Courgette Baba Ganoush

This Courgette Baba Ganoush dip is brilliant served as a starter with a crusty bread and it can suit any kind of summer gathering. It's also fairly quick to make, apart from the courgette grilling time, but they can grill while you prepare other dishes. I have adapted this recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty more (p. 162-165). I skipped the goat's yogurt, Roquefort and egg in order to keep my dish more simple. I also scaled the recipe down a bit, as I only had three courgettes. My version is easy to veganise by replacing the butter with a vegan alternative. Otherwise I pretty much followed Ottolenghi's instructions and here is how the dish is done.

Ingredients

3 courgettes

10 g butter

15 g pine nuts

Pinch of chilli flakes

1 tsp lemon juice

1 small garlic clove

Pinch of za'atar

Salt & black pepper

Method

Grill the courgettes in the oven under the highest grill setting for about 45 minutes. Turn them a few times during the grilling. The aim is to get them scorched outside and soft and smooth inside.

When taken out, let them cool a little bit and then scoop the flesh out from the skins. Mash the flesh into a smooth paste and drain the excess liquid off.

Melt the butter and cook the pine nuts in there until browned. Add the chilli flakes and lemon juice.

Add the finely chopped garlic, salt and pepper into the courgette mix.

Drizzle the chilli butter and za'atar on top.

Serve with a lovely crusty bread, like the sourdough baguette I had, and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Summer quiche

I made a really easy but tasty summer quiche with courgette, pepper and tomato. It's a nice savoury addition to the coffee table or a filling lunch and I really like it as holiday food. Have a look how simple it is to make.

Ingredients

300 g shortcrust pastry

1/2 courgette or one small one

1 small pepper

6-8 cherry tomatoes

1 onion

1 egg

1 dl cream

100 g emmental

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp basil

Method

Roll out the pastry thinly and place it into a pie dish. Pre-bake the pastry at 180C for about 10 minutes.

Slice the vegetables and lightly cook the onions, courgettes and peppers for about 5 minutes in a pan in rapeseed oil.

Whisk the egg with the cream and add the spices to the mix. Grate the cheese and cut the cherry tomatoes in half.

Place the vegetables on the pastry and pour the egg mix on them. Sprinkle the cheese on the top and bake at 180C for about 20 minutes.

Let the quiche rest for about 10 minutes before enjoying.

Your VegHog

 

Roasted garlic courgettes

As I already told you a few posts back how I'm inspired by the vegetarian cookbook The Forest Feast by Erin Gleeson, and so is today's dish (p. 140-141 in The Forest Feast “Accordion zucchini”). This dish is quite easy to make, but so full of flavour, and a good tip for those who are growing courgettes as you always need new ideas how to cook them. This dish also looks cool in a summer party for example.

Amounts below are per one courgette, make as many as you need. I calculated about ½ courgette per person as I served these with other small dishes. Here's how I made the dish.

1 courgette

3 garlic cloves

1 tsp olive oil

Sea salt

Ground black pepper

Grated vegetarian hard cheese

Make cuts to the courgette, but don't cut it quite through the bottom.

Make thin slices of garlic and push them into the slots of the courgette.

Brush the courgettes with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper on the top and roast at 150C for about one hour.

Sprinkle the grated vegetarian hard cheese on top of the courgettes 10 minutes before the baking time ending. I had once again the good old Sussex Charmer handy. Then just enjoy!

Your VegHog

Yellow courgette and tomato salad

Survived Monday more or less eloquently... so before I go into hibernation, here's a quick salad post that's long overdue and has been hogged by me. I bought these round courgettes in Paris, as some of you might remember from a previous post, and already made this salad a few weeks ago. This potential post just got stuck in my folder, but here it is now with its delightful colours to refresh your Monday.

2 yellow round courgettes

2 tbsp lemon infused olive oil

3 slicing tomatoes

Pomegranate seeds

Lettuce

½ tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

Cut the courgettes and the tomatoes into thin slices.

Briefly sautée the courgettes in a pan in the lemon oil.

Layer all the ingredients nicely on a plate or into a bowl and enjoy the freshness!

Have a good week!

Your VegHog

Zucchini, tomato and pepper spelt risotto

When I was writing about my balcony gardening yesterday, I started thinking the lovely veg I'm trying to grow and got an instant inspiration for this recipe. I'm currently growing all the main vegetables that are in this dish (peppers, tomatoes and zucchini), and with some luck can cook this same dish from own produce later in the summer. This is again just an easy pearled spelt risotto, but the making of it is such fun – I'd really want you to try it! I love the texture of pearled spelt and the taste is great as well.

2 yellow romano peppers

100g cherry vine tomatoes

1 zucchini

1 shallot

3 garlic cloves

1tbsp olive oil

25g butter

1-1,5 cups pearled spelt

150ml white wine

1l vegetable stock

50g Sussex Charmer cheese

A few fresh basil leaves

1tsp salt

1tsp ground black pepper

Warm the vegetable stock up at moderate heat.

Chop the peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, shallot and garlic finely.

Cook the shallot and garlic in olive oil until soft and then add the peppers, and soon after the zucchini and tomatoes. Cook for a while longer so that the juices start flowing.

Add butter to the pan and stir in the pearled spelt. Let the spelt absorb the liquid for a moment and then pour in the white wine. Let the wine evaporate and add some of the warm vegetable stock to the pan and let it simmer at low heat under lid. Make sure that the pan doesn't get dry at any time, so keep stirring and adding vegetable stock.

When the spelt in cooked, add the seasoning and grated cheese. Add any seasoning or butter or white wine more, if you prefer.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Stuffed yellow courgettes on a bed of garlicky spaghetti

Happy 1^st of May everyone! It's a big celebration in Finland, but not here, so I've just had a pretty normal day.

The stars of today's dish are these beautiful yellow round courgettes that travelled with me on the Eurostar from Paris to England. Such produce is quite hard to get here, and I loved the Parisian vegetable stands and markets. I just char-grilled these cute courgettes and stuffed them with a simple stuffing, and served on a bed of garlicky spaghetti. I cooked this dish about a week ago, but didn't get around to posting it yet, so here it goes.

For the courgettes:

4 round yellow courgettes

1tbsp vegetable oil for char-grilling

2 small shallots

1 garlic clove

125g halloumi grated

1tbsp olive oil for frying the stuffing

A small grind of black pepper

A sprinkle of oregano

Cut the round courgettes in half lengthwise and char-grill them on both sides to get distinct grilling marks. Let them cool and hollow them out with a spoon by leaving small courgette cups. Save the insides and chop them finely.

Chop the shallots and garlic finely and grate the halloumi. Then cook them with the courgette insides in olive oil for about 10 minutes and season with black pepper and oregano. Add also salt to taste, if you want to. I decided not to add any as halloumi is a fairly salty cheese.

Stuff the courgette cups with the stuffing, sprinkle some extra halloumi on the top and bake at 180C for about 10-15 minutes until cooked soft.

For the spaghetti:

500g fresh spaghetti

3 garlic cloves

125g halloumi grated

1tbsp olive oil

2tbsp soy sauce

1tbsp truffle oil

2tbsp fresh tarragon

Cook the spaghetti until al dente while the courgettes are baking. At the same time cook chopped garlic cloves and the grated halloumi in olive oil and add a dash of soy sauce once they are cooked.

Toss the cooked spaghetti in the pan and finally add the tarragon and the truffle oil. Serve the spaghetti with the stuffed courgettes on the top. I also served some garlic bread on the side.

Enjoy!

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

 

Zucchini and feta pancakes

The Pancake Day is around the corner, and I would suggest you to try my savoury pancake creation. These pancakes consist of zucchini and feta with a hint of mint, and I found them quite good. I know that most people probably prefer sweet pancakes, but they might not realise how nice savoury ones can be as well. I haven't made any sweet pancakes in ages, so I thought this would do as my Pancake Day contribution.

Here's how to make The VegHog's Zucchini and Feta pancakes.

Ingredients

1 zucchini

1 large vine tomato

100g Greek feta

8 mint leaves

½tsp salt

½tsp chilli flakes

110g self-raising flour

1tbsp baking powder

150ml milk

2 eggs

50g butter

Olive oil for frying

Method

Grate the zucchini and the peel and purée the tomato. Crumble the feta with your hands into small pieces. Melt the butter in a small pan.

Make the batter by whisking the milk, eggs, melted butter, baking powder and flour together. Season it with salt, chilli flakes and mint leaves (those you can chop up a little). Then add the tomato purée, grated zucchini and crumbled feta and mix into an even pancake batter.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan and fry the pancakes on both sides until golden brown with slightly crispy edges.

Serves well as a breakfast or a snack in between. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Grilled vegetable sandwich

I just realised that I haven't posted any sandwich ideas here, can it be true? I can only remember paninis, rolls, bagels, bruchettas... anyway, today I am indeed posting a sandwich recipe, and what could be better for a start of a new week.

I char-grilled some vegetables and halloumi slices and stacked them on bread – easy + I love the smoky flavour! These vegetable amounts should be enough to make four generous sandwiches.

1 aubergine

1 zucchini

1 halloumi

100g baby salad leaves

Bread slices

Vegetable oil for grilling

Slice the vegetables and halloumi into thin slices.

Heat vegetable oil in a griddle pan and char-grill the vegetables on both sides until they have distinctive grilling marks. Due to my pan's size I had to do several batches of grilling, so I placed the ones that were already done in a dish into the oven to stay warm.

When the grilling is done, half a large bread slice (or use two bread slices on top of each other) and stack the salad and vegetables on one slice and then place a lid on the sandwich. I decided not to grill the bread on this occasion, but feel free to do so.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Tomato salad with lemon dressing

I wanted to make a quick and fresh salad and add a splash of colour among all these winter dishes. So I ended up making this tomato and zucchini salad with some added freshness of a lemon dressing.

Salad:

65g baby leaf salad

275g selected tomatoes

1 zucchini

Dressing:

½ lemon's juice

3tbsp olive oil

3tbsp fresh basil leaves

½tsp salt

½tsp black pepper

Make the dressing by mixing the ingredients together. I don't have a dressing shaker and I normally use a small airtight container for this purpose. Just put all the ingredients in there and shake vigorously.

For the salad half the tomatoes and slice the zucchini thinly. Then layer all the salad ingredients on a plate, drizzle the dressing on the top and enjoy.

Your VegHog

Tomato, mozzarella and zucchini canapés

It's nice to have fresh salads at Christmas as well, or at anytime for that matter, and canapés are a convenient solution for any Christmas party. Therefore I have now made these tomato, mozzarella and zucchini canapés, which look quite cute and are very fresh.

Small cherry tomatoes

1 small zucchini

Mozzarella balls

Lemon juice

Olive oil

Chili flakes

Fresh basil leaves

You will need some cocktail sticks as well.

Only the zucchini needs a bit more preparation, the other ingredients are good to go and ready to be assembled. You can make any vegetable and cheese combinations you may imagine!

Slice the zucchini thinly with a peeling knife or a cheese slicer. Heat some olive oil in a pan and briefly toss the zucchini through. Add some lemon juice to the pan and season with a few chili flakes. Then let the zucchini slices cool again.

Then just stick the vegetables with the cheese on the sticks and make several different variations. In my experience these canapés tend to disappear quickly from the table, so you might want to make quite a few.

Your VegHog