Mac'n'cheese lasagne

It was my 6th blog anniversary yesterday, but I was too busy with work and couldn’t post anything then. I wasn’t able to celebrate it either, but when I think about it, I’m very proud that I’ve kept blogging for such a long time, and hopefully will continue for many years to come. And all that is thanks to you my lovely readers, so thank you so much for reading my posts, commenting and sharing your vegetarian cooking ideas. I couldn’t do it without you!

My first food post on this blog was a halloumi lasagne with grilled peppers and The VegHog’s special tomato sauce. I laughed out loud a bit when reading that first post today, but it was quite amusing. I still sometimes make my lasagne that way, but now I don’t normally make the sauce from scratch by skinning tomatoes etc.

Suitably to the theme, today’s post shall be a lasagne of a different kind. It’s a mac’n’cheese lasagne, and it contains exactly what the name promises, a vegetarian lasagne filled with mac’n’cheese layers. I won’t share any specific recipe for this, because you can basically just layer a lasagne with your favourite mac’n’cheese and then just bake it. I still also used normal lasagne sheets in this one and layered them with a homemade mac'n'cheese, which had been made with a thinner macaroni than my usual ones, garlicky tomato sauce and lots of cheese on the top.

I didn’t add anything else to the lasagne this time, but a range of veggies would also go well here. I just wanted the ultimate comfort and got it. It was a real guilty pleasure, and I don’t expect to make it that often, as it may not be the healthiest dish of them all. What do you think, have I crossed a line?

I hope you all have a really nice week!

Your VegHog

Spaghetti squash and halloumi lasagne

It's slowly starting to be autumnal and squashes and pumpkins are making a heavier appearance. I simply love it! Now it's time to make comfort food and spend quiet evenings at home. Today I want to go out to town though, as I have some shopping to do, and then also want to visit a brew house. It seems to be sunny for now, only a bit windy and it might rain later.

I made a lasagne again after a long while, and thought it would be nice with some spaghetti squash and halloumi. It was indeed tasty and hit the spot perfectly. I just made a basic tomato sauce, where I mixed the roasted squash, and then layered it with the halloumi and lasagne sheets.

Here is my recipe, if you would like to know how I made the dish.

Spaghetti squash and halloumi lasagne

Ingredients

1 spaghetti squash

Olive oil

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

400 ml tinned tomatoes

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

1 vegetable stock cube

Fresh basil leaves

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil

150 g grated cheese

Lasagne sheets

Method

Cut the spaghetti squash in half, brush it with olive oil and roast in the oven until the flesh is tender. You can save the seeds and toast them.

Chop the onion and garlic finely and fry them in a saucepan until soft. Add the tinned tomatoes and seasoning and simmer to a tomato sauce.

Slice the halloumi and fry the slices in vegetable oil until golden brown.

Scoop the spaghetti squash and add it to the tomato sauce. Layer the sauce with lasagne sheets and halloumi and cover the bake with cheese.

Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes until done.

Enjoy with a crunchy salad or crispy bread on the side!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Onion squash lasagne

Today we will be flying to Finland, so here is a quick post before we'll have to leave to the airport. I'm excited to see, if there are more autumn colours in Finland already. Here the colouring has started, but it could be more. I think that the weather has still been fairly mild over there, and it's main crops harvesting season in my village, so it should be cosy.

Today's dish is another comfort food recipe. Onion squashes are now everywhere, and I would like to buy one every time I go shopping. Unfortunately I can't do that, as they are quite substantial and I wouldn't be able to cook them all. However I managed to squeeze one full onion squash into this lasagne. I roasted the squash first and then puréed it, which was quite a nice way of doing it. It nicely added its sweetness to the lasagne. I also added some grill cheese, which is a squeaky cheese similar to halloumi, and then poured a garlicky tomato sauce over the whole thing. This was so comforting and seasonal, really lovely basic grub.

Onion squash lasagne

Ingredients

1 onion squash

3 tbsp olive oil

1 can plum tomatoes

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Handful of fresh basil leaves

200 g grill cheese or halloumi

100 g grated mozzarella

Lasagne sheets

Method

Peel and cut the squash into small wedges. Brush them with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and roast until done. Then purée the squash.

In the meanwhile start reducing the sauce. Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. Add the plum tomatoes and seasoning, and let simmer for about 30 minutes.

Cut the grill cheese into slices and fry them in a pan until they have some frying marks.

Assemble the lasagne by layering the tomato sauce, squash mash, grill cheese, mozzarella and lasagne sheets.

