Spinach and mushroom gnocchi

I really like the combination of earthy mushrooms with potato gnocchi. To this dish I added spinach and white wine to go with the mushrooms and gnocchi and it was so nice. My partner started making this sort of a gnocchi dish a few years ago and in the meanwhile I have also adapted it. There are still little differences when each of us makes this, but it's always tasty. I like this as a refreshing change to the normal kind of pasta and gnocchi combinations and can only recommend it. Have a look at the recipe below. Here I made a large batch for four people.

Ingredients

3 garlic cloves

300 g chestnut mushrooms

2 tbsp olive oil

Handful of toasted pine nuts

100 ml dry white wine

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

100 g aged Havarti

200 g spinach

700 g potato gnocchi

Method

Chop the garlic finely and slice the mushrooms. Start cooking them in olive oil. Cook them for a few minutes and add the pine nuts and white wine.

Season with salt, ground black pepper and vegetable stock powder.

Grate the cheese in the meanwhile and cook the gnocchi.

Add the spinach leaves to the mushrooms, just until they wilt. Then also add the gnocchi to the pan.

Serve the dish with cheese and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Creamy mushroom sauce with fusilli

This sort of creamy mushroom sauce used to be the food of choice in my student days. I used to make it constantly and combine with either pasta or potatoes. Then I sometimes had to use canned mushrooms and no fresh herbs, obviously due to a limited student budget, but it never stopped me loving this sauce. 

My vegetarian diet used to be very one-sided back then, but luckily I started eating more versatile dishes and ingredients afterwards. These days I don't make such a creamy sauce too often and recently if I have made it, then more often with potato mash than pasta and also used oat cream instead of “real” cream. Now I thought it's time to combine this sauce with pasta again and I did enjoy eating it and remembering back to my student days.

Here is the simple recipe.

Ingredients

200 g chestnut mushrooms

1 shallot

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp olive oil

200 ml cream

Fresh basil leaves

Sage to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Mature cheddar grated on the top

Fusilli pasta

Method

Cut the mushrooms into thin slices and chop the shallot and garlic finely.

Start cooking the shallot and garlic in olive oil and then add the mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes before adding the cream. Then let simmer slowly so that the cream gets infused by the mushroom flavour.

Season the sauce with basil, sage, salt and pepper to taste and grate the cheese.

Cook the fusilli pasta al dente and serve with the mushroom sauce and cheese.

Here you go, it's all done. What were/are your student time go-to dishes?

Your VegHog

Vegan Schnitzel with potato mash, roasted baby carrots and creamy mushroom sauce

It is possible to make a really filling vegan meal, for example something like this vegan Schnitzel with potato mash and creamy mushroom sauce. The vegan Schnitzel are shop bought, but everything else is made from scratch. The creaminess to the sauce comes from oat cream, a great vegan ingredient. Have a look how easy it can be to get absolutely stuffed from a vegan meal.

Ingredients

4 vegan Schnitzel

1 kg potatoes

2 tbsp margarine

4 tbsp soya milk

1 tsp salt

10 baby carrots

2 tbsp olive oil

200 g baby chestnut mushrooms

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

250 ml oat cream

Method

Boil the peeled potatoes for the mash for about 30 minutes, mash and add margarine, soya milk and salt.

Brush the baby carrots with olive oil and roast in the oven until nicely browned.

Chop the mushrooms into thin slices and the shallots and garlic finely. Heat olive oil in a pan and fry the shallots and garlic until soft. Add the mushroom slices and cook for further 5 minutes. Then add the oat cream and let simmer for about 15 minutes until the cream has been infused with lovely mushroom flavour.

Heat the Schnitzel in the oven for a more low-fat result.

Combine the components on a plate and serve. Maybe something green could also be added to this meal.

And have a great weekend!

