Schupfnudeln with fondue sauce

 

It has been a quiet week and weekend over here with very little significant events. And sometimes those are just the best weeks. I heard that a new street food market opened yesterday fairly close to our home, so I think we will check it out today. Otherwise there is just cooking Sunday dinner on the program. What have you been up to lately?

Schupfnudeln are one of my absolute German food favourites. They are large finger-shaped potato noodles, similar to gnocchi. I love them in any combination, and now I made them with a cheesy fondue sauce. It was so good, best comfort food when it starts getting a bit colder again. This dish is easy to make, it just requires some time and patience. Have a look at my recipe below.

 

Ingredients

 

Schupfnudeln

700 g potatoes

300 g wheat flour

75 g potato flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Fondue sauce

4 tbsp butter

2 garlic cloves

4 tbsp wheat flour

1 cup white wine

1-2 cups water

100 g Emmental cheese

Onion powder to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Sea salt to taste

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.

Make the sauce in parallel. Melt the butter in a pan and cook the garlic in it.

Whisk the flour in and add the wine.

Then gradually also add water and whisk the mix into a smooth sauce. I put 1-2 cups water to the recipe. Add it until you have the desired thickness.

Then also whisk the Emmental cheese in until it melts.

Season to taste and combine with the noodles.

Serve the dish with a salad. I served some dehydrated cherry tomatoes, mini tomatoes from the garden and spinach leaves with it.

Have a nice Sunday!

Your VegHog

Pizza night

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend. Mine has been great so far. On Friday we went out to a street food market and had a couple of beers there, and yesterday we visited our friends in their lovely home with garden and had a very nice evening. I’m not sure yet what we’ll do today, probably just some pottering around and going for a walk.

We had a pizza night a while back and made these three different types of mini pizza: a mushroom and emmental pizza, a Mexican style pizza with spicy sauce, sweetcorn and jalapenos and a green olive and mozzarella pizza. They were all delicious and it was nice to have a mix of different flavours. It would be hard to pick a favourite.

 

Have a nice Sunday everyone!

Your VegHog

 

Gnocchi with browned sage butter

 

Gnocchi is really nice summer food and these days I like to make my easy 5-ingredient vegan gnocchi. The texture is good and firm and I’m able to cook the gnocchi easily without them breaking up.

This time I also had a handful of leftover spinach, so I added it to the dough. The gnocchi can of course be seasoned with a number of different vegetables or herbs, and it can be made from sweet potatoes as well. See the ingredients and method below for my recipe.

 

Ingredients

700 g potatoes

300 g wheat flour

75 g potato flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

 

Method

Cook the potatoes, peel and mash them. Set them to side to cool down.

Mix the wheat and potato flour gradually with the potatoes to make a firm mix. Season it with salt and also add vegetable oil.

Shape gnocchi from the dough, give them a fork mark and cook them in boiling water. They are done when they float on the surface.

You can also additionally fry the gnocchi after the boiling to make them even firmer.

Heat butter in a pan and add sage leaves. Cook until the sage leaves are crispy and the butter is browned. Serve it with the gnocchi. I also served some lamb’s lettuce and sprouts on the side.

 

Your VegHog

 

Nacho casserole

 

 

 

It has been another hot week here in Copenhagen, and also very busy at work at the same time. Now I’m happy to switch off for a couple of days and just stroll around the summer city.

I got the inspiration for this dish from a blogging friend Sherry, as she once wrote about a nacho casserole and said that her husband often makes it. This is my own take on the idea using taco flavoured seitan in a spicy mix of sweetcorn, chilli and spices, all covered with lovely melting cheese and layered with crispy tortilla chips. I thought that it was a great Friday or Saturday night dish for a relaxed night in.

Nacho casserole

Ingredients

1 bag tortilla chips

200 g taco flavoured seitan

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 chilli

2 tbsp vegetable oil

150 g sweetcorn

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

4-6 tbsp tomato purée

100 g mozzarella

Hot sauce

 

Method

Chop the onion, garlic and chilli finely and fry them in oil. Then also fry the seitan.

Add the sweetcorn, seasoning and tomato purée to the mix and cook for a while longer.

Layer the mix with the tortilla chips to an oven dish, cover with cheese and bake at 180 C for about 15 minutes.

Sprinkle some hot sauce on the top for serving and enjoy!

