainly walked around and enjoyed the scenery. There were beautiful wild roses in bloom everywhere and there will be a good sea-buckthorn season once they ripen. I'm planning to go to pick some later in the summer.

I bought these new carrot tortillas by No Fairytales, and was wondering what to make, as they are a bit more special than usual tortillas. I would like to say again that my blog is not sponsored, and all products you might see here are just my own recommendations, not advertisements. Anyway during my research for new tortilla dishes, I stumbled upon flautas. Flautas are just basically thicker taquitos. So I made my own version of flautas with black eyed peas, bell pepper, brown rice and spices in these juicy carrot tortillas, and they were so tasty. You can find the recipe below.

Black Eyed Bean Flautas

Ingredients

½ cup brown rice

1 cup cooked black eyed beans

1 red bell pepper

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

1 chipotle chilli

Vegetable oil for frying

Smoked paprika to taste

Ground cumin to taste

Ground coriander to taste

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

3-4 tbsp tomato purée

100 g grated Gouda

Fresh coriander

1 lime

5 carrot tortillas (or regular tortillas)

Method

Cook the rice and chop the bell pepper, onion, garlic and chillies.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan and cook the onions until soft and slightly browned, and then add the bell peppers. Cook them slowly until they are quite soft, and then also add the chilli and garlic.

Add the black eyed beans to the pan, followed by the seasoning and the tomato purée. Then also add the rice, and cook until the flavours have blended nicely in the whole mix.

Once you are happy with the filling's flavour, you can start assembling the flautas.

Place cheese, fresh coriander and rice mix on the tortillas, and roll them into open-ended wraps. I secured mine with toothpicks so that they wouldn't open during the frying.

Fry the wraps in hot oil until they are golden brown and slightly crispy. Enjoy with fresh lime juice sprinkled on top!

I would like to share this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #130 edition, which is hosted by Kalyani from Sizzling Tastebuds. The My Legume Love Affair blogging event was first started by Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Your VegHog

Spinach and potato curry

How is everyone? I haven't been blogging enough and reading other blogs, as I've been quite busy at work again and then tired in the evenings. I try to catch up a little bit this weekend, although the weather is now really nice, so we will be heading to a beach soon. I also have some nice recipes in the pipeline, I just need to find the time to write them down and edit the photos. I can't believe how quickly July is going past. My holiday is over, but I still want to enjoy the sunny days here in Denmark and just explore Copenhagen. Copenhagen is the perfect summer city with the seaside, channels and cosy parks.

Now to this vegan recipe. I made this comforting curry the other day, and it was very tasty with the Finnish oat block product on top. It's a block like tofu, but it's made from oats and pea protein. I very much prefer this to tofu or paneer, but as the oat block is still a new product and difficult to get outside of Finland, it's okay to substitute it with tofu or paneer in this recipe. Otherwise the curry is quite a basic one, there are just some nice small summer potatoes, frozen spinach and green lentils. I added fresh peas to the rice, which was a great addition, as I can't get enough of fresh peas at the moment. Here is my recipe, if you want to have a look.

Spinach and potato curry

Ingredients

160 g oat block (substitute with paneer or tofu)

8 small potatoes

½ cup green lentils

½ cup frozen spinach

1 large onion

3 garlic cloves

2 chillies

2 cm fresh ginger

Vegetable oil for frying

1 tbsp garam masala

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp ground coriander

1/ tsp ground cumin

3 tbsp tomato purée

1 cup jasmine rice

1 cup fresh peas

Method

Cut the potatoes in halves or quarters depending on the size. Cook the potatoes in water until done, and set them to side, and do the same with the green lentils.

Chop the onion, garlic, chillies and ginger. Heat vegetable oil in a pan and start frying the onions slowly until they are light brown. Once the onions are done, add the garlic, chillies and ginger, and the spices to the pan. Fry for a while.

Add the potatoes, lentils, tomato purée, spinach and some water to the pan, and let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely.

Cut the oat block to cubes, fry them in vegetable oil until golden brown and serve on top of the curry.

Cook the rice, and towards the end of the cooking time, add the fresh peas to the rice.

Serve the curry with the rice and enjoy!

I want to share this recipe with this month's Eat Your Greens cooking challenge hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen, and co-hosted by me. Go and check out Shaheen's blog, there's still plenty of time to take part in July, especially now that there are so many lovely greens around!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Summer holiday

I had a very nice and relaxing holiday in Finland. It consisted mainly from countryside walks, Midsummer celebrations, garden work and spending time with the family. The nature was at its most beautiful with plenty of wild flowers blooming. The only downside were again the several insects that were out to get you. The nights were quite bright, but there were also a few spectacular sunsets that we got to experience.

I have collected some photos here to show to you. I hope you like them. You can find my food related souvenirs in this post.

In My Kitchen in July

I've returned back to Copenhagen from my holiday in Finland, but I'm still on holiday this week. I'll try to make another post about the holiday, but first this post that is full of food items that I either tried on the holiday or brought back here. There were again so many new veggie products that it was almost impossible to try them all, but I have a nice selection here to show some things to you.

We found beers from this fairly local brewery, Keppo Bryggeri, who brew organic craft beers, and above all have a cute hedgehog logo! We had to buy a few bottles, and the quality is great indeed.

There is a lot going on in this picture with further Finnish products: blueberry-vanilla chocolates, chocolates with jelly filling, cheese, broad bean strips, organic beer, dired pea crush, oat block, blueberry-pomegranate water, veggie sticks, more chocolates, salty liquorice sticks, oat crackers, oat mince and dried broad bean crush. This photo features most products I brough back, but not all. I think we have something to eat for a while.

From that collection I would especially like to mention these three new products, which were excellent: Beanit broad bean strips, Muru oat mince and Yosa oat blocks. They all had excellent textures and are made from local produce. I think that making a tofu type of block from oats is quite inspirational. It tasted great, and had a very firm texture. It's much better than tofu I would say (and I actually like tofu too). The Beanit strips are so versatile to use, and there are three flavours: basic, gentle lemon and garlic-herbs. In the below burritos I used the basic one, and it was so tasty with a kidney bean, rice, romain pepper and chipotle mix. I have yet to try the lemon one, but the other two I have tried, and they are excellent. Any ideas for the lemon variation? Maybe a curry or noodle bowl?

While in Finland, we sampled some further beers and ciders. The cloudberry saison and the dry ciders were great.

Here are a few kitchen things I bought for myself, a berry teatowel, a dishcloth with old houses and barns and of course a new Moomin mug with the Groke.

In Finland we mainly ate new potatoes that are so flavourful this time of the year. Then we had a couple of veggie barbecues, and I made a strawberry cake and simple vegetable tarts for Midsummer. 

I cooked this Lebanese rice and golden Thai curry here at home. Both are my go-to-dishes that I cook quite often. They are so economical and tasty. 

I got this huge tapas board as a summer present from work. It is too big to be used as a chopping board in my kitchen, so I will have to make some veggie tapas display with it, I guess. 

I'm sharing this post as usual with Sherry from Sherry's Pickings. She is hosting the In My Kitchen blogging event.

Have further a great week!

Your VegHog