Eat Your Greens May Round Up

This is the round up for Eat Your Greens cooking challenge in May. I hosted the challenge this month, and in June it will be Shaheen's turn to host again. I can't believe that no one shared a green asparagus dish, but it was a great seasonal selection anyway. So without further ado, let's admire the green recipes that were shared with us in May!

My co-host Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen shared a Versatile Dippy Green Pate and Pesto Presto Pasta that contains a lot of spinach and of course gets its lovely greennes from it. The pate really has many uses, as it can be enjoyed as a spinach cream cheese spread on crackers, mixed into olive pasta, or whatever combination you desire. It's a really good idea for summer parties too.

Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen cooked Savory Sage Green and Yellow Split Pea Rice Patties with Apple Chia Seed Compote. The patties themselves contain a huge amount of greens: split green peas, green apples, scallions, green chillies, peas, sage, thyme and oregano, and they are served with an arugula, watercress and microgreens salad. There is also a delightful apple and chia seed compote with cinnamon. This sounds and looks like a wonderful plate of food. I'm always ready for a little homemade vegetable patty.

Linsy from Home Cook Food made a Thai Green Curry Ramen Bowl, which is just a comfort dish after my own heart. She used green curry paste, green Thai chillies, lemon grass, lime juice and coriander leaves in the recipe, so there are plenty of greens in there. I would be happy to tuck into this anytime, and like Linsy mentions, the ingredients can easily be substituted by others that you happen to have at hand or feel like eating.

Teresa from Affectioknit blog posted Spinach Molds that were served with tofu and sweetcorn on the side. Again of course spinach is the main green here. The molds are creamy and have a nice pale green colour from the spinach. I think that more food should be served in molded shapes, and might attempt something similar myself. I do admire, how these hold well together. I'm sure it's not easy to get the texture right.

My own contribution in May was a Wild garlic tart. I didn't get to forage the wild garlic myself, but I enjoyed it immensely on this tart and in other dishes too. It does add a nice splash of green colour when piled on top of a tart. I also used some fresh onions with their green stalks and fresh thyme in this recipe that were mixed into the potato filling for some additional greens.

Thank you so much everyone for taking part, and also many thanks to our faithful readers! I look forward to seeing your creations also in June.

Your VegHog

Wild garlic tart

Wild garlic is just a beautiful, beautiful thing, isn't it? However I wasn't able to forage any wild garlic yet this year, as I've only seen it grow in the Botanical Gardens, and of course I couldn't take it from there. But luckily for me, the local market also sold some, and to very reasonable prices at that, so I got a good supply of it to make a few dishes.

I think that the stalks look great, so it's always a shame to hide them somewhere in the dish. I wanted to make a potato tart, where the wild garlic is added fresh on the top after the baking, and gets the centre stage. It was a very nice tart with some added cheese, and I hope to be able to make another one, while there is still some wild garlic around. Here is my recipe for it.

Wild garlic tart

Ingredients

Bunch of wild garlic

200 g potatoes

100 g grated cheese

1 fresh onion with stalks

2 garlic cloves

Vegetable oil for frying

Fresh thyme

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

25 g butter

Shortcrust pastry

Method

Cook the potatoes and mash them. Them season them and mix with the cheese.

Chop the onion and garlic finely, and fry them lightly in the vegetable oil, and also mix them in with the potatoes.

Heat butter in a pan with thyme, salt and pepper, and cook it until it turns brown. This mixture will be poured on the tart later.

Spread the pastry, and spread the potato mix on it.

Bake the tart at 200 C for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Place the wild garlic stalks on top of the tart and drizzle the brown butter on the top. Enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with the Eat Your Greens challenge, which I'm hosting this month, and co-hosting with Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen blog. You still have a little while to take part, so submit your recipe!

Your VegHog

Pink fried rice

And the weekend is here, I'm so happy! The weather has been so good over here in Copenhagen for the past weeks, but later today we might get a bit of thunder, which should nicely refresh the plants after a long dry spell.

We'll be soon heading to town and spend most of the day outdoors, but we might also visit a new architecture centre, which is a very nice building in the harbour. There is also an excellent new vegetarian café nearby, so I would think that lunch is also sorted.

I wanted to share this recipe with you that I cooked the other day. I named it pink fried rice, as it seemed to turn out that way. I still had some of that Finnish beetroot tofu in the freezer, and thought that it would be a nice colour combination. I hadn't made fried rice in ages, so it seemed like a good idea. I'm happy to see local radishes around, as it's always a promise of summer. It's also so nice to make dishes more vibrant by adding colourful radishes.

This was just a spontaneous quick dish, but it actually turned out quite nice looking, and it was certainly tasty. This is mainly due to the pinkness of the beetroot tofu and the fresh radishes. The dish was of course also all vegan.

Pink fried rice

Ingredients

1 cup jasmine rice

125 g beetroot tofu

Vegetable oil for frying
1 fennel
4-6 small carrots
4-5 radishes + the tops

2 fresh onions

2 garlic cloves

2 cm fresh ginger

1 red chilli

1 tbsp white miso

2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp sesame oil

Method

Cook the rice.

Chop the tofu and fry it in oil until crispy.

Chop the onion into half rings, chilli into rings and the ginger and garlic finely.

Slice the fennel, carrots and radishes.

Once the rice and tofu are done, heat some oil in a frying pan and start frying the carrots, soon followed by the onion. Then add the chilli, ginger and garlic.

Season with white miso, soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil to taste. My ingredient amounts for the seasoning are only roughly estimated.

Add the chopped radish tops, tofu and rice to the pan and fry for a while longer.

And there you have a nice rice. Serve it with the fresh radish on the top and enjoy! 

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Asparagus and tomato tart

Of course asparagus is in season, and white and green ones are being offered everywhere. I really like to see them in my local market, although I haven't made too many asparagus dishes myself yet. I still can't fully decide, which colour is my favourite, as they both have their good points. When I lived in Germany I was a big fan of white asparagus, as it's traditionally eaten a lot there, and they do make nice dishes with it. But when I lived in Britain, I perhaps started favouring green asparagus more. Now I'm basically back to square one at deciding on favourites, as they are both equally offered here and often even mixed. What do you think, do you have a clear favourite?

Even though I haven't cooked asparagus so much myself, I've been enjoying it elsewhere. We had a lovely mixed green and white asparagus dish at work this week. The asparagus was lightly cooked and served with a nice sauce and some dry breadcrumb-nut mix on the top. I can't describe it properly, but it was delicious. And today we had a wonderful asparagus soup for lunch, where again both white and green ones had been used. I really can't complain about food at work at the moment. Since we have a new chef, the offering seems to have shifted more and more towards vegetarian options. It was always okay with the fresh salad buffet and nice selection of breads, but now I can actually more often eat a warm lunch. I think that the soups are always vegetarian, as I haven't seen a meaty one yet. It's good, and I can't compliment the kitchen staff enough.

So of course today's dish contains asparagus after all this praise. I could personally just live on tarts in this season. There are many tempting vegetables to put on them and to then enjoy the comfort, especially when cheese is also added. One of my main favourites is a tomato tart, and this one with tomatoes and green asparagus was very tasty. Here is the quick and easy recipe, as the pastry was shop bought.

Asparagus and tomato tart

Ingredients

Shortcrust pastry

Bunch of green asparagus

1 fresh onion

1 garlic clove

3-4 tomatoes

Cheese

Salt

Pepper

Thyme

Oil for frying

Method

Cut the tomatoes and pre-fry the asparagus lightly.

Chop the onions and garlic and fry them briefly in a pan.

Spread the pastry into a baking dish.

Place the onion, garlic and seasoning on it, followed by the cheese.

Place the tomato slices and asparagus on the top and bake in the oven at about 200 C until the crust is crispy and golden brown.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Spicy yin & yang bean burgers

My apologies again for the quiet spell on the blog. It has been incredibly busy again with visitors, work and Danish classes, and I just haven't found enough time for blogging. I've done a lot of vegan and vegetarian cooking though, and some of these recipes are ready to be shared with you soon. I've also eaten in some nice veggie places, and plan to write a post about them soon. It has been an absolutely lovely weather over here for a few weeks, and I've been enjoying a lot of outdoors. But now swiftly on to today's recipe.

Spicy bean burgers are a classic in the vegetarian kitchen, and I just can't get tired of them. These days I rarely order them, if they are on the menu in a restaurant, but I love making them myself. I often also make them vegan, but I added egg to this recipe, and also cheese as a topping. However they would be easy to veganise. When I'm making them at home, my favourite method is to make a potato based patty with beans and spices. My choice of bean was a bit more special in these patties, as I used black and white yin and yang beans. They were very nice actually, but unfortunately hiding under the breadcrumbs on the photos.

This time I also got to use my new “burger sleeves” for the presentation, yay! I already had the french fry pockets before and had used them once or twice, but they made a cool combination. Have a look below how I made these burgers.

Spicy yin & yang bean burgers

Ingredients

200 g potatoes

½ cup dried yin and yang beans

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

1 tsp ground chilli powder

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 egg

2 cups breadcrumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Burger toppings: Cheese, beetroot sprouts, lettuce, vegan chipotle mayo

Twice-cooked fries on the side

Method

Boil the potatoes and mash them.

Also cook the beans or use tinned beans.

Chop the onion, garlic and chilli finely and fry them in oil so that they get soft.

Add the seasoning and the beans to the onion mix.

Let the mix cool down and mix it with the mashed potatoes. Also add some breadcrumbs into the mix, if it doesn't seem firm enough.

Let the mix rest for about 30 minutes in the fridge.

Shape patties from the mix, and roll them in the eggwash and then in the breadcrumbs.

Fry the burger patties on both sides until crispy and golden brown.

Serve with nice buns, toppings and sides. I put on there cheese, beetroot sprouts, lettuce and vegan chipotle mayo.

I'm sharing the recipe with My Legume Love Affair #119 edition, which is hosted by PJ from Seduce Your Taste Buds blog. The event was created by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook and then continued by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen. Go and visit their blogs, there are very nice recipes there.

Your VegHog

In My Kitchen in May

It's the beautiful month of May, and I have some new items and foods in my kitchen that I want to share with you, so let's have a look.

I went on a quick business trip to Zürich in Switzerland. It's a beautiful city, but of course I didn't have time to explore it too much due to work. It was my first visit to Switzerland as well. I had the most wonderful dinner of asparagus ravioli with brown sage butter, and all the other veggie dishes there were also very nice and tasty. The only shopping I made was at the airport, where I purchased these legendary Ricola herbal drops in a tin and some Swiss chocolate. I really hope that I could go there on holiday one day, as it really is a very beautiful country. At least I saw some mountains from the plane.

I bought two savory plants to put on the window sill, and they are both tasty and pretty. They taste a lot like thyme and the flowers make perfect little decorations on food. I also bought some organic butterfly meadow flower seeds to spread somewhere. 

Fresh flowers always cheer me up, and as all the flowers in the market have been so tempting again, I've occasionally bought a bouquet. This time it was white Ranunkel, a sort of buttercup, that got my attention. I think that they look really nice and they also come in all possible colours.

As it's getting warmer, refreshing beers are always nice. I got this low alcohol (0,3%) beer by Mikkeller, Henry and his science. It's a microbiologically flavoured ale with a cute label.

On a recent trip to Sweden, I bought these burger sleeves and swan napkins. Swans are everywhere in Copenhagen, so they might as well be on napkins too. I'm sure that the burger sleeves will appear in some food presentations soon. They can also come in handy in the approaching picnic season.

I bought these spices from the Flying Tiger of Copenhagen. I had to buy some of the collection, as the little texts really made me smile, especially the Space Oddity reference. I think I'll have to get some more of these, and I think that they would also make neat small presents. I really like the packaging. It's simple, but easily resealable and can be stored flatly in small space.

I've finally welcomed yeast flakes in my life. I actually can't believe that I've never tried them before, but now they are going into many dishes in my kitchen. They are so nice and convenient for adding some extra savoury into dishes. What are your best yeast flake tips for such a beginner?

Of course I've been getting loads of nice inspiring seasonal vegetables from the market. Here are some on display. I love the variety of courgettes at the moment and am also very happy about the arrival of asparagus.

Maybe I can use these balsamico pearls in some nice seasonal salads soon.

Here is a dish that I made recently: pasta with fresh vegetables and soya nuggets. This sort of plates are so easy and quick for weekdays, and I often end up having this sort of collections on the plate.

This was it for now, and of course I'm sharing this post with Sherry from Sherry's Pickings blog, who is hosting the In My Kitchen event. Go and visit her nice blog and find links to other bloggers' kitchens. It's always good fun!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Stuffed purple sweet potatoes and cherry blossoms

I'm very sorry about the misleading title that possibly got me some curious clicks, but no, the cherry blossoms weren't in the potatoes. However it turns out that at least some cherry blossoms are edible. I didn't know that before! The reason for the title is rather that we are having a wonderful sakura, cherry blossom, season in Copenhagen and have been able to admire those beautiful blooming trees for a couple of weeks now. I just wanted to share a couple of photos of them. 

This vegan dish on the contrary might not look too nice, but I can assure you that it was quite tasty. I only very recently made my first stuffed sweet potatoes, and thought that they were quite nice. And this second attempt was made with the lovely purple sweet potatoes that I can now get from my local market.

I stuffed these purple sweet potatoes with green lentils, green heirloom tomatoes, carrot, onion and garlic, but only the sky is limit what could be put into these.

The benefit is that sweet potato roasts much quicker than a normal one, so this is also more convenient dish to make regarding the waiting time. It's also nice change to have the sweetness as contrast with a savoury filling. But I still have to say that nothing can beat a “real” spud. Anyway, it's nice to have some change every now and again. What do you think of sakuras and spuds?

Your VegHog

Eat Your Greens welcoming May recipes

Isn't it fabulous that it's already May! I like it a lot, even though I do feel that this year is just flying by too quickly. We've had some nice spring days here already and I can't wait to have more warmth and nice plants and flowers around.

What I'm also very excited about is Eat Your Greens in May! I'm hosting the challenge in May, and as usual it's co-hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen. I would like to see many dishes cooked with nice green spring vegetables and herbs. So get creative, cook and share the goodness with us! Find out here more details about how to take part, if you are not familiar with the challenge yet.

You should also definitely check out the Eat Your Greens April Round Up in Shaheen's blog, as it's once again a wonderful collection of green recipes. It's nice to see all those creative ideas come together, and remember that it's all vegan or vegetarian made by your fellow food bloggers!

Have a nice month of May!

Your VegHog