 

 

Your VegHog

 

Cheese and onion scones

 

 

 

I really haven’t made scones for a while, but I got invited by Tandy from the Lavender and Lime blog to take part in the International Scone Week 2020 that she is organising. As it happens, the scone week is right now, so it’s time to get baking. If you like scones, you should definitely check the event out and take part!

I don’t know, why I haven’t made scones for such a long time, as they are very tasty, especially the homemade ones. I’m quite happy for the reminder of their existence. I usually prefer savoury scones, even though sweet ones are also very nice. But this time I chose to make savoury scones with a classic combination of cheese and onion, where you basically can’t go wrong. I used a seasonal fresh red onion with its green stalks, but you can use any type of onion for this recipe. The beauty of this recipe is that you can replace some of the components and even add other veg, nuts, herbs or leave the cheese out, if you prefer. So here is my easy recipe for cheese and onion scones.

 

Cheese and onion scones

Makes about 15 small scones

Ingredients

1 red onion

1 garlic clove

1 small sprig of thyme

½ tsp sea salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp butter for frying

200 g wheat flour

25 g wholemeal wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

55 g butter

50 g Cheddar cheese

150 ml oat milk

 

Method

Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook them in butter until softened. Season them with salt, ground black pepper and thyme and let them cool.

Grate or crumble the Cheddar.

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt and rub the butter in.

Add the cheese, onion, garlic and oat milk to the mix and knead only lightly into an even dough.

Spread the dough on a baking paper about 2 cm thick and cut scones from it with a small round cookie cutter.

Brush the tops with a little oat milk and sprinkle some additional cheese on them.

Bake the scones for about 12-15 minutes at 220C until golden brown and enjoy. 

Happy International Scone Week everyone! I can’t wait to see your creations and thank you Tandy for the great idea!

Your VegHog

 

 

Veggie quesadillas

We have a bit of a heatwave here in Denmark right now. I already went for a morning swim in the harbour to cool down straight away after waking up. The water in the harbour is really clean and it’s nice to go for a little swim. I can’t swim for far though, because I’m so much out of shape. Otherwise I will try to stay out of sun for most of today.

Soon we’ll go out for a Mexican lunch and I’m very much looking forward to it. Before that I wanted to share my own recent homemade quesadillas with you. I love Mexican food and I also love cooking my own variations of it. I made these veggie quesadillas with beans, sweetcorn, bell pepper, rice and plenty of warming Mexican spices. They were so good. 

 

I hope you’ll all have a wonderful weekend!

Your VegHog

 

Decorated focaccia - Sunflowers

I made another decorated focaccia, because making the first one was so much fun. I was inspired by Vincent van Gogh this time and followed a sunflower theme. The bell peppers were also nice on the focaccia and I’m already thinking about my next theme. Do you have any suggestions or have you made a decorated focaccia?

We will go to the seaside in a minute and will just have a relaxing Sunday picnic there. I hope you’ll have a great day!

Your VegHog

In My Kitchen in August

I couldn’t believe it when I wrote that title above, In My Kitchen in August! But indeed, it’s already August in this year that has just flown by. Maybe it’s best not to think about that too much and just have a look at what has been happening in my kitchen lately.

Plants on my balcony are coming along very nicely and I've had the first tomato and romano pepper harvest. The tomatoes are an orange variant of San Marzano tomatoes and they are so so tasty. The onion squash is also growing fast.

I bought two Danish oils or dressings for my summer salads: a wild garlic oil and a sea buckthorn dressing. They are so handy to just sprinkle on lovely veg. I also got a quality Italian olive oil from an Italian grocery store. It is so nice and has an intense flavour. I also love the label.

There are two new plates in my kitchen, which I’m quite happy about.

I detected a nice new brand of ecological nuts.

I found this Hodmedod's British Vaal Dhal in my local supermarket and I'm delighted to try it soon. I used to buy a lot of Hodmedod's products in Britain and they were always qualitative.

I was equally delighted to find my old favourite, Applewood Smoked Cheddar, here. It’s such a tasty cheese.

We went to a farmer's market and got a wonderful haul of local produce: salad, garlic, onions, bread and cider. The salad was incredibly fresh and I enjoyed it very much on the side of these fried potatoes.

Here are some other dishes I’ve cooked.

Vegan tacos with watermelon

Spaghetti bake with salad

Cauliflower cheese with vegan frikadeller and veggies

As usual I’m sharing this post with Sherry from Sherry’s Pickings blog, who is hosting the In My Kitchen blogging event. Head to her blog to see great kitchens all over the world.

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog