The VegHog’s Cheap Eats Cooking Challenge 2022 – Round up

 

Earlier in January I called for my Cheap Eats Cooking Challenge 2022 and now is the time to end it. It wasn’t a huge audience success for the participation (actually no other recipes shared than my own), but I got lot of nice comments on social media so I’m happy about it. It would’ve been nicer for this post to have some other contributions as well, but I will share some of my dishes instead.

I cooked loads of affordable dishes during the past four weeks and I have posted all of them on Instagram, so you might also want to have a look at #theveghogscheapeats to catch them all.

I selected my German Spätzle noodles with onions, white wine and cheese recipe as my main contribution for the challenge. It is a very comforting dish, where a basic dough for the noodles or mini dumplings really goes a long way. My Spätzle dough recipe is vegan, but many people also make them with eggs. You could veganise this whole dish by using vegan cheese. You can find my recipe here.

Pasta

Pasta is a true staple of cheap eats and student cuisine. I have made a lot of pasta myself recently as my homemade vegan pasta dough is very cheap and making pasta from scratch keeps you occupied for a while so that you have less time for snacking in between. Of course I also cooked many dishes with ready made pasta, it’s not just affordable, but also very convenient on busy weekdays.

Rice & couscous

Rice and couscous dishes also tend to be on the cheaper side and they can be a nice change from all that pasta. All you need to add is some veggies and maybe tofu and you’re good to go.

Soups

A good hearty soup is so lovely every now and again and even from the most basic ingredients you can make a nice soup or broth. I made these tomato-based soups and also my own vegetable broth. I added homemade dumplings into one of the soups making it even more filling.

Potatoes

The good old potatoes also make nice economical dishes, which can be very comforting and filling. They are best friends with onions and cheese, so only sky is the limit with what else to add!

Baking

If you bake bread yourself, you can save a bit of money and as a benefit have nice fresh bread at home. I usually just make some breakfast rolls and pizzas, because they are easy, but I would like to be a better bread baker.

Mexican food

I find that there are many good cheap recipe alternatives in the Mexican cooking. Once you have some basic spices and pulses at home, you can make a lot of different things like quesadillas, tacos and Mexican rice.

Indian food

Vegan curries with pulses are excellent Cheap Eats. You can make a huge dish with just some spices, pulses and veggies and don’t have to break the bank.

This was my small contribution towards cheap eating and the dishes were all very nice. I even saved some money and will now treat myself with something nice.

Have further a nice week!

Your VegHog

 

In my kitchen in February

Welcome to have a peek to my kitchen this month! It's hard to believe that the long month of January is over and we are moving fast towards spring! I’ve been working on my Cheap Eats event cooking a lot of frugal recipes and it has indeed been good saving a little bit of money. If you want to know what the event is all about, have a look here. I would love to see your economical vegan and vegetarian recipes.

There was an absolute sadness last weekend when the storm Malik destroyed our both greenhouses on the balcony. We had tried to secure them, but the storm was just too strong and blew them across the balcony against the railings causing irreparable damages to the aluminium structures. I guess we are still lucky that they didn’t come through the windows or flew on a person. Also that was the only damage we had. This only means, we need a new arrangement for this year’s urban gardening, but luckily there is still some time to plan.

Otherwise I will show you some foods and snacks from my kitchen. This one liter wine box truly is for the frugal ones, it costs 29 DKK (about 3,90 €) only and it’s of decent quality. I especially like the name “Tread gently” and the plantbased carton.

 

I got myself a pizza cutter, because the old ones were either lost or blunt or both. It really is much nicer to cut pizza with a proper sharp cutter. This one is Danish design by Normann. And that pizza in the background will first bake to a crispy crust and then I will cut into it!

 

This vegan bearnaise sauce is really tasty and a life-saver when you don’t feel like making a sauce. It’s brilliant with roast potatoes, but I’ve even had it with pasta and it was good.

 

Last weekend I made vegan sausage rolls and they were really good.

 

I brought this fermented broad bean bits with basil from Finland. Again, it’s a great brand name “Bean better”.

 

I also got these mini rye crackers with sour cream and onion flavour in Finland. They are such good and filling snacks.

 

Talking about snacks, these plantbased truffles by Cocohagen are also excellent.

 

Here are dinosaur corn crisps – ultimately cute!

 

And these are fruity gelatine free Finnish sweets.

 

So, this is pretty much how my month is going. As usual I’m sharing this post with Sherry from Sherry’s Pickings and the In My Kitchen event.

 

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

 

Käsespätzle mit Zwiebeln und Weisswein

 

This is a lovely German style dish, one of my favourite comfort foods, small dough dumplings with onion, cheese and wine. The ingredients are very basic. All you need is some time and patience for making the dumplings. You can have Spätzle as a side dish on its own too, but I find that these cheese and onion Spätzle are superior. Have a look at my recipe below.

Käsespätzle mit Zwiebeln und Weisswein

Ingredients

Spätzle dough

2 cups wheat flour

½ cup polenta

2 tbsp potato flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup water

Other ingredients

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

½ cup white wine

150 g grated Emmental cheese

1 tbsp butter

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Method

Make the Spätzle dough first. Mix it until it’s quite bouncy. Add more water or flour, if needed.

Bring water to the boil and press the dough through a Spätzlehobel or potato ricer to the boiling water.

Boil until the dumplings float on the surface and remove the cooked ones with a slotted spoon.

Heat the butter in a frying pan and add the finely chopped onions and garlic. Cook until they are soft and translucent.

Then add the cooked Spätzle to the pan followed by the cheese and wine, season with salt and black pepper and cook until the flavours have blended nicely and the cheese has melted around the Spätzle.

I served this cheese Spätzle with Emmental crisps, sunblushed tomatoes, homemade croutons and salad.

 

I’m sharing this dish with my Cheap Eats challenge. Check it out, you’ll still have plenty of time to take part.

Your VegHog

 

Tofu roast

 

I have made a tofu roast now for a couple of past Christmases/NYEs and it has been quite the hit and a great centerpiece at those dinners, so I decided to share this recipe with you. It is not my own recipe, I have adapted it from a Finnish one in Kotiliesi magazine, but I will provide a translation here. It could actually also qualify for the cheap eats, as it's quite a big roast made just with a few ingredients. I still have some leftovers in the freezer from the last batch and they will be good when I'm less inspired to cook.

Ingredients

600 g smoked tofu

2 onions

2-3 garlic cloves

4 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp vegetable stock powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 tbsp tomato purée

½ dl soy sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 dl almond flour

5 tbsp potato flour

For the topping

4 tbsp mustard

½ dl almond flour or breadcrumbs

Method

Chop the onions and garlic finely and cook them in oil until soft.

Blend the tofu to a smooth paste and add the onion and garlic to it.

Add the vegetable stock powder, smoked paprika, two tablespoons of oil, tomato purée, soy sauce and sugar. Then add the almond flour and potato flour and mix. Add more potato flour, if the mix feels too soft.

Shape the dough to a ball and wrap it in foil. Let it rest for 30-60 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 200 C and cook the tofu roast for about 45–50 minutes.

Let it cool completely. It is best to leave it in the fridge overnight.

Brush the surface with mustard and sprinkle almond flour or breadcrumbs on top.

Enjoy the roast as part of any roast dinner or make sandwiches with it. It is very good either way.

 

Your VegHog

The VegHog’s Cheap Eats Cooking Challenge 2022

 

Isn’t money always a bit tight in the beginning of a new year? There are a lot of bills to pay and I at least usually spend a bit too much on Christmas and New Year, which means that I’ll have to be more economical in January. That is why I also want to eat a bit more basic foods and not overspend on fancy ingredients. On that note I’ve decided to have a vegan and vegetarian cheap eats cooking challenge for sharing economical recipes and I would like you to join me in this cheapskatedness.

I have held a couple of Cheap Eats weeks in the past, in 2016 and 2017. This time I just wanted to extend the timeframe slightly over one week so that any willing participants would have more time to contribute.

If you want to take part in this event, please follow these simple rules:

• Publish your economical vegan or vegetarian recipe on your blog or social media latest on 15^th February 2022.

• Share the public link to the post with the recipe with me in the comments field below this post.

• Use the hashtag #theveghogscheapeats when posting the recipe (voluntary).

• You are also welcome to use my Cheap Eats banner on top of this page in your posts.

I will write a round up with all contributions after mid February. Have fun cooking and saving some money!

Your VegHog

 

Dinosaur ravioli

 

If you have dinosaur loving kids or are a dinosaur loving adult, this recipe might just be the right one for you. I made vegetarian t-rex spinach ravioli with a sunblushed tomato, garlic, basil, pine nut and mozzarella filling and wanted to share the recipe with you. The dinosaurs were quite thin so the sealing was a bit challenging, but I didn’t split any of them when cooking. You can of course make any shape of ravioli that you fancy with this recipe. The recipe actually yields quite a lot of pasta dough so you might want to make other shapes also that are quicker to make.

And note that my pasta dough is eggless, hence vegan, but I used Mozzarella in the filling. If you want to keep it vegan, you can find some alternatives to that. Have fun pasta making!

Pasta dough

100 g fresh spinach

1 ½ cups 00 pasta flour

1 cup semolina

1 tsp salt

½ cup water (add more if needed)

1 tsp oil

Filling

2 garlic cloves

70 g sunblushed tomatoes

2 tbsp pine nuts

50 g grated mozzarella

A few fresh basil leaves

Pinch of salt and ground black pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

Method

Wilt the spinach in the ½ cup water for the dough and purée it smooth. Mix it and the other ingredients for the pasta dough and knead to a firm ball. Wrap the dough in a cling film or beeswax wrap and let rest in the fridge for at least one hour.

Fry the garlic in olive oil and toast the pine nuts in a pan. Purée them with the other filling ingredients into a smooth paste.

Roll the dough out and work it through a pasta machine into thin sheets. Cut out dinosaur shapes with a cookie cutter and fill them with the filling. Seal carefully by brushing the edges with water and pressing them together.

Boil the ravioli in hot water for a few minutes and serve. I added just a little bit of brown butter on the ravioli for serving.

 

Your VegHog