Balcony garden update

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I’ve started balcony gardening again after a few years’ break. We moved to a new place in March and now have two balconies for growing vegetables and fruit.

Quite quickly after the move it became apparent that our big balcony is very windy. It’s between big houses and winds from the harbour can reach it. This of course makes the plants more vulnerable, especially when they are in the early growing stages. Therefore we decided to buy two mini greenhouses for the balcony. They had to be connected to each other, as they were also moving in the wind. We haven’t filled the boxes with soil, the plants are in there in their pots.

The greenhouses are currently full of tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, chilli etc. I can’t wait to harvest some of the produce later in the summer. I will keep you updated. Here are some photos from my little balcony garden.

Here the young plants were ready to move to the balcony.

Long train of growing space.

Onion squash ready to take over the balcony.

Red currant bush

Have a nice Sunday everyone!

Your VegHog

Tacos

It’s a beautiful morning here in Copenhagen. I’ve already done some balcony gardening and we will go to the market later, where I will maybe find some more plants. We are also waiting for a delivery of new balcony furniture. The delivery is very much delayed, but I hope that they’ll turn up soon. It would now be the weather for sitting outside.

I made these tacos with dried and rehydrated soya bits and sweetcorn in a spicy tomato sauce. As taco shells I used artisanal corn tortillas that are really good quality. I’ve used them a few times and they lift any dish. I also have this really spicy (in my opinion) chipotle mayo that I served with them. The tacos were quite a hit.

Veggie tacos are always so good for the weekend. What are your plans for this weekend food- and otherwise?

Your VegHog

Sweet or savoury?

We had sweet and savoury waffles for breakfast this morning, or actually it was more like a late Sunday brunch. Now I’m kind of bursting and will need some rest. The weather is very changeable today, so I’m not sure yet what to do with the rest of the day. I would have some cleaning and wardrobe organising to do, if deciding to stay indoors.

The savoury waffles were topped with smoked Cheddar, salad, tomatoes, fresh peas (first Danish peas of the season for me), green olives and vegan butter.

The sweet waffles were topped with blueberry compote, fresh blueberries and vegan butter.

Sweet or savoury, that is the question. What type are you? 

 

Have a nice Sunday!

Your VegHog

Pølsehorn – Danish sausage rolls vegetarian style

The Danish society is opening up more and more. Bars and restaurants opened on Monday and it looks like people are keen to visit them again. Yesterday we went to a shopping centre and apart from hand sanitiser bottles being everywhere and floors marked with stickers, it felt pretty much like business as usual. I already worked three days in the office this week and from next week everyone is encouraged to return. It feels weird after over two months of lockdown and working from home, but I guess we’ll have to listen to the officials’ recommendations. As I moved home during lockdown, I now also have a new train commute to work, which is slightly shorter than the old one.

Now don’t mistake these baked goods for croissants, or you might have quite a surprise when you taste them. These are Pølsehorn (lit. sausage horn) which are popular sausage rolls in Denmark. The sausages are wrapped in a fluffy dough and then baked.

I of course made a vegetarian version of Pølsehorn by using these new vegan chorizos made from peas that are also gluten and soya free. These spicy sausages worked really well in this combo. In order to make it a really easy breakfast, brunch or snack item, I just used a ready made pastry from the shop. That way they were really quick and easy to make. The pastry wasn’t vegan, so I can only call these vegetarian.

I also made a cheese variant with smoked Cheddar. They were also very tasty. I managed to find my old favourite smoked cheese, Applewood from Somerset, in our local supermarket. Next time I might make a sausage and cheese combination in one, or what about some added veg? I know that I’m now distancing myself from the Danish classic.

These quick to make sausage rolls would be perfect for serving to surprise guests (of course that doesn’t happen anymore in the modern world, but you know what I mean). 

 

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Tomato and coconut pilau rice

 

Pilau of pilaf rice is something that I don’t make often enough. It’s nice every time, but somehow it’s not one of my standard dishes. Now I made this slightly different tomato and coconut pilau using Meera Sodha’s Summer pilau with tomato, coconut and cashews recipe as inspiration. I changed some details, but the dish was very similar. I liked the combination of tomatoes and coconut very much. I also added some coriander oil drizzle on top for some additional colour and flavour. Follow the excellent recipe to make this tasty dish yourself.

Your VegHog

Chickpea and pea frikadeller

I’m curious to know, whether you’ve been eating healthily lately or rather resorted to comfort food? I have been eating a bit of both, but have to confess that it has been largely comfort food.

This dish is a bit of a hybrid, as it contains a lot of fresh veg like kohlrabi, tomatoes and lettuce, but there are also fried goods and carbs like rice, the grilled cheese and homemade chickpea and pea frikadeller. This dish just came about as a mix of what I could find in the cupboard. As a filling agent I decided to make simple chickpea and pea frikadeller with garlic and coriander. It ended up being a lovely dinner.

It’s a long weekend here, as it’s a public holiday today and a bridge day tomorrow. I hope to get a lot of cooking and blogging done. Today at least the weather was wonderful, so we went for a little stroll in town.

Your VegHog

Spicy polenta pizza

I made this dish at our old place before moving, so it has been waiting for a while to be published. Even though it was made a couple of months ago, I think it’s still worth sharing. The dish is a polenta based pizza with vegan chicken style bits marinated in soy sauce, smoked paprika and tomato purée. The other toppings were roasted tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. It was a tasty combo with different textures. You could easily also skip or substitute the mozzarella and make a vegan version.

I pre-cooked all toppings and the base before combining. That way you can be sure that everything is nicely cooked. I marinated the vegan chicken and then fried it and I roasted the tomatoes in the oven.

It’s easy to make the polenta pizza base. Just cook the polenta in vegetable stock with a few added herbs like for example thyme, basil or wild garlic. Spread the cooked polenta on baking paper. If you use two baking papers on each side, you can roll it with a rolling pin as thin as you would like. Let the base cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. First pre-bake the base without any toppings for a little while, then add the toppings and bake until done. It’s a nice different style of pizza.

Your VegHog

Leek and Cheddar spaghetti

It’s a stormy and windy day here in Copenhagen, so it could mean a weekend spent mainly indoors. We do want to go for a little harbour stroll and to the supermarket today, but after that I will probably just cook for hours on end and we’ll have some cosy time inside. The lockdown rules have been relaxed here a bit more this week, so also shopping centres are now open. I might even return to the office next week. The feelings are mixed about that. On one hand I’m a bit sick of working from home, but on the other hand I will also need to take a train for 30 minutes to work, but we will see how that goes.

Now to the food. I often have a TV program running in the background when I’m cooking. I’m mainly listening to it and not always watching. One day I watched Jamie Oliver’s Meat-Free Meals programme while I was cooking, and got the inspiration for this leek and Cheddar spaghetti. Jamie made a Sweet Leek Carbonara, but I altered the recipe quite a bit. First of all, I haven’t been able to find a vegetarian parmesan equivalent here, so I used mature Cheddar. I didn’t use an egg either, I added a splash of white wine and wheat flour to thicken the sauce.

Leek and Cheddar spaghetti

Ingredients

2 leeks

1 onion

3 garlic

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp butter

Splash of white wine

1 tbsp wheat flour

150 g mature Cheddar

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Spaghetti

Wild garlic

Method

Slice the leeks and chop the slices into even smaller pieces. Also chop the onion and garlic finely. Cook the onion first and once it’s soft, add the leeks and garlic to the mix. Gently simmer until the leeks are softened.

Add butter and mix in the wheat flour. Cook it for a little bit and then add the white wine. Then also add the grated Cheddar and let the mix combine.

Cook the spaghetti al dente.

Season the sauce to taste and mix it with the spaghetti before serving. Then enjoy!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Mexican mac’n’cheese

I hope you are all having a nice weekend. It was a public holiday here in Denmark on Friday, so I have been enjoying a relaxing long weekend. The weather has been beautiful, it was really warm yesterday and we properly started some gardening on our balcony. More posts will follow about that. As I've said before, I’m excited to get into growing my own veg after a few years’ break. Today we will be pottering around on the balcony some more and a pineapple and olive pizza is planned for dinner. I’m happy.

