Upside down brussels sprout pizza

It's time to start thinking about Christmas food, as it's soon December. I want to test a few center piece candidates before deciding the dishes for our vegetarian Christmas feast, and I think that it's nice to sample different seasonal food in this pre-Christmas period. So in this spirit I made a seasonal upside down brussels sprout pizza. The crust is a seedy thick crust and the toppings are potatoes, slow cooked onions and brussels sprouts with sage and other spices. I topped the pizza or pie with sea buckthorn and cranberries to add a splash of colour and they also added a nice flavour contrast. I think that this dish could be nice at the Christmas table. I just love sprouts and good ones have started appearing at the market, also the ones in the stalks. I need to make more sprout dishes in the near future, but here is this recipe first.

Upside down brussels sprout pizza

Ingredients

Dough

200 g wheat flour

1/2 cup seed mix

2 tbsp dry yeast

1 tsp salt

150 ml lukewarm water

3 tbsp vegetable oil

Filling

1 onion

1 garlic clove

5-6 small potatoes

8-10 brussels sprouts

Vegetable oil for frying

2 tbsp vegan butter

1 tsp Cabbage Karma spice mix

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Fresh sage leaves

Sea buckthorn and cranberries for decoration

Method

Mix and knead the dough ingredients and let it rise for about one hour.

In the meanwhile prepare the other ingredients. Cook the potatoes and slice them. Steam the brussels sprouts and cut them to halves. Slice the onion and chop the garlic finely and slow cook them in oil.

Add the potatoes and brussels sprouts to the onions and spice the mix. I used Cabbage Karma spice mix that is a blend consisting of coriander seeds infused in orange oil with fennel seeds, sumac, black pepper and lemon thyme. I also added sea salt, ground black pepper and fresh sage leaves.

Arrange the vegetables in the pan. Use the same pan for frying and baking in the oven. I put the brussels sprouts on the bottom (meaning that they will be on top of the pizza once turned around), then the potatoes followed by the onions. Then place the dough on top. Hand stretch it over the vegetables and bake the pizza at 200 C for about 20 minutes. When it's done, turn it around on a plate and enjoy! 

I'm sharing this recipe with the last edition of Eat Your Greens hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen and co-hosted by me. Sadly this event will come to an end after this month, but you still have time to share your green recipe with us! It would be nice to get plenty of green recipes for the last round up. There are more details about the rules here.

Your VegHog

Schupfnudeln

Schupfnudeln are traditional German thick “finger” noodles or dumplings. Some of the basic recipes just use flour, eggs and water, but often also potato mash is added. Schupfnudeln can be eaten in both savoury and sweet dishes. There are regional differences, whether the noodles are just boiled in water or also fried. I definitely prefer the savoury potato variation fried.

I made vegan Schupfnudeln and first I was a bit nervous whether they would hold their shape, but they did so perfectly. I added some potato flour to the dough, which I think made a firmer texture. I served the Schupfnudeln with panfried smoked tofu and mushrooms and side salad. Here is my recipe, which really is simple. The shaping of the noodles just requires some effort and patience. Give it a try, these noodles really are amazing! This is also my last recipe to my German Food Week. I hope you've enjoyed it.

Schupfnudeln

Ingredients

700 g potatoes

300 g wheat flour

75 g potato flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Cook the potatoes and then peel them. Mash the potatoes and let them cool down.

Add the flours gradually to the potato mash, season with salt, add the oil and knead to an even dough.

Shape about 3-4 cm long noodles from the dough.

Cook the noodles in water for about 5 minutes until they float on the top.

Cool them in cold water and then fry in a pan until they have some golden brown frying marks.

Serve the Schupfnudeln with for example mushrooms like I did and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Currywurst

Is everyone having a nice Friday? Perhaps you are craving a vegan sausage dish. At least now you've come to a place where you can read about one. Maybe you will be inspired to make this German style dish.

Currywurst, curry sausage, is a true working class hero from Germany and it is eaten a lot. The dish was invented in Berlin in 1949 by Herta Heuwer, who sold her creation as streetfood. Since then it has become a favourite in many German regions and is often enjoyed as takeaway or streetfood. Traditionally it's a cut sausage (yes, the cutting is a must!) served with tomato based and curry spiced sauce. Usually fries are served on the side.

Of course I veganised the traditional recipe and made the sauce myself. I also added some more veg to the serving: homemade twice-cooked potato fries, grated turnip, braised fennel and pickled red cabbage. I spiced my sauce with ground cumin, ground turmeric, smoked paprika, onion powder, cayenne pepper and ground black pepper, as my kitchen was lacking curry powder. It was a nice and comforting dish.

I have previously made a tri-lingual post about currywurst, which you can find here. How do you feel about currywurst? Have you ever tasted it, or would you like to?

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Spätzle

Here comes my second German recipe, after I started a German food week last weekend by posting a recipe for Laugenbrötchen, pretzel rolls. This one is a Swabian classic Spätzle, chunky noodles/thin dumplings. I've posted a Spätzle recipe a few times before that my friends from that region taught me, but now I made vegan Spätzle for the first time. These noodles are normally made with egg, but I took the plunge and tried to substitute the eggs with a mix of oil, polenta and potato flour as the binding agent. The vegan version was perfectly fine. In fact I didn't notice any difference in the texture or flavour to the eggy version. I will surely be always making vegan Spätzle from now on.

I hadn't made this recipe for a while, as I was lacking an important tool; we gave our potato ricer away when we moved to Denmark, and that was my go-to Spätzle maker. For making Spätzle you will need something with a surface of approximately 5x5 mm holes, where you can press the dough through to boiling water. I took the risk and decided to try this recipe with just my coarse cheese grater, and it worked out nicely. Making Spätzle is a real regional art and there are a few ways to make it. I quite like this article by Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, where they compare the tools for making Spätzle. And don't worry, if you don't speak German, the article has a nice demonstration video for each method. I really recommend watching those, if you consider making this dish.

So here is my basic recipe for vegan Spätzle, which I unfortunately ruined for vegans by baking the noodles with slow cooked onions and cheese. I personally think that's the best combination, but also just frying them after the boiling is a nice variation.

Vegan Spätzle

Ingredients

2 cups wheat flour

1 cup water

½ cup polenta

2 tbsp potato flour

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp salt

Method

Mix the dough ingredients together to form a bouncy and stretchy texture. Add more flour or water, if needed.

Boil water in a large pan and start pressing the dough through a potato ricer or the tool of your choice.

Once the noodles swim on the top, they are done and can be removed from the water.

That's how easy it is!

Your VegHog

Laugenbrötchen and German Food Week

I'm starting off a German food week, which I unofficially call the “Novemberfest”, as I've been making many of my favourite German dishes lately. Germans have many suitable dishes especially for this season, so I thought that this is a perfect time to share some of them with you. All my dishes will be of course vegetarian, but they will even be mostly vegan or very easy to veganise. I hope you'll be following this special week.

I lived nearly ten years in Cologne, Germany, where I studied at the university. Students don't have such a great budget for eating out, but I got well acquainted with many German dishes during that time, including some excellent traditional homecooking and baking. I moved from Germany to the UK in 2007, so I've been away for quite a while notwithstanding a few visits. This year I was lucky enough to be able to travel twice to Cologne on business. Then I could go to my old doorstep and quarter and also eat some local food.

The first recipe in this German food week is for Laugenbrötchen aka pretzel rolls. I just love the flavour of pretzel rolls, and they are nice with just a little butter and cheese. You can make a more premium version with tomato and mozzarella as well. If you're a regular reader, you might already know how I like baking different savoury rolls. I haven't made pretzel rolls for a long while, but making them now again reminded me of their goodness.

I have already published a recipe for Laugenbrötchen on my blog, so I will just link the recipe here, if you want to have a look at the details.

Do you have any vegetarian or vegan German food favourites?

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Polenta chips

This weekend has been very good so far. We went for a long walk at the harbour yesterday. It was cloudy and drizzly, but not too bad altogether. We ended up at a new beer release in one of our favourite bars. The new beer was a Belgian style cherry and vanilla beer, which was such a perfect choice for yesterday. Today I need to do food shopping for next week. I know, it's not so great to do it on a Sunday, but next week will be busy again, so it's best to get it out of the way. The shop we are planning to go to is just next to our local park, so it will also be a nice stroll through the park.

I had this unopened bag of polenta in my cupboard for a while. I like polenta, but it's not part of my usual basics, so that's why it was left for a while. I suddenly remembered that polenta chips would be great for a change and decided to make them. They are really easy to make and you can customise the seasoning as you like. I served my polenta chips with a tomato dip, veggie cheese Schnitzel and side salad. It was a good combo.

Polenta chips

Ingredients

650 ml vegetable stock

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp dried wild garlic

1 tsp garlic powder

125 g polenta

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Heat the vegetable stock and season it with salt, pepper, dried wild garlic and garlic powder.

Cook the polenta in the vegetable stock until done.

Spread the cooked polenta evenly on a lined roasting tray and let it cool. Chill it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Cut chips from the polenta and shallow fry the chips in vegetable oil until they are crispy. Tap any excess oil off with kitchen roll.

Serve with the sides of your choice.

Your VegHog

In My Kitchen in November

November has arrived to my kitchen with many comforting dishes to be cooked and mulled wine to be heated. I've actually put up some seasonal lights already, as November is very dark here in Scandinavia and those lights cheer me up. Now let's have a look at some of the new things and cookings in my kitchen.

We went on a lovely little city break and cruise to Norway's capital Oslo. I just love that city, even though it was quite a rainy weather while we were there. I added some photos from that trip below, and also our food haul. I had to get my favourite chocolate milk from Litago with that cute cow artwork. We also bought FISK, a drink made from a blend of eucalyptus, menthol, liquorice and vodka, Finnish chocolates with salty liquorice candy, Fisherman's Friends and Kinder Bueno chocolates. When in the north, there will have to be a liquorice theme, we are crazy about that stuff.

Now to some further shoppings at home in Copenhagen. The colour of Innocent's Blue Spark juice containing apple, guava, lime, coconut water, spirulina and vitamins, really caught my eye and it's actually very tasty. My partner said that it looks like the water that you get when you clean paint brushes, but he also liked the taste. 

 

I bought some excellent Mexican products: Mexican oregano, refried black beans and hot habanero sauce. I've been using the dried Mexican oregano for quite a while now, and it has nice and intense oregano flavour. I was first suspicious of those refried black beans, but they taste so nice, are cheap and make an excellent quick weekday meal with for example tortillas or nachos. Here is depicted my partner's refried beans and cheese wrapped in a carrot tortilla. That hot habanero sauce tastes so nice too and can be added to so many different dishes. I'm really happy with all these products and will keep buying them, as I often cook Mexican food.

I recently made these pasties and tomato tart with new ready made pastry. The triangle pasties were filled with cheese-onion-potato mash filling and the rectangular ones had a rice, carrot and pea protein filling. 

 

Here's also a comforting pasta bake with bell pepper, tomato sauce and cheese.

Sherry from Sherry's Pickings is hosting the In My Kitchen event again, so I'm sharing this post with her. Go and have a look at her blog.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Your VegHog