Tomato and chickpea soup with harissa

I'm not officially participating in Veganuary, as I basically missed the beginning and also have the lame excuse that I opened my favourite Finnish cheese in late December and now have to eat my way through the one kilogram bauble not to let it ruin. Anyhow I've been eating predominantly vegan otherwise and want to do so more now.

This tomato and chickpea soup with harissa that I made yesterday evening is an easy recipe for weekdays. It's a very warming vegan soup with a hint of spice. I wanted to add that oak smoked Anglesey sea salt to it, which indeed added quite a nice smokiness to the dish.

Here is my recipe.

Ingredients

400 g / 1 can chickpeas

300 g plum tomatoes

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

400 ml vegetable stock

4 tbsp tomato purée

2- 3 tsp harissa

Few fresh parsley leaves

Smoked paprika to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Pinch of oak smoked sea salt

Method

Soak the dried chickpeas overnight, or just use some from a can.

Chop the tomatoes coarsely and onion and garlic finely.

Cook the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft and then add the tomatoes.

After a while add the vegetable stock and simmer the soup.

Purée the soup, if you prefer. I puréed it a little bit by still leaving some tomato and onion pieces.

I wanted to leave the chickpeas whole, so they were added after the puréeing.

Season the soup and let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Chickpea couscous

Now it's really getting autumnal here: heavy rain, severe weather warnings, wind! Quite a few thunderstorms have also been here, which I like, but I don't associate them with autumn. For a Finn they are a summer thing. Finally I can fully enjoy walks in the park, wearing warm pullovers, drinking tea and cooking autumn dishes.

Today's dish is more a side dish, but you can eat it as a stand-alone dish as well. In that case you might want to consider adding more vegetables and spices to it. It's not really that autumnal, but there's more coming up. I combined chickpeas with harissa and couscous in a very simple dish.

Ingredients

1 cup dried chickpeas

½ cup couscous

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

250 g tomatoes

1 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp harissa

Salt

Ground black pepper

Pomegranate seeds

Method

Soak the chickpeas overnight in water. Then boil them heavily for a few minutes and then let boil more moderately for about one hour until they are cooked soft.

Chop the shallots and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. Chop the tomatoes and add them and the chickpeas to the pan.

Prepare the couscous by boiling ½ cup of water and then removing it from the heat. Add the couscous and leave under lid for 10 minutes. Then add the cooked couscous to the tomatoes and chickpeas and season with harissa, salt and pepper.

Decorate with pomegranate seeds for serving.

And that's it!

Your VegHog

Harissa and spelt stew

September is here! I'm quite excited about all the lovely autumn dishes that I can cook now and I hope you are too! I had a small break from posting in the end of last month, but now I'm very motivated to post, cook and eat a lot.

Today I'll start with a savoury and spicy dish just to kick things off for the month. I cooked an autumnal dish with the feel that I really appreciate in this season. I used harissa, which is such a handy thing to have around and it goes oh so well with halloumi. Have a read what a simple dish this is, only a bit of slow-roasting needed.

Ingredients

4 red bell peppers

4 large shallots

2 tbsp olive oil

250 g cherry vine tomatoes

250 g halloumi

1 tsp vegetable oil

4 garlic cloves

1 cup pearled spelt

500 ml vegetable stock

3-4 tsp harissa

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp honey

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp thyme

Method

Chop the peppers and shallots coarsely and brush them with olive oil. Roast at 180C for about 40 minutes and then also add the tomatoes to the dish and roast for further 30 minutes.

Chop the halloumi into cubes and fry the cubes golden brown. Set them to side to wait until later.

Chop the garlic finely and cook it in olive oil. Then add the pearled spelt to the pan, soon followed by the roasted vegetables. Stir and add ground cumin, harissa and half of the vegetable stock to the pan and let simmer under the lid until the spelt is cooked nicely.

Add more vegetable stock when needed. You might not need all of it depending on the moistness of the dish. Season with honey, paprika and thyme and taste, whether more harissa or cumin is needed. Add the halloumi dices and let simmer for further 5 minutes.

Serve warm and enjoy!

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

Harissa marinated mushroom and halloumi burgers

It's Saturday and I'm ready to start the weekend! I don't have any definite plans, but sometimes those weekends are just the best.

Now, these are effortless, yet tasty veggie burgers! There's no patty making as such involved, and I even cheated on the buns today by using ciabatta rolls from the shop. This way it's possible to make quick veggie burgers for your loved ones.

The idea for these came from a new Vegetarian cookbook I got, Veggienomics by Nicola Graimes, and her recipe for “Mushroom burgers” (p. 168-169). However, I didn't quite follow that recipe, so below is my own version. 

Ingredients

4 large portobello mushrooms

4 large ciabatta rolls

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil

Watercress

Tomatoes

New potato wedges on the side (new potatoes, vegetable oil, paprika, salt → bake until done)

Marinade

4 tsp harissa

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp honey

Method

Brush the mushrooms with the marinade and cover them with cling film in an oven dish, place to the fridge and let marinade for 30 minutes.

Bake the mushrooms in the oven at 180C for about 15 minutes.

Fry the sliced halloumi in vegetable oil until golden brown on both sides. Then brush the slices with the marinade and warm up in the oven just before serving (or time the frying so that the halloumi can bake with the marinade for at least 5 minutes).

Assemble the components to burgers and serve with for example new potato wedges like I did.

Have a good weekend!

Your VegHog

Marinated tofu and pomegranate salad

Here is just a quick salad idea, so without much ado: I baked tofu in the oven and marinated it with harissa, served it warm with some nice fresh salad ingredients, and then this creation was ready to be shared. I really like the complimenting flavours of harissa and pomegranate together, and fruit is always a good idea on a salad.

Ingredients:

400g tofu

4 spring onions

100g pea shoots and baby leaf salad

1 pomegranate

Vegetable oil

Marinade:

4tsp harissa (smoky, less hot variety)

2tsp honey

2tsp olive oil

Dice the tofu into medium sized cubes (about 1,5cm sides; they will shrink a bit in the oven) and brush them with little vegetable oil. Roast in the oven at 175C for about one hour until the cubes start to get a crispy surface, turn them roughly every 15 minutes.

Make the marinade by mixing harissa, honey and olive oil together, and brush the tofu cubes all over with it. Roast them for further 20 minutes at 150C.

In the meanwhile prepare the other ingredients: chop the spring onions, wash the salad and remove the pomegranate seeds and place them on a plate.

When the tofu is done, sprinkle it warm on the salad and serve. You can also try substituting the tofu with halloumi to get some variation. Enjoy!

Your VegHog