Today I want to share a recipe of a dish with you that has lately become a huge favourite of mine. I’ve made this style Mexican mac’n’cheese with beans and Mexican spices a few times now and I absolutely adore it. Maybe mac’n’cheese isn’t quite accurate as a description, as it’s quite a different recipe than traditional mac’n’cheese. But anyway, the dish does contain mini macaroni and cheese. I add some beans for a wonderfully fluffy coating when they are partially broken to the mix. In this recipe I used kidney beans, but butterbeans are actually my favourites for this. Sweetcorn also adds a nice veggie crunchiness to the dish. Sometimes I also add tomatoes or bell peppers. Here is my recipe.

Ingredients

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

1 chipotle chilli

Vegetable oil for frying

230 g kidney beans

150 g sweetcorn

Smoked paprika to taste

Ground cumin to taste

Ground coriander to taste

4-6 tbsp tomato purée

1 cup mini macaroni

Fresh coriander leaves

Method

Cook the macaroni, drain, cool and set to side.

Chop the onion and start frying it in oil. Once the onions have softened, add the minced garlic and finely chopped chilli. Cook for a while.

Add the beans and sweetcorn to the mix and season. Cook for a while and break the beans up a bit. You can also add some water or vegetable stock, if needed.

Add the tomato purée and mix in the grated cheese. Then add the macaroni and let the dish heat through, season to taste and serve with fresh coriander on the top.

Your VegHog

In My Kitchen in May

April and Easter just flew by and now it’s already May. I’ve been spending a lot of time in my kitchen, also trying to get used to my new kitchen. I now know a little bit how to use the temperatures on an induction hob and how to use a dishwasher. I’ve been cooking a lot and the cupboards are full of nice food. Since I’m working from home, I will need to cook slightly more or at least try to make something for breakfast and lunch as well. Here are some new things from my kitchen.

I sorted my cookbooks out and put them on a small shelf next to the fridge. I can conveniently get inspiration from them.

I also have my spice cupboard sorted and I love having a proper easily accessible spice cupboard. Of course not all my spices fit there, different bags etc., but the most used ones can easily be gotten from there.

We got fresh take away pasta from a wonderful restaurant in our local market hall, Il Mattarello. We got pappardelle and vegan spaghettone, and both of them were such perfect quality products to cook with. With the spaghettone I made a nice tomato sauce and served tomato mozzarella on the side, and I served the pappardelle with a mushroom-green bean-tomato sauce. Of course we also got a bunch of fresh vegetables and sweet pastries from the market, as usual. 

 

From the same market hall, from a place called The Fresh Market, we got this tomato soup. It was so tasty and just perfect for busy lunches when working from home. I felt good supporting these local small businesses, who are still able to keep their shops open in these difficult times and hopefully beyond.

Sadly our Easter trip to my brother’s family in Germany was cancelled due to the circumstances. I was planning to bring these beeswax food wrappers to my sister in law, but now I’m stuck with them. Hopefully she can get some later.

We had lovely Easter beer, a collaboration between the Irma supermarket chain and Mikkeller brewers. This photo was taken at our old place and seeing it makes me miss the place. Of course we are very happy at our new place too, but that was a special place, our first home in Denmark in a lovely part of town.

Here are some other dishes I’ve been cooking lately, like these heirloom tomato and Cheddar sandwiches.

I made this radish top, Cheddar and hazelnut pasta at Easter. It was really tasty and I like utilising everything from radishes, including the tops.

Remember my vegan fish & chips I posted the other day? From the leftover cider batter and peas I made some random pea fritters.

This is a basic fondant potato and vegan Schnitzel dish.

This was it from my kitchen, and as always, I’m sharing this post with Sherry from Sherry’s Pickings blog, who is hosting the monthly In My Kitchen event. Go to her blog and have a look!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Your VegHog