Your VegHog

Rustic mushroom flatbreads

I love to call my food rustic, because that's what it is at best of times. I don't like fussy presentations, or maybe occasionally, and that's the reason why my meals look like regular home cooking. Today's recipe is one of my rustic creations, it's for chestnut mushroom flatbreads with a crispy spelt crust, emmental and rosemary. Many of my favourite flavours are combined here, and I can't complain about how the result actually was.

This recipe makes two large flatbreads.

Bread dough:

300 g spelt flour

½ tsp salt

½ tbsp dry yeast

200 ml lukewarm water

1 tbsp olive oil

Filling:

6-8 chestnut mushrooms

2 garlic cloves

100 g emmental

2 tsp wild rosemary

Ground black pepper

A drizzle of olive oil

Method:

Make the dough first. Mix the dry ingredients together and then add the water and olive oil. Knead to an even dough and let rise under a teatowel in a warm place for about one hour. Add more water or flour, if the dough doesn't have the correct texture (similar to a pizza dough).

Slice the mushrooms and garlic thinly and grate the cheese. Divide the risen dough and roll out two flatbreads thinly.

Heat a frying pan with a metal handle very hot and also pre-heat the grill setting in the oven to maximum.

Throw a flatbread to the hot pan and layer the filling on it. I put the cheese under the mushrooms, but this can be varied per preference.

Keep it on the pan until the bread gets some frying marks underneath.

Then put the pan into the oven under the grill and leave it there until you are happy with the colour on the top. This should only take a few minutes as the oven is very hot.

Repeat the procedure for the second bread and serve them fresh from the oven.

And please always be careful when handling such insanely hot pans etc.! This method makes a nice result, but you need to be cautious while at it.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Spinach and mushroom gnocchi

Monday is almost over and I feel like a winner already, as it was a very long and a very busy day. I just want to relax now. Anyway the recipe that I'm posting today is for an easy meal for weekdays, and I find myself quite often making such dishes. It's quick and convenient after a long day, but also very tasty and made with fresh ingredients. I used of course ready made gnocchi, as couldn't be bothered to make my own. Maybe I'll make some soon again, who knows.

Okay, so here's the recipe for easy spinach and mushroom gnocchi.

Ingredients

1 kg gnocchi

200 g baby leaf spinach

250 g closed cup chestnut mushrooms

2 shallots

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt

Black pepper

Nutmeg

Fresh basil

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Method

Chop the shallots and garlic and slice the mushrooms.

Start cooking the shallots and garlic in olive oil until soft and add the mushroom slices to the pan.

Cook for a further 5 minutes at medium heat.

Add the spinach and cook until the leaves are wilted.

Season the mix with salt, pepper, nutmeg and basil to taste.

Cook the gnocchi in salt water for a couple of minutes until they float on the surface.

Serve the gnocchi with the spinach and mushrooms and some veggie pasta cheese shavings on the top. You can add a side salad, if you wish. I just served some cherry tomato halves on the side.

Enjoy your week!

Your VegHog

Schupfnudeln mit Schnitzel

This dish is basically just something I assembled for a Sunday dinner. Only the sauce is my own creamy vegan mushroom sauce, but the other components are ready made. This is a perfect dinner for a Sunday when you don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

The main part of this dish are Schupfnudeln, which are southern German and Austrian potato dumplings or thick noodles that are just being pan-fried to get a nice and crispy coating. I'm determined to make my own some day, just like Schnitzel of this style, so watch this space! Schupfnudel can be purchased in various online shops and German shops even outside of Germany, so you should be able to get the ready made ones as well.

Here's a list of the components for this German inspired dish, and how I prepared each one of them.

300 g chestnut mushrooms

250 ml oat cream

1 tbsp olive oil

4 spring onions

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

4 vegetarian breaded Schnitzel

160 g flower sprouts

500 g Schupfnudeln

Butter for frying (oil is also fine for a lighter meal)

The mushroom sauce takes the longest to make, so start with prepping that. Slice the mushrooms and chop the spring onions, onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic soft. Add the mushrooms and spring onions, and let it cook for a few minutes so that the mushrooms turn a bit darker. Add the oat cream and seasoning. Let the sauce cook until the cream has absorbed the mushroom flavour nicely.

