Smoky halloumi and tomato ciabattas

Recently I bought these oak smoked slow roasted vine ripened tomatoes and also the variation of them with garlic by The Tomato Stall from the Isle of Wight. This product is incredibly tasty and the tomato taste is still so fresh in them, I have never tasted a similar product this good. These tomatoes are very versatile to use and I'm sure they will keep re-occuring here on the blog, but now I decided to have them in just very basic halloumi ciabattas. The result however wasn't so basic, as these were the tastiest sandwiches I've had for a long while, if I may say so myself. 

Ingredients

250 g halloumi

1 tsp vegetable oil

Oak smoked slow roasted vine ripened tomatoes

Rocket

½ garlic clove

Ciabatta rolls

Method

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

Bake the ciabatta rolls for a few minutes in the oven and then grill them on a grill pan on each side after cutting.

Rub a little garlic onto the cut side of the roll halves. And also if you have the opportunity to use these same oak smoked tomatoes, brush a little of their smoky oil onto the ciabattas.

Fill the ciabattas with the halloumi, tomatoes and rocket and enjoy!

Have a lovely new week everyone!

Your VegHog

Cooking a summer recipe off-season

I tried to defy winter today by cooking this rather summerly dish. It's light and the ingredient combination reminds of summer, so not a typical February dish today. This is just what I would imagine eating al fresco on a summer holiday.

Last Saturday I picked these lovely colourful heirloom tomatoes up from a food market, and was since then wondering what to cook with them. Then I remembered this dish that I posted in August and have made occasionally, Heirloom tomato and mozzarella pasta and made today's dish in a pretty much identical way to that. Go and have a look at the original post, if you fancy making such a dish!

This small summerly cooking and dining session at least cheered me up after a long and busy Wednesday. I also start thinking that there's actually hope that we are slowly going towards the summer, as the days are getting longer all the time. It's still chilly and we saw the first snow here yesterday, but hey, spring is bound to come soon!

I hope that everyone's having a good week!

Your VegHog

Vegetable slice bake

Today's dish is a very experimental vegetable bake. Originally I had the idea of layering vegetables in a way like almost making a lasagne without the pasta sheets. However when it came to the layering stage, I just put the slices standing up on their sides instead. It kind of worked, but maybe next time I will try that pastaless lasagne version as well. This bake is full of veggies and only low on cheese, and I think it's very suitable as a weekday meal. I added a pesto type rocket sauce on the top to add more flavour to the bake.

Ingredients

2 aubergines

Olive oil for roasting

3 courgettes

8 tomatoes

25 g mature cheddar

Rocket sauce:

50 g fresh rocket

4 garlic cloves

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/3 tsp ground black pepper

Method

Try to select vegetables that have approximately the same diameter as then the bake looks more even in your oven dish. I didn't quite plan to make this dish long enough, so my vegetables were a bit variable in size. Cut the aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes into thin slices.

Soak the aubergine slices in salted water for 30 minutes to remove the bitterness. Then drain and roast them brushed with olive oil. They don't have to be fully roasted, as they will return to the oven, but just a bit softened and soaked in olive oil. I decided to pre-roast them in order to avoid them being chewy.

Let the aubergine slices cool a little, so that you are able to handle them. Then layer the aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes next to each other into an oven dish.

Make the rocket sauce by puréeing the ingredients together into an even paste. Pour the sauce on top of the vegetables and also sprinkle the grated cheese on the top.

Bake at 180C for about 40-50 minutes until all vegetables are nicely cooked. Done!

Your VegHog

Cheese and onion bagels

Good morning! It's always morning somewhere, isn't it. Here's what I had for breakfast today: a cheese, onion, tomato and rocket bagel. The tomatoes came fresh from my garden and many other components were just basically leftovers that I had bought for other dishes, and I had to get rid of them. This was a very good breakfast indeed, I don't have to have lunch for a while.

These are the ingredients I used:

Plain bagels

Tomatoes

Red onion

Salad onion

Emmental

Sussex Charmer cheese

Fresh rocket

Salt

Pepper

I halved the bagels and baked them at 180C for about 10 minutes with the red onion rings, tomato slices, salt, pepper and cheeses on them. Then I just added some fresh salad onion rings and rocket and put the halves back together.

I always need my morning coffee, and today I had it from a lovely Moomin mug.

Have a good day everyone!

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

Harlequin squash and rocket salad with garlic vinaigrette

As an inspiration for this dish I used the recipe for a Warm squash & rocket salad with garlic vinaigrette from the BBC Good Food web page.

This was a very suitable dish for a hot summer's day as it's just a salad but still has filling and warm components. As you might know I recently tried a harlequin squash for the first time, and as I grew very fond of it, it's also featuring in this salad.

This is how I made my salad for two persons.

1 harlequin squash

Olive oil

Herb salt

Rocket

Mozzarella balls

Pine nuts

Vinaigrette:

2 garlic cloves

Vegetable oil

2 tbsp Aspall cyder vinegar

1 tbsp honey

Cut the harlequin squash into wedges along its natural wedge shape. Place them into an oven dish and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle a little herb salt on them and bake at 180C for about 30 minutes. Turn them occasionally.

Prepare the vinaigrette. Chop the garlic very finely and slowly fry it at low heat in some vegetable oil for about 10 minutes. Add the vinegar and honey and warm it up until it becomes slightly cyrupy. Set it to side.

Quickly toast some pine nuts in a dry pan. Place the rocket and pine nuts on a plate. Also the mozzarella balls can be added at this point.

When the squash is roasted, place the wedges on the top of the salad. Pour the vinaigrette on it and enjoy while the squash is still warm.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Strawberry, halloumi and spinach salad

Fruits and salad – amazing! Strawberries and balsamic vinegar – amazing! Cheese and fruits – amazing! So then, this fresh summer salad should be a success! Do try it on a warm day when you want to eat lightly and just prepare it within minutes.

Ingredients

Halloumi

Strawberries

Spinach

Rocket

Basil

Black pepper

Balsamic vinegar

Vegetable oil

Dice the halloumi and fry it in vegetable oil until golden brown and firm.

Cut the strawberries in half or quarter them. Wash the spinach and rocket.

Place everything fresh in a bowl, grind black pepper on the salad, season with chopped basil leaves and frame with balsamic vinegar.

Enjoy the taste of summer!

Your VegHog