Spelt rigatini with sweet sprouting cauliflower and pattypan squash

Made it through Monday! Now hopefully also the rest of the working week will fly by, as I am already pretty drained. The weather was nice today, sunny but fairly cool, which made all the autumn colours shine brighter.

Here is a healthy, vegan and seasonal pasta, which can be made in less than half an hour. I was inspired to make this by the contents of my fridge and dry cupboard. It's often a good and economical idea to look through the cupboards and just plan a dish based on what's in there. So this one is full of veggies and has a hint of chilli to make it slightly more interesting. I really enjoyed this healthier pasta dish.

Ingredients

1 pattypan squash

6 stems of sweet sprouting cauliflower

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 small chilli

Olive oil

4 tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

200 g spelt rigatini

Method

Slice the pattypan squash and cut the sprouting cauliflower into pieces. Also finely chop the onion, garlic and chilli.

Start cooking the onion and then also the garlic and chilli in a pan until they are soft.

Add the cauliflower, squash and diced tomatoes and let cook for a while until the vegetables start softening. I like to keep a little bit crunch to the veggies so avoid cooking them too long.

Season the vegetable mix, cook the pasta, mix all together and serve.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Mexican cauliflower cheese

I stumbled upon Gran Luchito's Mexican Cauliflower cheese recipe and decided to give it a go. In the end I made my own version of it, as my partner doesn't eat milk-based sauces. I opted for vegetable stock as the liquid instead, and the dish turned out really nice. It was luscious and comforting, perfect for the darkening evenings. And of course I do adore Mexican food, there are so many good vegetarian and vegan options in that style of cooking.

Have a look below, how I made my version of the Mexican cauliflower cheese.

Ingredients

1 cauliflower

2 garlic cloves

15 g butter

2 tsp smoked chilli paste

2 tbsp wheat flour

400 ml vegetable stock

150 g grated Cheddar

Method

I steamed the cauliflower florets for a few moments and made the roux in the meanwhile.

For the roux I just heated garlic cloves in butter in a pan and added the smoked chilli paste followed by the wheat flour. Then I added the vegetable stock and let it all cook for a couple of minutes.

Then I placed the steamed cauliflower florets into an oven dish, covered with the chilli sauce and cheese.

And the whole thing baked at 180 C for about 30 minutes and was then ready to be enjoyed.

It was so good have a different twist to cauliflower cheese.

Your VegHog

In My Kitchen in October

Lizzy from Good Things has taken over the In My Kitchen blogger challenge from Maureen, so I wanted to warmly welcome her as a new host! Go and pay a visit to her blog and also have a peek into other people's kitchens. I am posting here what's going on in my kitchen in October.

I have been cooking quite a lot with the homegrown produce from my balcony, especially the tomatoes and peppers have been productive and there have also been several good pattypan squashes. I should also dry some of the chillies soon. I have the feeling that there will still be quite a lot to eat from the balcony garden. This has been a very good year for urban gardening.

A cactus theme suddenly filled our home after we had paid a visit to our shopping centre's new Flying Tiger of Copenhagen shop, where I went crazy for this cute cactus design. We got a drinking jug, soft fleece blanket, post cards, gift bags and napkins in the same design, and there still would've been loads of other cute items. How would you find a cactus lamp in my kitchen?

Brewdog opened a new bar in our area in September, so we've obviously been keen customers there ever since. They have such a good craft beer selection themselves and their guest beers are always excellent. We had to buy this growler with which you can buy take out beer. It's such a good idea.

I finally got myself a spiraliser. Can you believe that as a vegetarian food blogger and keen cook, I haven't owned one before! I've been using my cutting knife so far that cuts thin strips, but now a whole new world opened to me with a better, more convenient spiraliser. As you can imagine I've been spiralising a lot of vegetables and my salads have never looked so appealing before. Braise yourselves for more spiralised dishes on the blog.

I have been eating loads of special limited edition grapes lately, like the Funny Fingers variety depicted here and the longish dark Sweet Sapphire variety. First I was a bit taken aback by their looks, but they turned out to be really tasty. They are such good additions to work lunch boxes and something refreshingly new and different.

Every time I see a novelty vegetable in the shop, I have to buy it. When I first detected a sweet sprouting cauliflower, it had to come home with me. I really like its mild flavour and versatility. I've been steaming, frying and roasting it and served it with pasta and potato dishes. It's a nice one for a change, if you're a bit tired of cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli.

This was it for this time. I hope that October will continue crisp and cool to get into the proper autumn feeling. It has still been a bit too warm here in Southern England.

Have a good weekend!

Your VegHog

Mushroom rye breads

I often start Saturdays with a hearty breakfast, as I then finally have time to sit down and enjoy the breakfast after a busy week. I really like the moment when I can drink my coffee in peace and eat something tasty while browsing other blogs or writing my own posts. So here we are again in this situation. I'm planning to have a quiet weekend at home and it starts with these vegan mushroom rye breads.

Ingredients

150 g baby chestnut mushrooms

2 garlic cloves

2 tbsp olive oil

Few fresh basil leaves

Sprinkle of salt and ground black pepper

6 rye bread slices

Method

Slice the mushrooms and chop the garlic cloves finely. Cook them in olive oil until most of the excess mushroom liquid has evaporated again.

Season with fresh basil, salt and pepper.

Toast the rye bread slices and place the mushroom mix onto the breads.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Cabbage casserole

Here comes a good hearty and warming autumn dish. It's also quite economical one to make, which is always a plus. My mother taught me last year how to make traditional Finnish Kaalilaatikko, cabbage casserole, in its vegetarian version and I also blogged about it then. Now I cooked another version of the dish, which is vegan and contains also some carrots to have a bit more veggies in the dish. I really adore the tender pointed cabbages, which are perfect for such dishes. I also added some pearled spelt and soya mince, and the dish has a mix of savoury and sweet black treacle notes. The dish may not look so great, but I can assure you, it's tasty.

Ingredients

1 large pointed cabbage or white cabbage

2 onions

2 garlic cloves

2 carrots

1 tbsp vegetable oil

½ cup pearled spelt

½ cup dried soya mince

1 tsp vegetable stock extract

3 tbsp black treacle

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Method

Cut the cabbage into generously sized pieces and cook them in water for a few minutes. Take off the heat and leave the cabbage in the water.

Chop the onion, garlic and carrots finely and cook them in a pan in oil until soft and lightly browned.

Cook the pearled spelt and dried soya mince in separate pots until done. You can add a little bit of vegetable stock powder to the cooking water.

Drain the cabbage, but keep the water.

Mix the ingredients and also add a few ladles of the cabbage cooking water. Season with salt, pepper and black treacle.

Put the mix into ramekins or an oven dish and sprinkle some black treacle on the top.

Bake the casserole in the oven at 180 C for about one hour.

During the baking, occasionally pour some of the cabbage cooking water onto the surface so that it doesn't fully dry out.

Serve with maybe some potatoes and salad on the side.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Fondant potato, cheese and onion pies

I have been making fondant potatoes a few times lately. They are so tasty and comforting and also a bit naughty due to the rich butter ans vegetable stock mix where they cook. I think that they are quite perfect for autumnal dishes. I have made fondant potato pasties in the past and now I wanted to incorporate them into proper pies. I wanted to go with a good tried and tested combination of potato, onion and cheese with notes of thyme running through. These pies turned out really nice and I will surely make them again.

I had some seasonal vegetables on the side, steamed sweet sprouting cauliflower, which is very mild and pleasant new vegetable for me, and roasted acorn squash and purple carrots. I love the vegetables of this season!

Here is my recipe for 4 small pies:

Ingredients

3 onions

2 garlic cloves

Olive oil

6 potatoes

Fresh thyme sprigs

500 ml vegetable stock

25 g butter

1 garlic clove

400 g shortcrust pastry

150 g grated Cheddar

Sides: steamed sweet sprouting cauliflower, roasted purple carrots and acorn squash

Method

Chop the onions into half rings and cook them slowly and long until they are caramelised. Then add the finely chopped garlic to them.

Quarter the potatoes and place them into a frying pan. Put some thyme sprigs onto them and also add one quartered garlic clove and the butter. Then pour in the vegetable stock so that the potato tops aren't quite covered. Let simmer until the stock has evaporated and the potatoes are tender and browned. The potatoes can be turned over just before removing them from the pan.

Roll the shortcrust pastry out thinly and divide it into ramekins or small pie dishes. Cut the rest of the pastry into about 0.5 cm wide long strips.

Fill the pastry with grated cheese, onion mix and potatoes by layering them into the dishes in turns. Season with some additional fresh thyme.

Cover the pie with a pleated griddle of pastry.

Bake the pies at 180 C for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Welcoming Eat Your Greens recipes for October

Happy World Vegetarian Day!

What could be a better occasion to call for new vegetarian and vegan recipes cooked with green vegetables than World Vegetarian Day. So please delight us with your recipes and take part in Eat Your Greens in October! I'm excited to see how autumnal your dishes are getting.

Shaheen's Eat Your Greens round up with the fabulous and inspiring September recipes can be found through the link. Go and have a read.

If you want to take part, simply either add the link to your recipe to the comment box below or send it to us by email, more info about how to participate is here. If you are tweeting your recipe, please use #EatYourGreens #eatyourgreens and include @SeasonalShaheen @TheVegHog.

I can't wait to see your creations! Have fun cooking!

Your VegHog