Pasta with basil-cashew pesto and marinated oat block

I hope you've all had a nice last week of February. I was able to work slightly less than the previous week, so I'm happy overall. I could even steal away for one night with my friend and we went to a Danish conversation group in a bar. We try to go there every week, but lately it has been hectic. It's a nice way to get to know new people while practising Danish and sipping some nice beers.

I made a pasta dish for a change. It's completely vegan pasta with basil and cashew nut pesto served with roasted tomatoes and marinated oat block, which is like tofu, but made from oats. My recipe is adapted from Fazer's Basil Alfredo Pasta. Have a look below, how I made this dish.

Pasta with basil-cashew pesto and marinated oat block

Ingredients

Oat block marinade

160 g oat block

½ lemon's juice

1 tbsp black treacle

4 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion

1 garlic clove

Pesto

1 cup fresh basil

1 garlic clove

100 g cashew nuts

5-7 tbsp olive oil

½ lemon's juice

1 tsp salt

Other ingredients

Pasta of your choice. I used Tofette shape.

Roasted cherry tomatoes for serving

Fresh basil leaves for serving

Method

Slice the oat block, mix the marinade and pour it over the oat block. Let it marinade for at least one hour.

Roast tomatoes in the oven.

Purée the pesto ingredients in a blender.

Fry the marinated oat block.

Cook the pasta until it's al dente and mix it with the pesto. Serve with the roasted tomatoes, and marinated oat block. Enjoy!

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Vegan waffles

How are you all doing? I know I've been a bit quiet again. It has just been crazily busy at work, unthinkable to blog in the evenings, and even on most weekends I've been too tired. I have many recipes in store for you though, so I hope that I'll have time to write them up for you soon.

I bought a waffle iron last year and have sometimes been using it to make fluffy vegan waffles with oat milk. It's a very easy and quick snack, if you only have the basic ingredients at home. You can make both sweet and savoury waffles, whatever you prefer. Below is my easy go-to recipe.

I now made waffles in style of Finnish shrove Tuesday buns (recipe here), only by substituting the buns with fresh waffles. The filling is whipped cream and strawberry jam.

Vegan waffles

Makes 5-6 waffles

Ingredients

1 ½ cup wheat flour

2 tbsp sugar

½ tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ cup oat milk

3 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

Mix the dry ingredients, then gradually whisk in the oat milk and vegetable oil to make a smooth batter.

Heat couple of large spoonfuls of the batter in a waffle iron at a time and enjoy!

Your VegHog

In My Kitchen in February

It's time to have a look into my kitchen again. I have not been cooking so much new stuff, just the old favourites, but here are some new food items and dishes in my kitchen.

Naturli launched a new vegan frozen range, and I had to try their new Schnitzel straight away. They are soy based and gluten free. I got a small recipe booklet from the shop and found inspiration for my lemon Schnitzel with roasted potatoes, peas, braised fennel and blood orange dish. It was very tasty and I will certainly make it again.

This week my kitchen and dining corner got new windows, well actually the whole flat. They are very well insulated, but still have that old-fasnioned look with the metal hooks and fasteners. The pictures aren't very good though, as sun was blasting through the windows yesterday morning. Yes, and that is Christmas tree 2018 out there, but it would quite like a repotting.

I recently bought a couple of packets of rice made from legumes. It probably can't be called rice, but it looks like colourful rice. They also call it rice-shaped pasta. I've made quite a few dishes with it and they have been very good, a bit lighter and more wholesome than with real rice.

I also spotted a pulled seitan kebab in the shop and made a vegan kebab dish with it. It has a nice spicing and texture. 

 

Have you ever had a pineapple burger? If not, you must! It was always my favourite as a child and now I haven't had one for a long time. We happened to have some nice veggie patties and left-over pineapple, so I asked my partner to make a pineapple burger. And boy, did he make a great one!

 

Here are a few other dishes that I've cooked: roasted pepper pizza, golden Thai curry with spinach and cabbage fried rice.

Al always, I'm sharing this post with Sherry from Sherry's Pickings blog. She is hosting the monthly In My Kitchen event.

Your VegHog

Bean enchiladas

Yesterday we went to an open night at the National Gallery of Denmark. They have these open nights quite frequently, and there is always a great atmosphere. You can just watch the regular art collection, go to newly opened exhibitions for free, enjoy live music and other performances or the street food and drink offering. Yesterday it was very busy, as a popular new exhibition opened. We just went and looked at the regular collection, as it was more pleasant there. This art work “Pink onions” by Henri Matisse has just a great air about it and I really like it.

Now to this Mexican inspired dish. A while ago I made these enchiladas with pinto beans, sweetcorn, bell pepper, chilli, tomato sauce, mini macaroni and rice made from legumes. They were wrapped into carrot tortillas and baked with cheese and habanero sauce. I really love this sort of dishes and I often make them. I think that I will make something similar again today for a cosy Saturday night.

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Noodle broth

Hello February! A new winter month has started, and it's still not cold. It's just wet and rainy, but I'm in good spirits and excited to see what February brings. There are many changes going on at work and it can be a bit draining working on multiple projects at the same time. That's why I really appreciate my quiet weekends with no plans. I guess we'll stroll to the marketplace today to see, if they have any new interesting fruit and veg and then just cook a nice dinner at home.

A vegan noodle broth is occasionally a good idea. I made this coconut broth in Thai style and it was so comforting and nice. I used some of that cute confetti coriander in it too. Here is my recipe.

Noodle broth

Ingredients

200 g tofu

100 g noodles

1 fennel

2 carrots

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

1 cm fresh ginger

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp palm sugar

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

2 bay leaves

400 ml coconut milk

1 lime's juice

Handful of fresh coriander

Method

Chop the fennel, carrots, onion, garlic, chilli and ginger.

Start cooking onions in vegetable oil. Once they are softened, add the carrots and fennel to the pan. Once they have cooked nicely, also add the garlic, chilli and ginger and let cook for a while.

Add the seasoning and the coconut milk and let simmer.

Cube the tofu, fry it in vegetable oil and set to side.

Cook the noodles in water, cool and set to side.

Once the broth flavours have developed nicely, add the noodles and tofu to the broth and heat it through.

Serve and enjoy!

Your VegHog