Bake at 180 C for about 40 minutes. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Polenta lasagne with roasted vegetables and halloumi + Cooking video

After a long while I made a little cooking video. I only filmed it on my phone and just a couple of times asked my partner to assist with the filming. Otherwise I held the phone in one hand and did whatever cooking steps with the other. It means the quality isn't the greatest by any means, but it's just a bit of fun. I hope you enjoy watching, and you may not have to read the method below, if you follow the video. Sometimes it's also much easier to show the steps rather than writing them down in a nice and concise way.

The dish itself is a lasagne with roasted vegetables and halloumi, where traditional lasagne sheets have been replaced by polenta sheets. I had planned this dish in my head for a long time, and finally I managed to execute it. It was a nice task for a Sunday afternoon with the different steps and very rewarding in the end. It was a really tasty dish, and I would make it again, if only I have the necessary time. Any vegetables really that you fancy can be used here, halloumi and extra mozzarella are optional and you can season your polenta in different ways.

Have a look at the video and the detailed recipe can be found below. The video is also on Youtube.

Polenta lasagne with roasted vegetables and halloumi

Ingredients for about 4 medium ramekins

Polenta lasagne sheets

650 ml vegetable stock

1 tsp sea salt

125 g polenta

50 g vegetarian pasta cheese (veggie parmesan)

Fresh oregano

Fresh basil

Dried marjoram

Filling

3 large romano peppers

400 g vine cherry tomatoes

2 shallots

4 garlic cloves

Olive oil for roasting

Fresh oregano

Fresh basil

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil for frying

100 g grated mozzarella

Method

Make the polenta lasagne sheets first, as they need some resting time in the fridge. Cook the polenta and add the cheese and seasoning. Roll out into fairly thin sheets once cooled down, which is easy to do between two baking parchments. Let rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Chop the peppers into generous chunks and start roasting them in the oven. Add the cherry tomatoes, sliced garlic and shallot rings later and roast them also. Season the vegetables.

Slice the halloumi and fry it in vegetable oil on a hot pan until golden brown.

Cut the polenta sheets into suitable sized pieces for your oven dish. I even made a couple of stencils from baking paper for mine, which made it a lot easier.

Layer the polenta sheets, roasted vegetables and fried halloumi into an oven dish or smaller ramekins, cover with grated mozzarella and bake at 200 for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Vegetarian soya mince and halloumi lasagne

I haven't made a vegetarian lasagne for quite a while. There hasn't been a particular reason why not, but perhaps I've found it a little bit a boring choice lately. However after I had made this one that contained fried halloumi and soya mince ragout, I was excited about lasagne again. Actually it is a very good dish and there were plenty of left overs for a few lunches. If you have many hungry mouths to feed, such a lasagne is always a good idea. So below is my recipe from this time.

Ingredients

1 large onion

4 garlic cloves

1 carrot

200 g baby button cup mushrooms

400 g plum tomatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup soya mince

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Handful of fresh oregano

4-6 tbsp tomato purée

Smoked paprika to taste

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil for frying

300 g fresh lasagne sheets

200 g grated mozzarella

Method

Chop the onion and garlic finely. Also slice the carrot and the mushrooms.

Cook the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add the carrot pieces and after a while the mushroom slices. Cook a little further before adding the chopped tomatoes. Let simmer under the lid.

Cook the soya mince separately in water, drain and add it to the rest of the sauce. Season the sauce and let simmer until all the flavours have blended nicely.

In the meanwhile slice the halloumi and fry the slices in vegetable oil until they are golden brown on both sides.

Layer the sauce, halloumi and lasagne sheets in the normal lasagne way into an oven dish and cover with grated mozzarella.

Bake at 180 C for about 40 minutes until the pasta sheets are soft and the cheese topping is golden brown.

Serve with a fresh side salad and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Mushroom and spinach lasagne with roasted tomato sauce and fried halloumi

I haven't made a good veggie lasagne for a while, but now I made one. Let's face it, it has to be made at least once in a winter no matter how much a cliché it is. Especially a spinach lasagne I haven't made in ages, so I thought it would be a nice change. Halloumi has become one of my standard lasagne fillings as it adds additional cheesy goodness to the dish. This time I made a roasted tomato sauce for the lasagne. Have a look at my recipe below.

Mushroom and spinach lasagne with roasted tomato sauce and fried halloumi

Ingredients

600 g tomatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

200 g spinach

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

250 g halloumi

1 tbsp vegetable oil

150 g chestnut mushrooms

1 tbsp tomato purée

Salt, black pepper, nutmeg and oregano to taste

300 g lasagne sheets

200 g mature Cheddar

Method

Roast the tomatoes in the oven brushed with olive oil until they are bursting open.

