Veggie barbeque

I rarely do a barbeque, but a veggie barbeque can be a fine thing. When I'm here in Finland during the summer, a few barbeques are a must. This time I just char-grilled some vegetables, halloumi and rye bread, and that made a very filling meal. I have been eating quite a lot in general on this holiday, so a small diet could be in the cards when I get back to the UK, a healthy diet with affordable pulses etc. Okay, but back to the BBQ theme now.

Here are the components of my meal this time:

- new potatoes (pre-boiled), I could just barbeque new potatoes alone, they get divine after a bit of char-grilling

- bell peppers

- aubergine, rub the aubergine slices with barbeque seasoning and oil

- new season onions

- tomatoes, I put the tomatoes into additional foil bags, as they get very soggy

- halloumi

- rye bread, a must in a Finnish barbeque and so tasty slightly grilled and eaten with some butter

As a veggie barbeque drink I could recommend the Finnish Olvi Hiili 4,5 %, a very dark beer that actually tastes a bit like coal.

What kind of veggie barbeques have you been having?

Your VegHog

 

 

Vegetable slice bake

Today's dish is a very experimental vegetable bake. Originally I had the idea of layering vegetables in a way like almost making a lasagne without the pasta sheets. However when it came to the layering stage, I just put the slices standing up on their sides instead. It kind of worked, but maybe next time I will try that pastaless lasagne version as well. This bake is full of veggies and only low on cheese, and I think it's very suitable as a weekday meal. I added a pesto type rocket sauce on the top to add more flavour to the bake.

Ingredients

2 aubergines

Olive oil for roasting

3 courgettes

8 tomatoes

25 g mature cheddar

Rocket sauce:

50 g fresh rocket

4 garlic cloves

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/3 tsp ground black pepper

Method

Try to select vegetables that have approximately the same diameter as then the bake looks more even in your oven dish. I didn't quite plan to make this dish long enough, so my vegetables were a bit variable in size. Cut the aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes into thin slices.

Soak the aubergine slices in salted water for 30 minutes to remove the bitterness. Then drain and roast them brushed with olive oil. They don't have to be fully roasted, as they will return to the oven, but just a bit softened and soaked in olive oil. I decided to pre-roast them in order to avoid them being chewy.

Let the aubergine slices cool a little, so that you are able to handle them. Then layer the aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes next to each other into an oven dish.

Make the rocket sauce by puréeing the ingredients together into an even paste. Pour the sauce on top of the vegetables and also sprinkle the grated cheese on the top.

Bake at 180C for about 40-50 minutes until all vegetables are nicely cooked. Done!

Your VegHog

Fried pizza with aubergines and mozzarella

Fried pizza is all the craze now, and I decided to make a few of those as well. But here comes a serious WARNING! Be very careful at all times when handling those hot pans! They have been to a very hot oven, and that should not be forgotten. The VegHog wasn't careful enough and scorched its hand severely enough to have to visit a doctor! I'm fine again, and this injury hasn't scared me away from making more fried pizzas as they were absolutely delicious. The frying adds a certain smokiness to the base and makes it crispier than you would achieve in a normal oven.

If you got curious about fried pizza, I would recommend you to read also this Guardian article. There are many good tips for making a good fried pizza. 

So here's how I made my first fried pizza ever.

Spelt pizza crust:

It of course depends on the size of your pan, how many pizzas you'll get out of this amount of dough, but it should be at least a few small ones. And this time I made my crust a bit thicker than usual.

2 tbsp dry yeast

400 g spelt flour

2 tsp salt

350 ml lukewarm water

3 tbsp olive oil

First make the crust. I made a spelt crust, because I recently bought spelt flour in bulk. You could also make a half spelt, half wheat crust, which is what I normally make.

Toppings:

4 tomatoes (mine were tomato tigerellas from my own garden)

1 red onion

1 garlic clove

½ tsp ground black pepper

½ tsp salt

Fresh basil leaves

200 g buffalo mozzarella

4 mini aubergines

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp oregano

What to do:

Make a quick basic tomato sauce by chopping the onion, garlic and tomatoes finely and cooking them in olive oil until the flavours blend nicely. Season the sauce with salt and pepper. You can also make a pizza without a tomato sauce and just put some tomato slices on the base. That is just as good, only a bit different.

Roast the mini aubergine slices brushed with olive oil and oregano at 220C for about 10 minutes until tender and golden brown.

Heat a non-stick frying pan with a metal handle (it has to be able to take the heat of the oven) very hot and also heat the grill setting of the oven as hot as possible. Then place the stretched pizza dough and the toppings into the pan. I put my toppings onto the base in this order: tomato sauce, some mozzarella (more will be put on after the baking), basil leaves and roasted aubergines.

Leave the pizza in the pan until the crust gets slightly brown below and then pop the whole thing into the oven under the grill for a further couple of minutes. My grill doesn't get that hot, so I had to leave the pizza for about five minutes to get nice colour. The first frying bit is also only a few minutes, so it's a very quick way to make a tasty pizza.

When the pizza comes out of the oven, tear some buffalo mozzarella on the top and serve, but still be careful with that pan! I also made a different one with extra heirloom tomato slices on the top.

Have you tried this sort of pizza before, and what do you think of the idea?

Your VegHog

Harissa and honey roasted aubergines with tomato salsa, halloumi and spicy couscous

I wanted to make something different with my special aubergines from France, and this is the spicy dish I came up with. There are several components in this dish that go well together, and I also used my exquisite olive oil from France for the aubergines and the tomato salsa. I cooked this dish before I left to Finland, so sorry for the small delay in posting it.

Here are the ingredients and instructions to each part of this meal.

Tomato salsa:

4 tomatoes

1 small garlic

2 tbsp lemon juice

Black pepper to taste

Salt to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

It was lovely to have something raw and fresh with this dish, and I thought that this tomato salsa suited it perfectly. I combined some French heirloom tomatoes with a few from my own balcony.

Cube the tomatoes and chop the garlic finely. Season them with lemon juice, black pepper, salt and olive oil. Refrigerate for around half an hour to let the flavours blend together.

Roasted aubergines:

2 aubergines

2 tsp harissa

2 tbsp honey

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp water

Make the marinade by combining harissa, honey, olive oil and water. Slice the aubergines lengthwise and roast them at 180C for about 40 minutes. Then brush them with the marinade and roast for further 10-15 minutes until the honey starts to caramelise. Turn the aubergine slices during the roasting to achieve an even coating.

Couscous:

1 cup couscous

1 cup water

1 garlic stock cube

1 red onion

1 small bell pepper

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

Chilli flakes to taste

1 tsp olive oil

Chop the bell pepper, red onion and garlic finely. Cook them in olive oil in a pan until soft. Season them with ground cumin, ground coriander and chilli flakes.

Bring garlic stock (water + garlic stock cube) to boil and remove it from the heat. Add the couscous and the contents of the pan to it and let rest under a lid for about 10 minutes.

Halloumi:

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil for frying

Just fry long thin strips of halloumi in vegetable oil until golden brown.

Serve all components together and have some lovely red wine with it. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Roasted mini aubergines with a snack board

Do you really need anything else for lunch than a snack board full of beautiful products? The answer is no. I don't know how you feel about this, but I do prefer a cold lunch to a warm meal in the middle of the day. If I'm supposed to work and pay attention after lunch, then a cold light lunch is the best option for me.

Yesterday I assembled these things together as a snack board for two persons, and it had a little bit of a Mediterranean feel. On that board there was nothing else to be cooked than the roasted mini aubergines, and they are easy.

Cut the mini aubergines in half. Pour three tablespoons of olive oil into a roasting tin and one teaspoon of oregano on the top. Put the aubergines there and mix first cut side down and then turn them cut side up for the roasting. Roast them at 220C for about 10 minutes until tender and golden brown. The aubergines can be eaten either warm or cold.

Serve them on a board of snacks, and you can have whatever you like there. These are the items I had on my board with the roasted mini aubergines:

• green olives
• emmental cheese
• roasted pepper antipasti
• aubergine caviar
• green heirloom tomatoes
• olive bread
• baguette

Do you ever make this kind of lunches, and if so, what are your favourite food items to use then?

Your VegHog

Aubergine and pepper gnocchi

It's a busy week for The VegHog, and I feel too tired to cook complicated dishes just before the Easter holidays, so today I combined potato pasta, gnocchi, with roasted aubergine and peppers. This turned out to be a very easy and tasty weekday meal.

Ingredients

1 aubergine

300g sweet baby peppers

200g small tomatoes

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

1tbsp olive oil

1 frozen pesto cube (optional)

1tsp salt

½tsp black pepper

½tsp chilli flakes

Little bit of grated nutmeg

A dash of dry white wine

125g mozzarella

500g gnocchi di patate

Method

Roast the aubergine and peppers in the oven at 180C for about 30 minutes. I cut mine already in pieces before roasting, but they could be roasted as whole first and then cut.

Chop the shallots, garlic and tomatoes and cook them in olive oil until soft. Season with the pesto cube (or fresh pesto), salt, black pepper, chilli flakes and nutmeg, and add a dash of white wine. Add the roasted vegetables to this mix when they are done.

Boil the gnocchi in water and serve with the vegetable mix and torn mozzarella on the top.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Black bean hummus and aubergine canapés

Happy Sunday! It's actually quite warm here today, and I have spent some time on the balcony. When I felt peckish I made this quick afternoon snack with just a few ingredients. The black bean hummus can be combined with pretty much anything you can imagine. For tomorrow's work lunch I'm putting it into pitta breads with some vegetables.

Black bean hummus:

1 can black beans

4 tbsp tahini

1 garlic clove

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika powder

½ lime's juice

1 tbsp olive oil

Just blend all the ingredients together into a smooth paste and the hummus is done.

 

Aubergine canapés:

1 aubergine

Vegetable oil for grilling

Olive oil for roasting

1 halloumi

Slice the aubergine lengthwise into this slices. Char-grill the slices on both sides, then brush them with olive oil and bake at 150C for about 10-15 minutes. Also char-grill the halloumi pieces and let them cool. Wrap the halloumi with the aubergine slices and serve with the black bean hummus. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Roasted aubergine with pomegranate and buttermilk sauce

This recipe is from Yotam Ottolenghi's vegetarian cookbook Plenty (p. 110-111), of which I'm a great fan. The original recipe Aubergine with buttermilk sauce can also be found here. The taste of this dish is out of this world, and when I first made it I thought, I'd never eat anything else ever again. In the meanwhile my views might be less extreme, but still, this is one beautiful dish and I can't wait to make it again!

I didn't change much from the original, but here's my version anyway.

Ingredients

2 large aubergines

80ml olive oil

2tsp lemon thyme leaves

1 pomegranate

Sea salt

Black pepper

Ingredients for the sauce

140ml buttermilk

100g Greek yoghurt

1tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove

Salt

Method

It's easy to start with the sauce as you only need to chop the garlic and then just stir all the ingredients together. The sauce can be placed to the fridge while you are preparing the aubergines.

Cut the aubergines in half and make diamond shape cuts to the inside of them, be careful not to pierce the skin. Place them in a baking dish and brush with the olive oil until all of the oil has absorbed into the aubergines. Sprinkle some lemon thyme, salt and pepper on the top and roast at 200C for about 35-40 minutes. Let them cool after the roasting.

Spread the sauce on the aubergines and sprinkle the pomegranate seeds on for serving. You can also sprinkle some additional olive oil and lemon thyme on the top. Then enjoy this beautiful dish!

Your VegHog

Garlic & herb rye nachos with char-grilled vegetables

I love nachos served with mixed grilled vegetables, cheese and refried beans. This time I again used Finnish rye nachos, which are very tasty and savoury. I can't think of anything better at the moment than relaxing at home eating nachos. Let the relaxing weekend commence!

Ingredients

(You can use any vegetables of your choice, and also other sauces. Get creative!)

130g garlic & herb nachos

½ zucchini

½ aubergine

1 romano pepper

1 shallot

1 halloumi

Vegetable oil for grilling

Refried beans (If you also want to add refried beans to your nachos, have a look at my previous recipe for them.) 

Hot cheese dip (Cornish Cruncher cheese bake with cider)

Spicy chilli sauce

Slice the vegetables and the halloumi. Heat some vegetable oil in a griddle pan and char-grill the vegetables and the halloumi on it until they have dark grilling marks. Then fry the shallot rings in a separate pan until soft.

Place the nachos on an oven proof dish, put the refried beans, vegetables and halloumi on the top and heat through in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Serve warm with the chilli sauce and cheese dip.

Have a nice nacho night!

Your VegHog