I baked the Schnitzel in the oven to avoid extra oil usage. They just needed about 15 minutes in the oven.

At the same time I steamed the flower sprouts, which are a hybrid vegetable between kale and brussels sprouts. They make a really nice side to many autumn and winter dishes.

Cook the Schupfnudeln in hot butter in a frying pan until they get golden brown and little crispy.

And that's all! Enjoy your meal!

Your VegHog

Spelt crêpes with a cheesy mushroom filling

Now I'm on the spelt crêpe trip and just can't get enough of them! When I was planning for a further savoury vegetarian crêpe recipe, it became apparent that mushrooms would be the right choice for the filling. The nuttiness of the spelt is just divine with earthy mushrooms. I used chestnut mushrooms, but I can't see why not many other variations couldn't be used. If only could I get fresh chanterelles at the moment! I chose basil as the herb for this dish, but why not try sage or thyme as well.

This recipe will make about four large crêpes.

Batter ingredients:

2 eggs

4 dl milk

2 dl spelt flour

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp salt

Other ingredients:

Butter for frying

5-6 chestnut mushrooms

1 shallot

1 garlic clove

1 tsp olive oil

Salt and ground black pepper

Handful of fresh basil leaves

100 g mature cheddar

Method

Whisk the crêpe ingredients into a smooth batter and let it rest for about 30 minutes in the fridge.

Chop the crêpe fillings: slice the mushrooms, chop the shallot and garlic finely and grate the cheese.

Heat the olive oil in a pan and cook the shallot and garlic until soft. Add the mushroom slices and cook until the mushroom liquid has evaporated. Season the mix with salt and pepper.

Heat some butter in a pan and fry the crêpes golden brown on both sides. Place the filling into the middle of the flat crêpe while it's still in the pan. Turn the crêpe corners over the filling in order to cover it. Let it in the pan for few moments so that the cheese can melt a little and the flavours blend.

Have you ever made savoury crêpes? What are your favourite fillings?

Your VegHog

Chestnut mushroom tartlets

Shame on me for not posting more mushroom recipes lately! I have no explanation for how this could've happened, as mushrooms have been my most favourite cooking ingredient ever since I've been a vegetarian. Today I can hopefully make this a little bit better by sharing my mushroom tartlet recipe with you. Serve these to your friends at parties or take them with you as a snack on the go. I might make something similar for the upcoming (is it too early to even mention?) Christmas parties.

This recipe makes about 20 tartlets.

Ingredients

320 g shortcrust pastry

1 tbsp olive oil

4 small shallots

2 garlic cloves

4 large chestnut mushrooms

8-10 small tomatoes

Salt

Ground black pepper

Sage

Thyme

50 g mature cheddar

Method

Chop the shallots, garlic and mushrooms. Heat olive oil in a pan and cook the shallots and garlic soft. Add the mushrooms for a few minutes so that their excess fluid evaporates. Season with salt, ground black pepper, sage and thyme to taste.

Grate the cheese and prepare the pastry. Out of convenience I used a ready made pastry, but a homemade one would also be great here. Roll the pastry out thinly and cut small circles from it with a cookie cutter. The size depends a little bit on your muffin case size. Place the pastry circles into the muffin cases so that there will be a small edge going up the sides.

Slice the tomatoes and put a slice or two onto each pastry cup. Then fill them with the mushroom and shallot mix and finally the cheese.

Bake the tartlets at 180C for about 20-30 minutes until the pastry is baked crispy and the cheese has melted into golden brown goodness.

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

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

 

Mushroom and rocket spelt crust pizza

Saturday night and it's pizza time again! A vegetarian pizza is always a good option and I claim that homemade pizzas are actually quite healthy, as there's only fresh produce added and the finest ingredients used. The fresh rocket on the top of this one contributes even more to the healthy aspect.

I made once again a spelt crust for this pizza and I think it went very well with the earthy mushrooms and peppery rocket. I tend to make either a spelt-wheat or a rye-wheat pizza base each time.

This is a recipe for two medium pizzas.

Spelt crust:

2 tbsp dry yeast

200 g wheat flour

200 g spelt flour

2 tsp salt

350 ml lukewarm water

3 tbsp olive oil

Topping:

200 g closed cup mushrooms

1 shallot

250 g mozzarella

100 g baby plum tomatoes

½ tsp oregano

½ tsp nettle salt / sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

70 g wild rocket

Method:

First make the dough by mixing dry yeast, wheat flour, spelt flour and salt and then adding lukewarm water and olive oil. Knead to a pizza dough and let rise under a teatowel for about one hour.

Prepare the toppings by slicing the mushrooms, shallot, tomatoes and mozzarella.

Divide the dough in two and roll it out thinly to round pizza bases. Place the toppings and the seasoning (oregano, salt and pepper) on the bases and bake at 200C for about 15-20 minutes.

Place the fresh rocket on the pizzas before serving and it's all done.

Your VegHog

Mushroom and pearled spelt stew

I have heavily fallen for the taste and texture of pearled spelt, and this time I made a very mushroomy and herby stew out of it. No need to beat around the bush, let's get cooking!

Ingredients

15g dried chanterelles

5g dried porcini

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

200g small button mushrooms

1tbsp olive oil

1 cup pearled spelt

100ml dry white wine

500ml vegetable stock

1tsp salt

½tsp black pepper

Rosemary

Thyme

Sage

Method

Soak the dried mushrooms for about 15 minutes, drain them and save the soaking water for later.

Chop the shallots and garlic finely. Wash the button mushrooms, they don't need any chopping as they already are small.

Cook the shallots and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add the soaked mushrooms and the button mushrooms and cook for a couple of minutes more. Then also add the pearled spelt and after a moment stirring, pour in the wine. Let the wine evaporate a little and then add the vegetable stock and the mushroom soaking water and let it all simmer under lid until the spelt is cooked.

Season with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme and sage to taste and it's done. I served the stew with my chanterelle focaccia. 

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Fried potatoes with leeks and mushrooms

Occasionally I want to travel in time back to the 1980s, and reminiscent wonderful working class grub from Finland. These fried potatoes qualify as such, in this post I have only changed them a little bit by adding leeks, and serving them with mushrooms (that's not quite traditional). My second excursion into the world of fried potatoes happened in Germany, and I do appreciate this humble dish very much. Normally you would only make this dish from leftover cooked potatoes, but sometimes it's worth making them from scratch. Today I'm flying to Finland for a short holiday, so this is a great lunch before the flight.

I have divided the ingredients into three sections as I started preparing these components in three different pans.

Fried potatoes:

650g potatoes

4 shallots

1tbsp vegetable oil

½tsp paprika

1tsp salt

½tsp black pepper

1tsp thyme

Leek supplement:

3 leeks

2 shallots

3 garlic cloves

24g butter

50ml dry cider

Mushroom side:

200g baby chestnut mushrooms

1 garlic clove

1tbsp olive oil

½tsp vegetable stock powder + 50ml water

1tsp parsley

A splash of white wine

Boil the potatoes for about 20 minutes with the peels on so that they become almost cooked. After the boiling peel them, if the peel is too thick for your taste. I wouldn't peel for example new potatoes, and even others can be left with the peels on. Quarter or slice them generously.

Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and start frying the potatoes in the pan at medium heat. They are supposed to get crispy and brown on the surface, but take care that the temperature isn't too hot and stir them occasionally. The potatoes also need to fully cook, so no need for haste. When the potatoes are nearly cooked, season them with paprika, salt, black pepper and thyme.

Slice the leeks, shallots and garlic (divide the garlic for the leeks and the mushrooms that are to be cooked separately). Heat the butter in another pan and sauté the shallots and garlic in there; later add the leeks and cider and let simmer under the lid.