Wilt the spinach in a medium hot pan with little added water.

Chop the shallots and garlic finely and slice the halloumi and the chestnut mushrooms.

Fry the halloumi slices in the vegetable oil until golden brown.

Cook the shallots and garlic in olive oil until soft and add the roasted tomatoes to the pan.

Season the sauce with tomato purée, salt, black pepper, nutmeg and oregano.

Layer the components in to an oven dish with the lasagne sheets and top with the grated Cheddar.

Bake at 180 C for about 45 minutes or until fully done.

I served the lasagne with a side salad, cottage cheese and garlic knots (recipe here).

How do you like your veggie lasagne? And am I the only one who enjoys cottage cheese as a neutral balancing agent with a lasagne?

Have a great week!

Your VegHog

Mushroom and halloumi lasagne

I'm still in Finland for a couple of days. It's not very warm and it's quite windy, so I felt like a vegetarian lasagne would be a suitable dinner in this weather. Don't let my sunny pictures fool you, it hasn't been like that the whole time in the past week. In any case I've had a great time here with my family.

Here's my mushroom and halloumi lasagne recipe.

Ingredients

400 g closed cup mushrooms

2 large onion

1 cloveless garlic

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

800 g tomato puree

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp basil

1 halloumi

100 g emmental

Spinach lasagne sheets

Method

Chop the onions and garlic finely. Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onions and garlic until soft. Add the tomato puree and seasoning and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

In the meanwhile slice the mushrooms and halloumi. If you pre-grill the halloumi, you'll get a lovely added smokiness to the lasagne. In the summer halloumi tastes so great straight from a coal barbeque.

Layer the sauce, mushrooms, halloumi and lasagne sheets into a large oven dish in the typical lasagne fashion. Top the dish with some emmental cheese and bake at 180C for about 50 minutes or until fully cooked.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

 

Forest mushroom lasagne

I wanted to make a different sort of vegetarian lasagne than usually and started planning for this dish. I normally make tomato sauce based lasagnes, but this one has garlic and mushroom infused cream as the sauce. I used vegan oat cream, which is quite light. However tomatoes are not fully missing in this recipe, but they play a much smaller role.

The main mushroom taste here comes from funnel chanterelles that are very intense in their taste. These are part of the batch that The VegHog's father has picked in Finland and dried.

This recipe makes either one large dish lasagne or four small ones. Sometimes I quite like making small individual dishes.

Lasagne sheets

200g double Gloucester cheese grated

250g green beans

250g white cup mushrooms

25g dried funnel chanterelle mushrooms

2 shallots

3 garlic cloves

1tsp vegetable stock powder

100g small tomatoes

500ml oat cream (a vegan cream substitute made of oats)

Nettle salt (normal or herb salt will also do)

Ground black pepper

Fresh sage leaves

Olive oil

First of all prepare the sauce. Soak the dried funnel chanterelles in water with vegetable stock powder for about 30 minutes. Drain the mushrooms, but also save the water.

Peel the tomatoes by making small cuts on them and dipping them into boiling water for a few seconds. Then it should be easy to remove the skins. Crush the skinned tomatoes.

Chop the shallots and lightly fry them in olive oil. Then add the chopped garlic and the funnel chanterelles and fry them also for a couple of minutes. Add the oat cream and let lightly simmer for about 30 minutes to infuse the cream. Add some of the mushroom soaking water for more intense mushroom taste. Later add the crushed tomatoes into the sauce and season it with salt, pepper and sage.

While the sauce is simmering cut the green beans into short pieces of couple of centimeters each and steam them for a few minutes until they are almost soft.

Chop the white cup mushrooms into slices and grate the cheese. Layer the mushrooms, green beans, cheese, lasagne sheets and the mushroom sauce into an oven dish on several layers. Cover the lasagne with grated cheese and bake it at 180C for about 45 minutes.

Serve the lasagne with a side salad and garlic and basil oil ciabatta. Make the ciabatta when your lasagne is almost baked. Cut a ciabatta bread into slices and spread a pureed garlic, basil and olive oil mix on them. Then bake until crispy.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Butternut squash and pepper lasagne

This is a fine lasagne made out of homemade lasagne sheets and char-grilled vegetables. The freshness of it all can be tasted and it's oh so colourful. Butternut squash brings a certain sweetness to the table that works well with the contrast of the smokiness.

Here are the ingredients you'll need.

For the lasagne sheets:

400g grade 00 pasta flour

4 eggs

A sprinkle of salt

For the sauce:

400g piccolini cherry tomatoes

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Fresh basil leaves

For the filling:

1 butternut squash

1 orange romano pepper

Grated mozzarella

Make the pasta dough first. It can rest in the fridge while you are making the other preparations. Mix the pasta flour and salt with the eggs and knead thoroughly. Add more flour if needed. Wrap the dough in a cling film and leave in the fridge for about one hour.

Then you can start preparing the sauce. Simply wash the tomatoes and heat olive oil in a pan. Fry the tomatoes under the lid until they start breaking apart. Then add the chopped onion and garlic and simmer for about 20 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and fresh basil leaves. You can puree the sauce if you would like.

Cut the butternut squash into thin slices and just cut the pepper in half. The pepper can be chopped into smaller pieces after the grilling. Char-grill the butternut squash and romano pepper in a griddle pan until they have distinct grilling marks.

Process the pasta dough through a pasta machine by making thin sheets. Cut them into smaller lasagne sheets with a pasta cutter. I left mine in more rustic shapes because it's more fun and they fit well into my oval shaped oven dish.

Then you can start layering the lasagne into an oven dish. First put a little bit sauce and mozzarella on the bottom, then some vegetables and then lasagne sheets. You can also add extra basil leaves. Repeat this until you reach the top of your dish. Put more mozzarella on the top.

Bake at 180C for about 45 minutes until cooked with golden brown cheese on the top. Serve with watercress and a fresh white wine, for example Riesling. I also added some of my radish leaf pesto to the side.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Halloumi Lasagne with grilled peppers and The VegHog's special tomato sauce

I'm going to kick off this blog with my all-time favourite which is easy to cook: vegetarian lasagne. I want to make something more exciting than those unimaginative or dry veggie lasagnes that often get served in pubs and restaurants and I tend to slightly alter my recipe each time I make it. At the moment halloumi is my favourite addition to many dishes, so I've decided to use it also here.

Here are the main ingredients I used. Light halloumi is very good for this as there will be a lot of cheese in there. 

Lasagne verdi sheets bring some variety.

My tomato sauce that I use as my lasagne sauce, as an addition to bakes or just as a pasta sauce is really very simple to make. Nevertheless it shall be referred to as The VegHog's special tomato sauce now and in the future. Make it spicy with some chili if you fancy.

I start by finely chopping some onions and garlic and then preparing the tomatoes. The amounts depend on how much sauce you want to make, for a pasta sauce I would take about 4 medium sized tomatoes, one onion and couple of gloves of garlic. The VegHog understands if you want to use canned tomatoes but please consider using fresh ones as they make your lasagne taste very fresh and light.

How to prepare the tomatoes before peeling and the sauce at a later stage.

This is my method for preparing tomatoes for the sauce: Make a X-cut on the top of each tomato and then drop them into boiling water. Very quickly the skin starts peeling off and that's when you can remove the tomatoes from the water. The cut makes peeling the skin off much easier. Scare the tomatoes in some cold water and then just remove the skin.

Glaze the onions and garlic in some olive oil, then add the tomatoes that you can crush into a saucy texture while heating the sauce further. Add salt, pepper and basil. I prefer fresh herbs as they make the taste virtually explode in your mouth. At the very end you might want to use a hand blender to make the sauce smooth.

You can let the sauce simmer and start preparing the veg. For a vegetable lasagne you can use any vegetable you can think of, also tofu and different soya products work very well with it. This time I have decided to stick with grilled peppers. First I cut the peppers into quarters and after glazing them with some olive oil I chuck them under the grill. They can be left there until a little soft and brown in places. Chop them into smaller pieces when they come out. Grilling gives peppers a really nice and intense taste. While peppers are in the oven you can slice the halloumi into thin slices and fry in olive oil until crispy and brown.

Once you have cut and prepared everything you want to put into your lasagne, pre-heat the oven to about 180C and you can throw all your ingredients into an oven dish. Stack the lasagne as usual, you know the principle! I start with putting some sauce into the bottom, then lasagne sheets, peppers, halloumi and sauce on the top and so on. This time I put some grated Double Gloucester cheese on the top of the whole lasagne but I like to vary the cheeses I use for baking. You can take whichever cheese is your favourite at the moment.

Place the lasagne in the oven and bake until the pasta is tender and cheese topping is golden brown. Don't be afraid to change the temperature if you need to.

And here we have the final product from the oven. Feel free serving it for example with some salad and nice wine.

So there we have the humble start to my blog. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog