Mushroom and squash spelt risotto

I served this earthy mushroom and squash spelt risotto to our guests, after they arrived after a long train journey last weekend. I think it was quite well received, and hit the spot just fine. The beauty of these kinds of risottos is that they almost get better when reheated, so you can prepare them in advance only to be reheated quickly. This is also a very handy dish to make for several people as a one-pot. It can always be extended with bread and salad on the side.

I'm not going to publish this particular recipe here, as I've made similar dishes so many times before, and the pattern is pretty much the same. I used onion squash and brown closed cup mushrooms in this one, and roasted the squash. You can use pumpkin or other squashes in this recipe, different mushrooms, replace the mushrooms etc. It's all good. The main thing is that it's warming and comforting and uses seasonal produce. Add some cheese, if you like, or make a vegan version. You can also use pearled barley, even though I normally prefer spelt. Traditional arborio rice is also very nice in such autumnal risottos.

I just can't get enough of these autumn flavours, and have a few squashes lined up for further recipes. So I'm sorry, if you're not fond of squash, there will still be a lot of it on this blog.

Here are some of my similar previous recipes:

Porcini spelt risotto 

Crown prince squash spelt risotto 

Pattypan squash spelt risotto 

Harlequin squash risotto 

Wild mushroom and crown prince squash spelt risotto 

Harlequin squash spelt risotto with halloumi 

Yes, I rest my case. I seem to have made a similar dish once or twice before. Do you like autumnal risottos and what are your favourite ingredients for them?

Your VegHog

Onion squash macaroni cheese

This is a very seasonal dish that would be quite nice to serve at a Halloween party. It's a macaroni cheese without milk, featuring roasted onion squash mash with the macaroni. However it's not fully vegan, as I still used regular cheese in it. I'm just constantly in lookout for alternative non-milky mac'n'cheese ideas, as my partner doesn't like them. I love that sort of creamy mac'n'cheeses as well, but now have to be more creative. The squash prevented the cheese from splitting with the rest of the sauce, so this was quite an successful version.

I enjoyed this version of mac'n'cheese very much, and will probably make it soon again in this spooky and dark season. Have you made any seasonal Halloween dishes or baking? Or do you have any tips for substitutes for milk or cream in a macaroni cheese bake?

Onion squash macaroni cheese

Ingredients

½ onion squash

Olive oil

200 g macaroni

2 onions

2 garlic cloves

2 tbsp potato flour

1 cup vegetable stock

200 g cheese

Sprinkle of salt

Sprinkle of ground black pepper

Sprinkle of smoked paprika

½ cup breadcrumbs

Method

Peel and cut the squash into wedges. Brush them with oil and roast in the oven until done. Mash the roasted squash pieces.

Cook the macaroni in water until it's al dente.

Chop onions and garlic finely and sautée them in a pan in olive oil until soft. Add the potato flour and vegetable stock and stir until smooth.

Then slowly add the mashed squash and 2/3 of the cheese. Keep mixing so that the mixture gets smooth and doesn't split.

Season to taste and mix with the cooked macaroni. Put the mix into an oven dish, add the rest of the cheese on the top with the breadcrumbs, and bake at 180 C for about 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

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

Onion squash nut roast

Here is a new nut roast idea from me, as I felt like posting one again for this Christmas. This onion squash nut roast could be cooked for a vegan Christmas dinner, and I think I'll make similar ones again for the big day.

I used one of my favourite squashes, the onion squash, as the main ingredient paired with chestnuts. These were really nice little nut roasts and very easy to make. I made them as mini versions in eight silicone muffin baking cases, which reduced the cooking time and made them into a nice shape. Here's my recipe.

Ingredients for the nut roast

1 onion squash

Olive oil

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1-2 carrots

Fresh thyme

Salt

Pepper

240 g cooked and peeled chestnuts

3-4 tbsp breadcrumbs

Served with

Roasted ruby gem potatoes

Roasted heirloom carrots

Turnip mash (3 turnips, salt, butter, 1 garlic clove)

Method

Roast the onion squash after peeling and cutting to pieces. Mash it after the roasting.

Chop the onion, garlic and carrots finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. Season the mix with fresh thyme, salt and pepper.

Combine the squash mash with the onions, crushed chestnuts and breadcrumbs and mix into an even mixture.

Put the nut roast either into silicone muffin cases or into a large baking tin.

Bake the nut roast in the oven at 200 C for about 40 minutes.

Serve with all nice veggie roast fixtures and fittings.

Your VegHog

Onion squash and lentil soup

Organic onion squash is back in my regular supermarket! That really is good news. I don't really mind if they don't get any other vegetables in for a while now... or maybe that goes a bit too far, but onion squashes are seriously tasty!

I grabbed a couple of squashes and as the first dish I decided to make the basic classic (at least my personal classic), a vegan soup with onion squash, onions and red lentils. This was really tasty flavoured with some fresh coriander, which turned the colour slightly weirdly into greenish, but that doesn't matter to me. I used my new herb pairing wheel for ideas when creating this recipe. Please have a look below how I made it.

Ingredients

1 medium onion squash

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

500 ml vegetable stock

½ cup dried red lentils

A handful of fresh coriander

Allspice to taste

Salt to taste

Method

Chop the onions and garlic cloves finely.

Peel the squash and cut it into small cubes.

Start cooking the onions and garlic in a saucepan in olive oil, after a while add the squash cubes.

Stir for a few more minutes and then add the vegetable stock and lentils.

Let simmer until the squash and lentils are fully cooked.

Season the soup, purée it and enjoy!

Even though this is a very basic vegan soup, I want to share the recipe with the No Croutons Required soup and salad cooking challenge, as I'm happy that the soup season is here again and I can use my favourite squashes. The challenge is hosted this month by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes and the co-host for this event is Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Your VegHog

Onion squash quesadilla

Happy Sunday everyone! I've had a relaxing day so far and am just starting to cook basically for the rest of the day. Today's dishes will also be posted here soon, but while I'm still making them, I thought I'd post a dish that I made recently: roasted onion squash quasadilla with fresh coriander and Cheddar. I kept the ingredients quite simple, but these were really tasty. I will certainly be making them again! 

Here is my recipe.

Ingredients

1 onion squash

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 red bell pepper

Chilli flakes

Salt

Ground black pepper

8 plain tortilla wraps

Fresh coriander

250 g grated Cheddar

Sour cream

Method

Peel and chop the onion squash into cubes. Brush them with olive oil and roast in the oven until soft with roasting marks.

Chop the onion and garlic finely and cut the bell pepper into small cubes.

Heat olive oil in a pan and quickly blitz fry the onion, garlic and bell pepper in olive oil. I like to keep a little crunch to them. Season the mix with chilli flakes, salt and pepper to taste.

Layer the roasted squash, pepper mix, fresh coriander and cheese on a tortilla wrap and place a second one as a lid.

Put the quesadillas into the oven on a pre-heated baking sheet under the grill for a few minutes until the tortillas have received some colour and crispiness.

Cut into pieces and serve with sour cream on the side.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Moroccan style stew with onion squash, chickpeas and sugarsnap peas

For a change I wanted to combine a squash with more exotic spices, so I came up with this recipe. I want to keep eating seasonal squashes for a long time still, so new ideas are always welcome. In this recipe I used Moroccan style spicing and combined the squash with chickpeas and sugar snap peas. Would Moroccans even use these vegetables? I'm not quite sure, but I have to say that they work with the spices. On the side of the stew I served couscous with almond flakes and a garlicky yogurt sauce to neutralise the spiciness a bit. I liked this dish very much and I'm sure I'll be making similar ones in the future. I also like making a large batch like this, as this is a good dish to take as packed lunch for the next day, or even eat it two days in a row. Feel free to scale the ingredient amounts down, if you don't want to have spare stew or don't have about four eaters.

Ingredients

Stew

100 g dried chickpeas

1 onion squash

240 g sugar snap peas

4 shallots

3 garlic cloves

1 small red chilli

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp ginger powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp turmeric

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ras el hanout

500 ml vegetable stock

1 tbsp honey

Couscous

1 cup couscous

50 g almond flakes

½ tsp salt

Yogurt sauce

150 g natural yogurt

1 garlic clove

1 tsp lemon infused olive oil

Method

Soak the chickpeas overnight and boil them in generous amount of water for about one hour. You can also use canned and cooked chickpeas, in that case this step is unnecessary.

Prepare the yogurt sauce. Chop the garlic finely and cook it for a couple of minutes in the lemon infused olive oil, but don't let it get brown. Let the garlic cool and mix it with the yogurt. Now the yogurt can rest in the fridge until serving. Lemon juice can also be added to it to taste before serving.

Then you can start making the stew. Peel the onion squash and remove the seeds. Cut it into cubes.

Cut the sugar snap peas in half. This is an optional step, you can also leave them whole, if you prefer.

Chop the shallots, garlic and chilli finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. I only use a little bit of chilli, but use more, if you like hot food.

Add the spices (paprika, ginger powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, cinnamon and ras el hanout) and the vegetable stock to the pan, and then also the squash and chickpeas.

Let simmer slowly under lid for about one hour until the squash is cooked soft. Taste the stew a few times when you go along so that you can adjust the spices according to your own taste. Only when I started cooking more, I started tasting the food as I went along, and that's really necessary to get the taste right. That's also the reason why I'm not always so keen giving amounts for spices here, because I think everyone wants to make the dish to their own taste anyway.

After the simmering, add the honey and the sugar snap peas to the stew and let it simmer for further five minutes. Veganise this dish by leaving the honey and the yogurt sauce out.

In the meanwhile also prepare the couscous. First boil two cups of water and take the pan off heat. Add the couscous, salt and almond flakes to the pan and leave them under the lid for about ten minutes.

Serve the stew, couscous and yogurt sauce together and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Onion squash tart

Today's recipe came about as a very spontaneous thing. I'd had that onion squash for a while, and I wanted to try something new with it. After a short consideration, I really started craving a pasty, pie or tart, so a tart it became. I used ready made pastry, which made it a really easy one. It would make quite a nice seasonal treat for your informal guests.

About this tart I love the sweet squash taste combined with earthy emmental cheese and toasted pine nuts. Savoury tarts are definitely among my favourite veggie foods of all time.

Here are the ingredients I used and instructions for making this tart. I know that the pre-roasting can be a pain, but taste wise it really gets results!

Ingredients

1 small onion squash

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

3 tbsp olive oil

320 g puff pastry sheet

2 tsp Herbes de Provence

30 g toasted pine nuts

100 g emmental cheese

1 egg for brushing

Method

Peel the squash, remove the seeds and cut it into wedges. Roast the squash wedges brushed with olive oil at 200C for about 30 minutes.

Chop the shallots and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. Add one teaspoon of Herbes de Provence into the mix.

Line a large tart tin with baking paper and place the pastry in there. Brush it with the beaten egg. Pre-bake the pastry at 200C for about 5 minutes until it puffs up a bit.

Then layer the ingredients on the pastry, shallots and garlic mix first, then the grated cheese, the roasted squash wedges and finally the pine nuts and a final addition of Herbes de Provence.

Bake the tart at 200C for about 20 minutes until nicely baked.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Spring risotto

I already posted the cider review today, but since I had time to write more, I'll give you this spring risotto recipe. Spring and risotto go together for me almost better than anything. I just love to detect the first local asparagus and add it to a light and colourful risotto that melts in your mouth. To this risotto I also added an onion squash, red pepper and shallots. The onion squash is representing more the winter side of things meeting spring vegetables in this dish. Here are the instructions for making it.

Ingredients

1 onion squash

1 red pepper

100g green asparagus

3 shallots

3 garlic cloves

1l vegetable stock

1 onion stock cube

1tbsp olive oil

25g butter

1dl white wine

300g arborio rice

2tsp salt

1tsp ground black pepper

70g Sussex Charmer vegetarian hard cheese

Method

Peel the onion squash and remove the seeds, then cut it into small cubes. Chop the red pepper, shallots and garlic, and cut about 2cm long pieces of the asparagus. Prepare a vegetable stock and heat it up. The onion stock cube can either be added to the stock, or just to the risotto later.

Then start cooking the shallots and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add the squash cubes and pepper and cook for further 10 minutes at medium heat. Keep in mind for the further process that you have to be able to stir the risotto quite often.

Add the butter to the vegetables and let it melt, then add the arborio rice. Once the rice is translucent, pour in the white wine and let it evaporate. Then start making vegetable stock additions. Add a few ladles of it and let the risotto simmer under the lid. The heat can be quite low now, but the pan contents should still be able to simmer. Make sure it doesn't dry up and also stir often.

Keep adding the vegetable stock as long as it's needed until the rice and vegetables have cooked. About five minutes before the end also add the asparagus into the pan and get it cooked al dente. Season with salt and black pepper, and add the grated hard cheese. Add more butter or wine to taste.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Onion squash spelt risotto

Since a couple of months I've started preferring a pearled spelt risotto to a regular one. I'd like to think that the spelt variation is a bit healthier, and it has a wonderful nutty flavour, which goes perfectly with a variety of squashes. Here is my creation of the day, a spring coloured onion squash spelt risotto.

1 medium onion squash

2 peppers

1 large onion

3 garlic cloves

1tbsp olive oil

25g butter

1tbsp vegetable stock powder + 1l water + 1 garlic stock cube

2 cups pearled spelt

250ml white wine

1tbsp sage leaves

1tsp sea-buckthorn salt (regular salt will also do)

1tsp black pepper

50g cheddar

50g mozzarella

The making of a spelt risotto is pretty much the same as a regular risotto with arborio rice, but here is still a quick summary of the method.

Prepare a vegetable stock and warm it up. Peel and dice the squash, seeds need to be removed. Also chop the peppers, onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and cook the peppers, onion and garlic until soft. Add the butter and let it melt, and then add the pearled spelt. After a couple of minutes stirring, pour in the white wine and let it evaporate. Then just add a few ladles of the warm vegetable stock and let simmer under the lid at moderate heat. Keep stirring often, and make further vegetable stock additions. Do not let the pan go dry.

Once the spelt is cooked, season with sage, salt and pepper. Stir in the grated cheese and serve warm.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Onion squash soup

This squash has many names: Red Kuri squash, Japanese squash, Onion squash etc. The name commonly used in the UK is Onion squash, so that's what I'm using as well. It's one of my favourite squashes due to its chestnutty flavour, and today I made a soup with it. For many years as a vegetarian, squashes weren't part of my diet as they weren't so much readily available, and now I know what a loss it was. These days I can't imagine a diet without different squashes as they are so versatile, healthy and tasty.

Here's how this easy soup can be made.

1 medium onion squash

3 shallots

4 garlic cloves

300g baby new potatoes

2tbsp vegetable stock powder + 1l water

2tbsp olive oil

1tsp salt

1tsp white ground pepper

1tsp thyme

1tsp parsley

Peel the squash, remove the seeds and then dice it. Chop the shallots and garlic finely and quarter the potatoes. There's no need to peel them as new potatoes have very thin skins. Prepare the vegetable stock by combining the vegetable stock powder with water.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and cook the shallots and garlic until soft. Add the squash and potato cubes into the pan and cook for a few minutes. Then add the vegetable stock and simmer under the lid until the squash and potatoes are fully cooked.

Stir occasionally and season with salt, white pepper, thyme and parsley. Fresh herbs give more flavour, but dried ones are also fine for this soup. Serve the soup with earthy rye bread and enjoy!

Your VegHog