Keep the mushrooms as whole and cook them in olive oil with one chopped garlic clove. Add the white wine and vegetable stock, and let it also simmer slowly under the lid by occasionally stirring. Season with parsley and maybe with additional salt, if the stock isn't salty enough.

Once you're happy with all the components, combine the potatoes and leeks and serve them with the mushrooms on the side.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Wild mushrooms on sweet potato and carrot spaghetti

The whole clue of this dish is that the spaghetti is no pasta, but made of sweet potato and carrot strings instead. Combined with the creamy wild mushrooms it makes quite a nice and earthy meal. I was inspired to make this after seeing Nigel Slater's recipe for Mushroom ragout and root vegetable pappardelle.

Ingredients

40g dried wild mushrooms

3 small shallots

3 garlic cloves

2tbsp olive oil

1 large sweet potato

2 carrots

1tbsp fresh sage

½tbsp thyme

2tsp vegetable stock powder + 200ml water

250ml oat cream

½tsp ground black pepper

½tsp salt

Method

Peel the sweet potato and the carrots and cut them with a vegetable cutter into thin matchstick strings resembling spaghetti.

Soak the dried mushrooms in water for about 10 minutes.

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan and quickly toss the string vegetables through. Prepare the vegetable stock and add it to the pan and let simmer until cooked al dente.

Chop the shallots and garlic and start sweating them in olive oil in another pan. Add the drained mushrooms into the pan and cook for about 5 minutes more. Then add the cream and let simmer for further 10 minutes infusing the cream with the strong mushroom taste. Add some of the mushroom soaking water, if you want even more intense taste (you can add some of that into the vegetable stock as well). Season to taste with sage, thyme, black pepper and salt.

Combine the sauce with the fake spaghetti or just serve it on the top of them.

Enjoy! ~ Your VegHog

Portobello mushroom Wellington

I wanted to make a nice looking vegetarian dish for the Christmas table, and I thought of a mushroom Wellington. Many recipes for this sort of a dish exist, but this one is my own. I thought it would be nice to put parsnips into the wrapping with the mushroom and also to give it a bit more flavour with a walnut pesto type of a sauce.

So here is my simple recipe for portobello mushroom Wellingtons.

Ingredients

Mushrooms:

4 large portobello mushrooms

3tbsp olive oil

600g puff pastry

1 parsnip

1 egg

50g emmental cheese

Pesto:

25g basil leaves

50g walnuts

4tbsp olive oil

1-2 garlic cloves

Method

First of all make the pesto by pureeing the pesto ingredients together to a paste. Put the pesto to the fridge to wait for the other stages to be completed.

Brush the mushrooms with olive oil and roast them. They should lose all the excess fluid during the roasting so that they won't make the puff pastry soggy later. Peel the parsnip and chop it to small cubes. Then also brush the cubes with olive oil and also roast them for about 20 minutes at 150C with the mushrooms. After the roasting let the ingredients cool.

Spread the pesto on the mushrooms and place the parsnip cubes on the bottom side of the mushrooms and then the grated emmental. When you are assembling the parcels, you should take care that the parsnips stay put.

Roll out the puff pastry thinly. You can either wrap the mushrooms in the puff pastry or cut out round pieces. What I did this time, was to cut one larger circle and one slightly smaller, placed the mushroom with the bottom up on the larger circle and then closed the lid by placing the smaller lid on the top. Brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg and finally brush the whole pastry with the egg. Repeat this for each portobello. I made a hedgehog shaped decoration with a cookie cutter of the puff pastry on the top. Decorations are optional, but will make a nice touch to the dish.

Then turn the mushrooms for baking on a greased baking tray or an oven dish and bake them at 180C for about 25 minutes until the pastry is fluffy and golden brown.

Serve the Wellingtons with other nice veggie Christmas dishes. I served them here with my Pomegranate and coquina squash salad.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog