Asparagus and wild garlic risotto

 

Today we are heading to a farmers’ market and I hope to find a lot of fresh veggies and other local foods there. The weather is now good after it has rained early in the morning. What are you up to this Sunday?

Before I go, I want to share this dish with you. Asparagus and wild garlic belong to spring as much as new tiny pale green leaves on trees and blossoming spring flowers after a long winter. In this risotto I have combined both asparagus and wild garlic. I steamed the green asparagus and mixed it later into the risotto. I added some wild garlic pesto and fresh wild garlic leaves on top. Otherwise it was a basic risotto with arborio rice, onion, garlic, vegan butter, dash of white wine and a nice vegetable stock. It was such a tasty meal! At the same time my new ceramic bowls are getting a lot of use.

Radishes are another spring favourite of mine. You can make plenty of fresh salads with the colourful new season radishes. What are your spring favourites?

Your VegHog

Creamy white asparagus soup

 

Happy May Day everyone! The Labour Day starts sunny here in Copenhagen and we will be enjoying a nice spring day off. The trees are blossoming and people seem happier now that it’s getting warmer. As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve been enjoying the wonderful spring veggies and today’s recipe is one of the dishes I made.

This is a German style creamy white asparagus soup with a little twist, as this soup is vegan. I made it with the very thick and nice Aito oat cream and the nicest white asparagus from the market. I haven’t eaten an asparagus soup for a long time, but it was so nice that I have to make it again while the veg is in season. Here is my recipe that makes a small starter soup for two or a larger bowl of soup for one person.

Creamy white asparagus soup

Ingredients

2-3 white asparagus

1 small onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp vegan butter

100 ml oat cream

200 ml water

1 vegetable stock cube

1 tsp herb salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

50 ml white wine

Method

Peel and chop the asparagus to pieces. Chop the onion and garlic finely.

Start sweating the onion in the vegan butter until it’s soft and then also add the garlic followed by the asparagus.

Pour the oat cream, water and seasoning in and let simmer. Add more water if needed.

Purée the soup and let simmer a bit further after that with the white wine addition.

Enjoy once you are happy with the flavours. Add more seasoning to taste.

Have a lovely 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

Cheerful spring roast dinner

The start of the asparagus season is such a lovely happening every year I find. It's very exciting starting to see asparagus from England and then your own county. I started liking asparagus back in the day in Germany, but then only the white asparagus was ever served. I really love German style white asparagus soup or just the chunky asparagus spears served with sauce Hollandaise and potatoes.

These days I make quite a few green asparagus dishes in the spring and summer and this time I decided to incorporate steamed asparagus into a vegan roast dinner. It became a colourful and uplifting looking dish, just like spring should be.

For this roast dinner I cooked steamed asparagus, a vegan Schnitzel, roasted carrots, roasted potatoes, fried onions, and served fresh lamb's lettuce and tomatoes on the side.

And why not serve the dinner with this green Sign of Spring beer by Stonehenge Ales. It tastes exactly like a regular tasty ale, but has been coloured green with food colouring.

Enjoy your spring meals!

Your VegHog

Asparagus and tomato tart

Summer is the best time for vegetable tarts. I love combining different vegetables with cheese and make tarts out of them. Now I made an asparagus and tomato tart with Cheddar. This recipe follows very much my basic tart recipe, which is very easy to make with ready made pastry.

Ingredients

320 g shortcrust pastry

230 g green asparagus

6-8 baby plum tomatoes

1 summer onion

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 tsp olive oil

Fresh basil

Thyme

Salt

Ground black pepper

100 g grated Cheddar

Method

Cut the asparagus into about 3 cm long pieces and slice or halve the tomatoes. Also cut the summer onion into thin slices.

Cut the onion into half rings and chop the garlic finely. Cook the onion and garlic in olive oil for a couple of minutes so that they soften a little. Add thyme, salt and black pepper to them and let cool.

Line a tart tin with baking paper and place the rolled out shortcrust pastry in there.

Spread the onion mix onto the pastry and then add the grated cheese, fresh basil, asparagus, tomatoes and summer onion. A little more thyme can be sprinkled on the top.

Bake the tart at 200C for about 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Roasted new potatoes with shaven asparagus

This is a really simple seasonal dish. I had to try the shaven asparagus stripes, as I keep seeing them in so many current recipes. It wasn't bad at all, and it was curious not to cook the asparagus for a change. So basically I just combined here roasted new potatoes with lightly lemony asparagus. I could see this is a side dish in upcoming Midsummer celebrations. What do you think?

Here is what ingredients I used and how I made this dish:

500 g new potatoes

1 tsp olive oil

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp smoked paprika

250 g green asparagus

½ lemon's juice

1 tsp olive oil

Brush the new potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle salt and smoked paprika on the top. Roast in the oven until done.

Shave thin stripes from asparagus with a peeling knife and dress them with lemon juice and olive oil. Let infuse in the fridge while the potatoes roast.

Serve the potatoes and asparagus together.

Your VegHog

Roasted vegetable pasta

Here is a quick weekday pasta I made the other night. I have noticed that I'm making less pasta dishes at the moment, but now I have made one. This one is a simple and quick one, just a few ingredients tossed together. The roasting adds sweetness to the vegetables and makes their taste more intense. Now in the winter time I have been roasting a lot of root vegetables, so it's a refreshing change to roast more summerly vegetables. I also love what toasted pine nut kernels add to this dish. 

So here is the recipe, have a look how I made the dish.

Ingredients

150 g baby peppers

200 g cherry tomatoes on the vine

200 g asparagus

2 garlic cloves

3 tbsp olive oil

30 g pine nut kernels

125 g buffalo mozzarella

Fresh basil

Oregano

Ground black pepper

Sea salt

Pappardelle pasta

Method

Slice the baby peppers and roast them in the oven brushed with olive oil. Roast them until they are soft and have dark roasting marks.

Roast the tomatoes and asparagus a little shorter time, but also brushed with olive oil. I did all the roasting at 200 C.

Toast the pine nut kernels in the oven or on a dry pan.

Chop the garlic cloves finely and cook them in olive oil until soft.

Boil the pasta in water until al dente.

Combine the roasted veg with the garlic in the pan and quickly toss together and season.

Serve with torn buffalo mozzarella on the top and drizzle a little your finest olive oil onto the portions as well.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Asparagus, cheese and onion tart

I notice that I have been a little bit lazy with asparagus posts this spring and early summer. I have been cooking quite many asparagus dishes, but somehow they haven't made it to the blog. Okay, there have been at least these asparagus recipes: Spring Risotto, Asparagus Pasta and Very Green Salad, but still there's room for more.

Today I made an asparagus, cheese and onion tart, as I have been planning to make such a tart or pie for a while. I wanted to make it quite rich and cheesy, but still have asparagus proudly presented. This is it folks!

Ingredients

4 shallots

2 garlic cloves

10 g butter

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground white pepper

½ tsp Herbes de Provence

400 g shortcrust pastry

1 egg

100 ml milk

150 g Red Leicester and Cheddar cheese mix

230 g bunch of green asparagus

Method

Cook the chopped shallot rings and finely chopped garlic in butter until soft. Season with white pepper, salt and Provençal herbs. Allow to cool again.

Roll out the pastry thinly and place it into a Ø 25cm pie tin that has been lined with baking parchment.

Clean and cut the asparagus into halves and beat the egg with the milk. Mix the shallots with the grated cheese and spread on the pastry base.

Pour the milk and egg mix on the top of the cheese and shallots and place the asparagus on the top. The asparagus will then cook in the oven, no other preparation needed. I know they look slightly dehydrated on the photos, but they were still fully succulent and full of flavour.

Bake at 180C for about 40 minutes. Then let cool a little bit and serve when still warm. 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

Very green salad

I have been looking into French vegetarian cuisine, because this year lucky me is spending Easter in Paris! Vegetarian meals are not so typical in traditional French cooking, but I'm determined to find the best influences and ideas. I have never been to Paris, and now I want to visit several vegetable markets, and hopefully will be able to find nice vegetarian cafés and restaurants. Any recommendations? I'm definitely going to post some exciting bits from my trip here afterwards, but now to today's recipe.

I recently purchased the wonderful vegetarian French Market Cookbook by Clotilde Dusoulier, where I found this recipe for the Very green salad – Salade toute verte (p.18-19). I was impressed by the freshness of the recipes in this book, and particularly in this one the flavours were nicely balanced. Have also a look at Clotilde's blog here, it's not a vegetarian blog, but many dishes are plant based. 

Here is my take on this filling warm and cold spring salad.

For the salad:

500g new potatoes + a sprinkle of salt and vegetable oil for roasting the potatoes

200g asparagus

1 cup of frozen peas

1 large heart of romaine lettuce

½ cup hazelnuts

For the dressing:

Some fresh coriander leaves

1tbsp lemon juice

1tbsp grapeseed oil

1tbsp hazelnut oil

1tsp sea salt

½tsp ground black pepper

Method:

Wash the potatoes, place them in a roasting dish, brush with vegetable oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast them at 180C for about 40 minutes until cooked. Toss them a few times during the roasting.

Toast the halved hazelnuts. Put then in an oven dish and bake at 180C for about 10 minutes. Steam the asparagus and peas until tender.

Cut the lettuce and prepare the dressing by just mixing the ingredients together. Add the dressing to the lettuce just before the warm components are done. I decided to serve the peas and asparagus also warm, just like the potatoes.

Then mix all the ingredients together and serve instantly. Bon appétit!

Your VegHog

Asparagus pasta

It's delightful to see that the first local asparagus spears start appearing in the shops here in England, and you probably won't be surprised to hear that I instantly had to buy a few bunches once I saw them. Hence today's recipe is just a quick weekday pasta using green asparagus as an ingredient, because a simple weekday pasta is such a fine thing to have after a busy day. I also have a new source for vegetarian hard cheese, Bookham & Harrison's online shop, and today I used their wonderful Sussex Charmer cheese in this dish. This also means that I will be cooking and posting more pasta dishes again, so here is today's recipe, try it!

125g green asparagus

1 shallot

2 garlic cloves

20g hazelnuts

20g Sussex Charmer/or any vegetarian hard cheese

½ lemon's juice

1tbsp olive oil

½tsp salt

½tsp black pepper

300g semi-wholewheat tortiglioni

A few mint leaves for serving

Chop the hazelnuts, shallot and garlic finely, and cut the asparagus into about 2 cm long pieces. Cook the shallot and garlic in olive oil in a pan until soft, steam the asparagus for about 5 minutes, and toast the hazelnuts in an oven dish for about 10 minutes at 175C. Combine the shallots, garlic, asparagus and hazelnuts and add lemon juice, salt and pepper to the pan.

In the meanwhile cook the pasta al dente. Take a few tablespoons of the pasta boiling water and add it to the sauce, also add a little bit of the cheese to the pan. Make thin shavings of the rest of the cheese.

Once everything is cooked and seasoned nicely, combine the pasta with the sauce and serve with fresh mint leaves and hard cheese shavings on the top.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Spinach and lemon hedgehog shaped ravioli with asparagus filling

I received quite many good comments on my original hedgehog shaped ravioli and I liked them myself as well, so I decided to make a different variation but keep the same shape. This time I decided to make some colourful pasta with spinach and a hint of lemon because it's tasty and looks cute and I also absolutely love asparagus filling in ravioli. I hope you'll like these too!

So here are the steps for making this whole dish:

The side salad:

Small sweet red peppers

Mozzarella balls

Fresh basil leaves

Olive oil

Make the side salad first as then you don't have to worry about it later. I have already published this side dish as the Pepper and mozzarella appetisers and it's a nice addition to this dish.

Wash the red peppers and place them into an oven dish. Brush them with olive oil and bake at 180C for about 15 minutes until they are soft. Cut the peppers in half after they have cooled down. Stuff a mozzarella ball wrapped in a basil leaf into each pepper half and let them wait in the fridge. Done!

The pasta dough:

400g grade 00 pasta flour

4 eggs

100g fresh spinach leaves

Lemon juice

Salt

First quickly boil the spinach in water for about 3-5 minutes and drain it well. Press some lemon juice on it and mix. Pour the pasta flour on a table, break the eggs into a dent in the middle of the flour pile and add some salt and then the spinach. 

Heavily knead until you have a firm dough. If the dough is too tough, add a little olive oil to make it smoother or if it's too runny, add more flour. Finally knead the dough into a ball, wrap into cling film and place to the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

The ravioli filling:

5 small asparagus

2 garlic cloves

Bread crumbs

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Black pepper

Steam the asparagus and chop the garlic cloves small. Grate some vegetarian pasta cheese. Mix these ingredients with bread crumbs and black pepper. The filling must not be too moist, add more bread crumbs if needed and cool it down before filling the pasta.

Start rolling the pasta dough with either a pasta machine or a rolling pin and make thin sheets of it. Use a hedgehog shaped cookie cutter (or any other shape will also do) to cut many pieces.

Place a small amount (about a teaspoon) of filling on the piece, brush the sides with water and stick another pasta piece on it. The water helps them stick well together, but additionally press them firmly together with your fingers or a fork.

Boil the ravioli for about 10-12 minutes in salt water until the filling is warm and the pasta al dente. They should float on the surface when cooked.

The sage butter:

Sage leaves

100g butter

Sage butter is a divine addition to any pasta dish. It takes about 10 minutes to make this, so you can start preparing it at a later stage.

Heat the butter in a pan and add the sage leaves. Keep heating at moderate heat and stir occasionally. The butter should get brown but not burn and the sage leaves should get crispy.

Mix the ravioli with the sage butter, serve with the small pepper appetisers and enjoy!

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog