Loaded pumpkin nachos

 

It’s a great autumn weather today, a bit windy but not rainy. We are planning to go to a local deer park to see of course the deer, but also some vibrant colours in the trees. The park is just by the sea and you can see straight to Sweden from there. Sometimes I receive a “Welcome to Sweden!” sms to my phone when I’m there. It’s nice to pop down to the beach also.

I'm sure that after the walk, I will be very hungry for some comfort food. These loaded pumpkin nachos are just a perfect dish for the Halloween season. I made them with roasted pumpkin and pepper, spicy kidney bean and sweetcorn mix and of course cheese. It was a very nice dish for sharing.

Enjoy your weekend!

Your VegHog

 

Nacho casserole

 

 

 

It has been another hot week here in Copenhagen, and also very busy at work at the same time. Now I’m happy to switch off for a couple of days and just stroll around the summer city.

I got the inspiration for this dish from a blogging friend Sherry, as she once wrote about a nacho casserole and said that her husband often makes it. This is my own take on the idea using taco flavoured seitan in a spicy mix of sweetcorn, chilli and spices, all covered with lovely melting cheese and layered with crispy tortilla chips. I thought that it was a great Friday or Saturday night dish for a relaxed night in.

Nacho casserole

Ingredients

1 bag tortilla chips

200 g taco flavoured seitan

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 chilli

2 tbsp vegetable oil

150 g sweetcorn

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

4-6 tbsp tomato purée

100 g mozzarella

Hot sauce

 

Method

Chop the onion, garlic and chilli finely and fry them in oil. Then also fry the seitan.

Add the sweetcorn, seasoning and tomato purée to the mix and cook for a while longer.

Layer the mix with the tortilla chips to an oven dish, cover with cheese and bake at 180 C for about 15 minutes.

Sprinkle some hot sauce on the top for serving and enjoy!

 

 

Your VegHog

 

Loaded nachos

It's a cold November rain outside, and it really calls for some comfort food and a film or series binge night. It's a shame that almost the whole week was sunny with crisp autumn air, and now as soon as we got to Saturday, the gloomy weather started. It would've been nice to go hiking or something, but it wouldn't be so great in this weather, so I will save it for another time. It's also very cosy just to stay at home and light some candles.

Loaded nachos are a nice dish to make in such a weather. I made this dish with spicy sweetcorn, pinto bean and onion mix, cheese, chilli-tomato salsa and purple corn nachos. It was good grub for a lazy evening. 

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Nacho plate with beetroot nuggets

I hope that everyone is having a nice weekend. What are you all up to on this fine September weekend? I started the day by reading in bed for a while, then had coffee and breakfast, and am now making myself ready to go to town. We will visit a Vincent van Gogh exhibition today. I like his landscape paintings very much, so it's always great to visit one of his exhibitions. After that I'm not sure, maybe we will go to a local bar for one drink and then withdraw home for a quiet Netflix evening with veggie burgers. Tomorrow there will be a big flea market on our street, so it will be nice to visit that as well.

Now to this dish that I recently made. I do love a good plate of nachos, and I tried to make a slightly different dish from my usual ones. I added beetroot nuggets that I made from that readymade chickpea and beetroot mix for making all sorts of burgers, falafel and nuggets. It's easy to handle and sticks together very well. I also had pickled red cabbage, spicy black bean and bell pepper mix, tomato salsa and cheesy nachos of course. It was a lovely and colourful plate of food.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Your VegHog

Chilli and nachos

And so the comfort food theme continues... The weather is getting colder over here and the nights are dark, so naturally I crave for warming food. A good old bean and sweetcorn chilli is always nice in these occassions. I served it with cheesy tortilla chips for ultimate comfort on a cosy film night at home.

I hope you've all had a really nice weekend. It was rainy here today, so I just went to town briefly and already bought some Christmas wrapping papers and small bits and bobs. Oh yes, I am ready for the season! I would like to put my Christmas lights up very soon, but maybe I'll wait just a bit more. At least I can already light plenty of candles in the evenings.

Have a good week!

Your VegHog

Spaghetti squash chilli with nachos

I thought another squash dish would be suitable for this season. I was going to make some Halloween themed post, but I'm not sure, if I'll manage with a busy weekend ahead. I've already seen several Halloween recipes by my blogger colleagues, and they all look cute and creepy at the same time. This dish that I cooked now doesn't look special, but it could be a good dish for this weekend nevertheless.

Spaghetti squash is a funny one to cook. I think it's pretty much at its best when roasted and then pulled into the spaghetti like strings. In this dish I combined roasted spaghetti squash with a black bean and sweetcorn chilli. The dish would be vegan, if you substitute the cheese on the nachos or skip it fully. The dish is also very tasty as fully vegan.

Ingredients

1 spaghetti squash

Olive oil

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

2 small chillies

240 g / 1 can black beans

140 g / 1 small can sweetcorn

200 g tomatoes

Ground cumin to taste

Ground coriander to taste

Smoked paprika to taste

2 tsp smoked chilli paste

1 tbsp tomato purée

Splash of liquid aminos

1 tsp cocoa powder

Serve with:

400 g nachos

150 g grated Cheddar and Mozzarella

Method

Cut the spaghetti squash in half, brush with olive oil and roast in the oven until soft.

Prepare the rest of the chilli in the meanwhile by simmering all chilli ingredients together. Season the chilli to taste.

Once the squash is roasted, pull the flesh out with a fork and mix it into the chilli. I left some over to put as decoration on the top, otherwise the squash becomes quite invisible.

Heat up some nachos in the oven covered with cheese and serve them with the chilli.

Enjoy and have a good weekend!

Your VegHog

Nachos with char-grilled vegetables

Nachos with char-grilled vegetables are great. The beauty of the dish is that you can use any seasonal vegetables that you fancy. You can make the dish as colourful as you want and it's also a nice one to share with friends. For these ones I chose gem squashes, bell pepper and onion, which made quite a good combination. The making of this dish is so easy and the grilling and baking times are short, so this is fine to make when the weather is hotter as well.

Ingredients

2 gem squashes

1 red bell pepper

1 onion

Vegetable oil for grilling

200 g tortilla chips

100 g grated cheese

Chilli-tomato sauce for dipping

Method

Cut the vegetables into fairly large chunks and grill them in a grill pan until they have nice grilling marks.

Cover the tortilla chips with cheese and the vegetables and bake them briefly in the oven until the cheese melts.

Serve with a dipping sauce of your choice. I didn't have guacamole, sour cream and tomato salsa this time, but just a homemade chilli-tomato sauce.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Bean and sweetcorn nacho bake

Oh bliss, it's a long weekend and the weather seems to be fairly okay so far. I'm happy and have nice plans for the weekend, which will probably be revealed here later. But first I want to share a recent recipe of mine with you, which is another way to eat a vegetarian chilli and nachos. I baked the chilli with cheese and some nachos and served it with even more tortilla chips. This was a very nice dish, especially for a film night or Nordic noir night in my case.

Ingredients

1 large onion

3 garlic cloves

1 romano pepper

Olive oil for frying

1 can black beans

1 can sweetcorn

Ground cumin to taste

Ground coriander to taste

Smoked paprika to taste

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

300 g organic peeled tomatoes

½ cup dried soya mince

Fresh coriander leaves to taste

1 lime's juice

175 g tortilla chips

250 g grated cheese

Sour cream to serve

Method

Fry the chopped onion, garlic and romano pepper in olive oil for a while. Add the black beans and sweetcorn. Season and add the tomatoes and let simmer.

Prepare the soy mince separately as per instructions and add it to the mix as well. Season with fresh coriander leaves and lime juice.

Place the chilli in an oven dish or several smaller ramekins. Put some tortilla chips around the edges and cover with grated cheese.

Bake at 200 C for about 15 minutes until the cheese has melted and the bake looks nice.

Serve with sour cream and tortilla chips on the side and enjoy!

Have a wonderful weekend!

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

 

Rye nachos

I bought such lovely sesame and sea salt rye nachos in Finland and combined them with some char-grilled vegetables, cheese and sauces. Any nachos are great with some extra veg, but these rye variations are especially tasty and filling. They are like thin rye bread crisps.

Here's how I made this nacho dish.

Tomato sauce:

200g tomatoes

1 garlic clove

1 small onion

Olive oil

Fresh basil

Black pepper

Salt

The tomatoes for this sauce came from my own garden, and it's quite a basic sauce. Chop the onion and garlic and fry them in olive oil. Add the tomatoes and let it simmer. Season the sauce with basil, pepper and salt and finally puree it. This sauce can be served either warm or cold, whichever you prefer.

Green pepper butter:

1 green bell pepper

Parsley

Chili flakes

Black pepper

50g butter

This was a quite nice addition to the nachos and especially melted over the char-grilled corn cob that I served with the nachos.

Chop the pepper very finely and mix it with parsley, chili flakes, black pepper and soft butter. Done!

Nachos:

1 bag of sesame and sea salt rye nachos (or other nachos or rye crisps)

1 red bell pepper

1 small zucchini

½ onion

Oltermanni and Emmental cheese (other cheeses can be used)

1 Corn cob on the side

Vegetable oil for grilling

Quarter the bell pepper and slice the zucchini. Cut rings of the onion. Char-grill these and the pre-boiled corn cob.

Place the pepper, zucchini and onion rings on the nachos into an oven dish. Grate cheese on them and bake at 180C for about 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the nachos warmed through.

Serve with the sauces at a film night or a party or just give yourself a treat and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Char-grilled vegetable nachos

Nachos are just a snack, I hear you cry? Certainly not in The VegHog's kitchen! These nachos form a full meal and are covered with succulent char-grilled vegetables and beans and are swimming in cheese. I just adore this dish and it's just the perfect thing for sharing during a cozy film night.

A bag of nachos

3 peppers

1 aubergine

500g canned black beans

Coriander

Grated mozzarella

2 red onions

3 garlic cloves

200g tomatoes

Salt

Black pepper

Olive oil

Vegetable oil

Make the salsa first. This time I only made a plain old tomato and onion salsa as a dip, but check out my guacamole recipe as well, if you want to have it with these nachos. Sour cream is also always a good addition to this dish.

Chop the onions and garlic. Heat some olive oil in a saucepan and add the tomatoes. Let them simmer under the lid until they become saucy. Add ½ of the chopped onions and ½ of the garlic to the pan and let it simmer further. Season with salt and pepper. Once everything is cooked puree the salsa and let it chill.

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the other ½ of the onions and ½ of the garlic. Then add the black beans and let simmer at moderate heat for about 15 minutes. Remember to stir occasionally. Season the beans with coriander and with some pepper if you like.

Slice the aubergine and cut the peppers in half. Heat a grill pan and brush vegetable oil on it. Char-grill the aubergine and pepper slices until they have grilling marks and are getting soft.

Put the nachos into a heat resistant oven dish. Then put the beans on them, the grilled vegetables and finally the cheese. Warm it up in the oven at 180C for about 10 minutes until the cheese has melted.

Enjoy some great nacho moments!

Your VegHog