Black Eyed Bean Flautas

We had a wonderful day at the beach yesterday. While it was stuffy and hot in town, there was a pleasant breeze by the sea. I was surprised that there weren't too many people on the beach either, so that made it even more pleasant. We just mainly walked around and enjoyed the scenery. There were beautiful wild roses in bloom everywhere and there will be a good sea-buckthorn season once they ripen. I'm planning to go to pick some later in the summer.

I bought these new carrot tortillas by No Fairytales, and was wondering what to make, as they are a bit more special than usual tortillas. I would like to say again that my blog is not sponsored, and all products you might see here are just my own recommendations, not advertisements. Anyway during my research for new tortilla dishes, I stumbled upon flautas. Flautas are just basically thicker taquitos. So I made my own version of flautas with black eyed peas, bell pepper, brown rice and spices in these juicy carrot tortillas, and they were so tasty. You can find the recipe below.

Black Eyed Bean Flautas

Ingredients

½ cup brown rice

1 cup cooked black eyed beans

1 red bell pepper

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

1 chipotle chilli

Vegetable oil for frying

Smoked paprika to taste

Ground cumin to taste

Ground coriander to taste

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

3-4 tbsp tomato purée

100 g grated Gouda

Fresh coriander

1 lime

5 carrot tortillas (or regular tortillas)

Method

Cook the rice and chop the bell pepper, onion, garlic and chillies.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan and cook the onions until soft and slightly browned, and then add the bell peppers. Cook them slowly until they are quite soft, and then also add the chilli and garlic.

Add the black eyed beans to the pan, followed by the seasoning and the tomato purée. Then also add the rice, and cook until the flavours have blended nicely in the whole mix.

Once you are happy with the filling's flavour, you can start assembling the flautas.

Place cheese, fresh coriander and rice mix on the tortillas, and roll them into open-ended wraps. I secured mine with toothpicks so that they wouldn't open during the frying.

Fry the wraps in hot oil until they are golden brown and slightly crispy. Enjoy with fresh lime juice sprinkled on top!

I would like to share this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #130 edition, which is hosted by Kalyani from Sizzling Tastebuds. The My Legume Love Affair blogging event was first started by Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Your VegHog

Lentil and chickpea curry with roasted red peppers

My Easter break was just lovely, but also quite busy, as I didn't spend much time at home. We had visitors from England, some of my partner's family members, and we did extensive walks in Copenhagen with them and also visited Sweden. Now I'm just happy that I don't have many plans for the weekend, and can spend it mostly at home. It's also a rainy day today after a long while. I'm happy for the plants and wildlife that there is a little bit of water again. There is a street food festival and a cultural festival close by, so I think we will go there at least briefly in the afternoon regardless the rain.

Now I wanted to share a warming vegan curry recipe with you, which also fits the cooler weather quite nicely. I used both green lentils and chickpeas as the base of this recipe, but the roasted red peppers really add something special to it. There is also a lot of spinach in there, but it has kind of disappeared in the sauce. Here is my recipe for this curry.

Lentil and chickpea curry with roasted red peppers

Ingredients

2 red bell peppers

Vegetable oil

4 onions

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

2 carrots

1 cup cooked green lentils

1 cup cooked chickpeas

1 tbsp garam masala spice mix

¼ tsp ground turmeric

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

2 tbsp tomato purée

½ cup frozen spinach

Method

Cut the bell peppers into slices, coat them with vegetable oil and roast in the oven.

Cook the chickpeas and green lentils.

Chop the onions, garlic and chilli finely, and also chop the carrots.

Start cooking the chopped onion in oil until soft, and then add the garlic and chilli to the pan.

After a while, add the carrots and the seasoning.

Then also add the cooked lentils, frozen spinach, some water, and let simmer slowly until the flavours have blended nicely.

Either use the roasted red peppers as a topping, or mix them into the curry.

Serve rice or naan bread on the side of the curry and enjoy!

I want to share this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #127, which is hosted by Amrita from Motions and Emotions. My Legume Love Affair was created by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Mexican rice

I've had an active weekend outdoors, as it has been sunny and quite warm. Yesterday we just walked around in the town centre, but today we went on a long walk in a close by nature reserve. Now I'm happy and relaxed but also a bit tired.

Before I retire in front of Netflix for the evening, I will share this recipe with you. I absolutely adore vegan rice dishes like this variation of Mexican style rice, and I often make similar dishes. It's great to have dishes containing the full protein, and also being affordable and tasty. I used a mix of pinto beans, sweetcorn and bell pepper in this rice with spices and tomato purée. Have a look at the recipe below.

Mexican rice

Ingredients

1 cup cooked pinto beans

1 can sweetcorn

1 red bell pepper

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

1 chipotle chilli

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

Smoked paprika to taste

Ground cumin to taste

Ground coriander to taste

Mexican oregano to taste

1 can tomato purée

1 cup rice

Method

Cook the rice.

Chop the bell pepper, onions, garlic and chilli.

Start cooking the onion in the vegetable oil, and then also add the garlic and chilli, followed by the bell pepper.

Add the beans and sweetcorn.

Season the mix, and add the tomato purée.

Let it simmer and flavours blend.

Finally mix in the rice and cook some more.

Season to taste and enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #125 hosted by Seema from Mildly Indian. The event was created by Susan from Well Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Your VegHog

My Legume Love Affair #124 Round Up

It has been an absolute pleasure hosting My Legume Love Affair again. We received so many lovely recipes that I'm going to present here. My Legume Love Affair is a monthly cooking challenge that was originally started by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen with different guest hosts every month. Have a look at the lovely recipes shared with the 124^th edition of the challenge.

Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen posted a recipe for Mung Beans in a Creamy Tomato Coconut Milk Sauce. I'm sure that this combination is very delicious, as I really like mung beans, and anything in a creamy tomato and coconut milk sauce is just heavenly. Apart from that, the dish is full of warming spices, so I would be up for it anytime.

Archana from The Mad Scientists Kitchen shared Fresh Hara Chana Chaat, Green Chickpea Salad, with us. I have never had any fresh chickpeas, but they sound great, and I really hope to be able to taste some one day. You can eat them as snacks as they are, or make lovely dishes like this healthy salad with them. In this salad there is also carrot, cucumber and many nice spices.

The Girl Next Door from The World Through My Eyes made (Hara Chana) Choliya Kadhi, Fresh Green Chana Kadhi. This recipe is also made with fresh green chickpeas, and they look ever so good again. This dish is best to be served hot or warm with some rotis, parathas or rice on the side. Again, I would really like to try this dish also.

Emily from Cooking for Kishore cooked Instant Pot Sweet Pongal. It's lovely to have a sweet dish shared with the challenge for a change. This sweet Pongal made with mung beans, basmati rice, coconut milk and spices is traditionally an offering made to God. It looks so good, and it's nice to learn about all these wonderful traditional dishes.

Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen shared Vegan Cincinnati Spaghetti. This is a hearty pasta dish that also has an interesting history, as it was invented by Macedonian migrants to the US in the 1920s. There is a spicy sauce made with lentils and kidney beans with spaghetti, and a fresh avocado as a great topping for colour, different texture and freshness.

I made some Red lentil rolls this month. I'm a keen baker of different savoury rolls, and I like to add whatever comes to mind to them. Now red lentils came to mind, and the rolls turned out quite nice.

Thank you so much everyone for your contributions, it has been a really good month! Thank you also so much Lisa for letting me host again!

Your VegHog

Red lentil rolls

What could be better than some freshly baked rolls on a Sunday, especially in this cold weather. I can't think of many things, so I started the day baking.

I made some basic rolls with red lentils. I got the idea from a Finnish bread that is made with lentils, and thought that it would be nice to try making my own. I used a simple cup measuring system, so the recipe is really easy to follow. This recipe makes about eight rolls, depending on the size of course. Have a look below how I made them.

Red lentil rolls

Ingredients

½ cup red lentils

3 cups wheat flour

1 tbsp dry yeast

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp sunflower seeds

1 cup lukewarm water

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp poppy seeds

Method

Cook the lentils, drain and let them cool down after the cooking.

Combine the dry ingredients of the dough first, and then add the water, lentils and oil.

Knead into an even dough. Add more either flour or water, if needed.

Let the dough rise for about one hour.

Shape rolls from the dough and put the poppy seeds on top.

Bake the rolls at 220 C for about 10 minutes or until done.

They are best enjoyed fresh.

I'm sharing the recipe with My Legume Love Affair #124 that I'm hosting this month. My Legume Love Affair was originally started by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Your VegHog

My Legume Love Affair #124 welcoming entries

Happy 2019 everyone! I hope that you will all have a wonderful and healthy year with plenty of tasty cooking.

What could be a better way to start the year than a good old cooking challenge. I have the great honor of guest hosting the #124 edition of My Legume Love Affair, a monthly vegan and vegetarian cooking event that is all about legumes. My Legume Love Affair was originally started by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen. Hopefully you will be able to share your recipe with us in January.

Here are the rules on how to participate:

1. Legumes (for example lentils, beans, peas, soybeans or peanuts) have to have a central role in the recipe.

2. Only vegetarian and vegan recipes will be accepted, so please make sure that your recipe is free from meat and seafood. The recipes can contain eggs.

3. Only one recipe submission per month per blogger is accepted.

4. Use the MLLA logo in your post, and please link back to Susan, Lisa and this announcement in your post.

5. You can also use an old recipe, but please repost it on your blog this month.

6. Submit your recipe through the Linky Tool at the bottom of this page including the URL, name of the dish, photo and your details.

7. This event ends on 31.01. and the round up will be published shortly after.

You can also read the full rules here. Have fun cooking! I very much look forward to your recipes.

Potato and chickpea curry with roasted purple cauliflower and naan bread

December just seems to be flying by without much time for posting. I'll try to make up for it, but can't promise anything yet.

This recipe isn't very Christmassy at all, but maybe it's nice to enjoy different kind of cuisines in December too. I happen to like such comforting vegan curries very much, so here comes another one of them. 

This time I made my curry with potatoes, carrots and chickpeas and served roasted purple cauliflower and homemade naan bread on the side. I didn't add the naan bread recipe here, but you can refer for example to this older post, as I made these pretty much the same way. So have a look below how I made the curry.

Potato and chickpea curry with roasted purple cauliflower

Ingredients

1 purple cauliflower

400 g potatoes

½ cup dried chickpeas

3 carrots

2 onions

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

1 cm fresh ginger

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp ground cumin

250 ml coconut milk

1 vegetable stock cube

2 tbsp tomato purée

Method

Soak the chickpeas overnight and then boil them in water until they are done.

Cut the cauliflower into florets, brush them with vegetable oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven until done. I decided not to add them to the curry, because they would have coloured it weird. Of course also plain old white cauliflower can be used in this dish.

Cut the potatoes in halves or quarters depending on the size and boil them in water until they are nearly done.

Chop the onions, garlic, chilli and ginger finely and cook them in the vegetable oil until soft.

Slice the carrots and add them to the pan followed by the potatoes and chickpeas.

Then mix the garam masala and ground cumin in.

Stir for a while and add the coconut cream.

Let the curry simmer slowly and season it with vegetable stock cube and tomato purée.

Serve all components together and enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #123 edition hosted by Archana from The Mad Scientist's Kitchen. The MLLA event was started by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook in 2008, and has been hosted by Lisa from Lisa’s Kitchen since February 2013. Check out the challenge, it's great fun to take part!

Your VegHog

Spicy yin & yang bean burgers

My apologies again for the quiet spell on the blog. It has been incredibly busy again with visitors, work and Danish classes, and I just haven't found enough time for blogging. I've done a lot of vegan and vegetarian cooking though, and some of these recipes are ready to be shared with you soon. I've also eaten in some nice veggie places, and plan to write a post about them soon. It has been an absolutely lovely weather over here for a few weeks, and I've been enjoying a lot of outdoors. But now swiftly on to today's recipe.

Spicy bean burgers are a classic in the vegetarian kitchen, and I just can't get tired of them. These days I rarely order them, if they are on the menu in a restaurant, but I love making them myself. I often also make them vegan, but I added egg to this recipe, and also cheese as a topping. However they would be easy to veganise. When I'm making them at home, my favourite method is to make a potato based patty with beans and spices. My choice of bean was a bit more special in these patties, as I used black and white yin and yang beans. They were very nice actually, but unfortunately hiding under the breadcrumbs on the photos.

This time I also got to use my new “burger sleeves” for the presentation, yay! I already had the french fry pockets before and had used them once or twice, but they made a cool combination. Have a look below how I made these burgers.

Spicy yin & yang bean burgers

Ingredients

200 g potatoes

½ cup dried yin and yang beans

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

1 tsp ground chilli powder

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 egg

2 cups breadcrumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Burger toppings: Cheese, beetroot sprouts, lettuce, vegan chipotle mayo

Twice-cooked fries on the side

Method

Boil the potatoes and mash them.

Also cook the beans or use tinned beans.

Chop the onion, garlic and chilli finely and fry them in oil so that they get soft.

Add the seasoning and the beans to the onion mix.

Let the mix cool down and mix it with the mashed potatoes. Also add some breadcrumbs into the mix, if it doesn't seem firm enough.

Let the mix rest for about 30 minutes in the fridge.

Shape patties from the mix, and roll them in the eggwash and then in the breadcrumbs.

Fry the burger patties on both sides until crispy and golden brown.

Serve with nice buns, toppings and sides. I put on there cheese, beetroot sprouts, lettuce and vegan chipotle mayo.

I'm sharing the recipe with My Legume Love Affair #119 edition, which is hosted by PJ from Seduce Your Taste Buds blog. The event was created by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook and then continued by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen. Go and visit their blogs, there are very nice recipes there.

Your VegHog

My Legume Love Affair #114 Round up

I was privileged to be able to host the last My Legume Love Affair challenge for 2017, and here is the round up of the #114 edition. I appreciate each and every entry very much, as I know that you’ve all been very busy this month. Let’s have a look at the beautiful vegan and vegetarian dishes now.

Archana from The Mad Scientists Kitchen shared tempting looking Fried falafel served with hummus. You’ll always get me with a good falafel, and homemade ones are quite special. She added some extra legumes by serving the beautiful falafel with hummus.

Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen posted a dish with Pomegranate Molasses Bulgar,Chickpeas, Red Chard and Seitan 'Meat'. The dish is full of good and hearty ingredients, and it’s just right for this dark and cool season.

Sowmya from Tuma’s Tongue Treats cooked healthy Panchkuti Dal/Panchratan Dal/Panchamel Dal. This dal looks so tasty and it’s fully of protein goodness and all sorts of pulses.

Sadhna from Herbs, Spices and Tradition shared a warming Black-eyed beans curry. It really does look very comforting.

My own recipe was a Hummus and lentil mac'n'cheese. I got curious about using hummus as a base for the mac’n’cheese sauce, so I developed this dish. I also used lentil pasta to make it even more rich on legumes.

Thank you everyone so much for your recipes! I wish you all a healthy and happy 2018!

Your VegHog

Hummus and lentil mac'n'cheese

This legume-based mac'n'cheese made a wonderful weekday dinner on a busy day this week. I had been thinking about this kind of recipe for a little while, and as I seemed to have all ingredients at home, I tried this out.

I got an idea for using hummus as the binding agent for mac'n'cheese from my lovely blogging colleague Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe when I was looking for alternatives. I recently used mashed squash, which was also a good variant. Johanna commented to that post saying that she had used hummus in lasagne and would be tempted to try it in mac'n'cheese as well. I can tell you that it worked very well and made a really nice and smooth batter for the bake. My partner who refuses to eat milk-based mac'n'cheeses was very happy.

This dish is easy to veganise by using vegan cheese, and this lentil pasta is also gluten free and very rich on protein. I think it would make a very nice side dish as well, but this time it was my dinner on its own.

Hummus and lentil mac'n'cheese

Ingredients

250 g lentil pasta

100 g hummus

150 g grated cheese

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

1 red onion

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

½ cup breadcrumbs

Method

First prepare the toppings that they are ready to go once everything else has been cooked. Cut the red onion into rings and fry them in the rapeseed oil. Measure the breadcrumbs.

Cook the lentil pasta in water until done and save about one cup of the pasta cooking water. Drain the pasta and mix gradually the hummus in and some of the pasta cooking water. Keep adding the water until you have the right smooth texture. Then also add the grated cheese and seasoning.

Put the pasta mix into an oven dish or smaller ramekins and put the breadcrumbs and fried onion rings on the top. Bake at 180 C for about 10 minutes and enjoy!

I'm sharing this simple recipe with My Legume Love Affair #114, which I'm hosting this month. It's a legume-centric cooking challenge started by Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook and hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen. I hope to see many more recipes with pulses there, so keep sharing your recipes!

Your VegHog

My Legume Love Affair #114 welcoming recipes

I'm excited to host the excellent vegetarian and vegan cooking challenge My Legume Love Affair and its #114 edition this month! It's my second time for hosting, and I just checked that it was also a December challenge that I hosted last year. Again this time I hope to see many seasonal and festive shares, but also basic good grub cooked with legumes.

My Legume Love Affair was started by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

This is how you can participate:

1. Legumes (for example lentils, beans, peas, soybeans or peanuts) have to have a central role in the recipe.
2. Only vegetarian and vegan recipes will be accepted, so please make sure that your recipe is free from meat and seafood. The recipes can contain eggs.
3. Only one recipe submission per month per blogger is accepted.
4. Use the logo in your post, and please link back to Susan, Lisa and this announcement in your post. 
5. You can also use an old recipe, but please repost it on your blog this month.
6. Submit your recipe through the Linky Tool at the bottom of this page including the URL, name of the dish, photo and your details.
7. This event ends on 30.12. at midnight and the round up of all recipes should be up on 31.12.

Have a wonderful month of December! I'm very much looking forward to your recipes!

Your VegHog

Pea and courgette rice

I can't believe that a week has passed again so quickly. We are in mid September and the autumn has arrived. It's starting to get more chilly and rainy, and I have my first cold of the season. I'm still not going to let it defeat me. We have a Mexican independence day street party to attend today, and it's actually sunny so far. There will be Mexican food, beers, wrestling and live music, and I'm quite looking forward to it. We'll pop over to the vegetable market first to get some fresh stuff for the weekend and the busy next week.

But now first to this vegan pea and courgette rice recipe. Well, it actually contains loads of veg, but I just named it that. These summer vegetables are still tempting me very much, but now I start combining them in more autumnal dishes. But it's also so nice to see more and more squashes appearing. I can't wait to make some nice squash dishes soon.

Pea and courgette rice

Ingredients

1 corn on the cob

1 small courgette

2 cups fresh peas

1 carrot

1 onion

1 garlic clove

Fresh parsley

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

1 l vegetable stock

1 cup brown rice

2 tbsp olive oil

Method

Chop all the veggies into smallish pieces.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and sautée the onion and garlic there.

Then add the chopped carrots, courgette and corn there too, cook for a while and then add the rice and vegetable stock.

Add the seasoning and let simmer until the rice is nearly cooked.

Towards the end also add the peas so that they can briefly cook in the mix. I like the fresh peas quite firm, but feel free to cook them more, if you prefer.

Serve as a bowl of rice and veggies and enjoy!

I'm hosting Eat Your Greens myself this month, and this dish will be my entry to the challenge. Take part in it now, if you haven't yet! I always take turns hosting with Shaheen.

I would also like to share this recipe with Sowmya from Tuma's Tongue Treats, who is hosting the 111^th edition of My Legume Love Affair this month. The challenge was created by Susan and is now hosted by Lisa. I haven't been taking part in this wonderful challenge for quite a few months now, and I need to get better with my legumes again!

Have a good weekend!

Your VegHog