Chickpea and potato curry with homemade naan

 

The weeks are again all the same and quiet, just work, home and walks. I don’t mind it too much though, I just need to start with some other hobbies again, like reading and arts/crafts. The good thing is that there is plenty of time for cooking, but I’ve still been very lazy on the blog side. I will try to share some more recipes with you shortly.

This is just a basic, comforting chickpea and potato curry with homemade naan bread. This sort of curries are always a great choice when it gets a bit cooler. And doesn’t one of the naan breads look a little bit like a hedgehog, or am I seeing things here already?

I hope you are all well and finding some interesting things to do. Have a nice Sunday!

Your VegHog

 

Curry with grilled tofu

 

I’ve had a wonderful weekend so far. Yesterday we went to a small outdoor beer festival and cooked a cosy dinner at home. Today there is a farmers market with loads of nice local produce. We will take the harbour bus to get there and that is a nice ride on water through Copenhagen city centre. The weather is due to get warmer again from today and throughout next week, so that’s quite nice to have some late summer feeling in September.

I’ll post this curry quickly before we head to town. I made just a basic potato and lentil curry with a grilled tofu topping. The scorched tofu was really tasty and added something special to the dish. I think I will be making more curries now towards the autumn. What is your favourite curry?

Your VegHog

 

Chickpea, potato and cauliflower curry

Today is a big day in Copenhagen. After a decade of building work, the new cityring metro line will open. There will be a celebration with live music and the new driverless trains will start driving in the afternoon. We will also get a new station closer to our home, which is very exciting. We will try to catch a train from there later today. As an additional plus, public transport is free in whole Copenhagen today. It will be an exciting day. I can't wait to see the design of our new station.

But now first to this curry. I made a chickpea and potato curry with roasted cauliflower. It was quite a basic vegan curry with garam masala, carrots and spinach and I served homemade naan breads on the side. I though that the roasted cauliflower added a bit of extra to it and made it a bit more unusual. I decided not to share the recipe here, as the curry has just some basic ingredients in it. I have posted similar recipes many times.

Have a good Sunday everyone!

Your VegHog

Spinach and potato curry

How is everyone? I haven't been blogging enough and reading other blogs, as I've been quite busy at work again and then tired in the evenings. I try to catch up a little bit this weekend, although the weather is now really nice, so we will be heading to a beach soon. I also have some nice recipes in the pipeline, I just need to find the time to write them down and edit the photos. I can't believe how quickly July is going past. My holiday is over, but I still want to enjoy the sunny days here in Denmark and just explore Copenhagen. Copenhagen is the perfect summer city with the seaside, channels and cosy parks.

Now to this vegan recipe. I made this comforting curry the other day, and it was very tasty with the Finnish oat block product on top. It's a block like tofu, but it's made from oats and pea protein. I very much prefer this to tofu or paneer, but as the oat block is still a new product and difficult to get outside of Finland, it's okay to substitute it with tofu or paneer in this recipe. Otherwise the curry is quite a basic one, there are just some nice small summer potatoes, frozen spinach and green lentils. I added fresh peas to the rice, which was a great addition, as I can't get enough of fresh peas at the moment. Here is my recipe, if you want to have a look.

Spinach and potato curry

Ingredients

160 g oat block (substitute with paneer or tofu)

8 small potatoes

½ cup green lentils

½ cup frozen spinach

1 large onion

3 garlic cloves

2 chillies

2 cm fresh ginger

Vegetable oil for frying

1 tbsp garam masala

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp ground coriander

1/ tsp ground cumin

3 tbsp tomato purée

1 cup jasmine rice

1 cup fresh peas

Method

Cut the potatoes in halves or quarters depending on the size. Cook the potatoes in water until done, and set them to side, and do the same with the green lentils.

Chop the onion, garlic, chillies and ginger. Heat vegetable oil in a pan and start frying the onions slowly until they are light brown. Once the onions are done, add the garlic, chillies and ginger, and the spices to the pan. Fry for a while.

Add the potatoes, lentils, tomato purée, spinach and some water to the pan, and let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely.

Cut the oat block to cubes, fry them in vegetable oil until golden brown and serve on top of the curry.

Cook the rice, and towards the end of the cooking time, add the fresh peas to the rice.

Serve the curry with the rice and enjoy!

I want to share this recipe with this month's Eat Your Greens cooking challenge hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen, and co-hosted by me. Go and check out Shaheen's blog, there's still plenty of time to take part in July, especially now that there are so many lovely greens around!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Red Thai curry

I'm having a relaxing long weekend. I already had yesterday off from work, and today as well. It will be nice to just potter around at home and go to town a bit. Today it's sunny, even though rain was originally forecast, so I think that we will pop over to the street food market today.

Today's recipe is one of my favourites: Red Thai curry with tofu. It's of course a vegan dish, served with sticky jasmine rice on the side. Find my recipe below.

Red Thai curry

Ingredients

200 g tofu

2 onions

1 red romano pepper

2 carrots

2 tomatoes

3 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp palm sugar

1 tbsp miso

¼ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

2 bay leaves

400 ml coconut milk

3 tbsp tomato purée

1 lime

Fresh coriander

1 cup jasmine rice

Method

Cut the tofu into cubes and fry them in a hot pan in oil until they have a crispy and golden brown surface. Set them to side.

Chop the onions, pepper, carrots, tomatoes, garlic and chilli.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan and start cooking the onion until it's soft. Then add the other veggies, garlic and chilli, and cook for a few minutes.

Add the seasoning and the coconut milk, and let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely. Season to taste. Then also add the fried tofu to the mix.

Cook the rice and serve the red Thai curry with it.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Lentil and chickpea curry with roasted red peppers

My Easter break was just lovely, but also quite busy, as I didn't spend much time at home. We had visitors from England, some of my partner's family members, and we did extensive walks in Copenhagen with them and also visited Sweden. Now I'm just happy that I don't have many plans for the weekend, and can spend it mostly at home. It's also a rainy day today after a long while. I'm happy for the plants and wildlife that there is a little bit of water again. There is a street food festival and a cultural festival close by, so I think we will go there at least briefly in the afternoon regardless the rain.

Now I wanted to share a warming vegan curry recipe with you, which also fits the cooler weather quite nicely. I used both green lentils and chickpeas as the base of this recipe, but the roasted red peppers really add something special to it. There is also a lot of spinach in there, but it has kind of disappeared in the sauce. Here is my recipe for this curry.

Lentil and chickpea curry with roasted red peppers

Ingredients

2 red bell peppers

Vegetable oil

4 onions

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

2 carrots

1 cup cooked green lentils

1 cup cooked chickpeas

1 tbsp garam masala spice mix

¼ tsp ground turmeric

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

2 tbsp tomato purée

½ cup frozen spinach

Method

Cut the bell peppers into slices, coat them with vegetable oil and roast in the oven.

Cook the chickpeas and green lentils.

Chop the onions, garlic and chilli finely, and also chop the carrots.

Start cooking the chopped onion in oil until soft, and then add the garlic and chilli to the pan.

After a while, add the carrots and the seasoning.

Then also add the cooked lentils, frozen spinach, some water, and let simmer slowly until the flavours have blended nicely.

Either use the roasted red peppers as a topping, or mix them into the curry.

Serve rice or naan bread on the side of the curry and enjoy!

I want to share this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #127, which is hosted by Amrita from Motions and Emotions. My Legume Love Affair was created by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Potato, spinach and chickpea curry with roasted romanesco and cauliflower

Sunny weekend has started, what could be better! I hope you are also enjoying a nice weather where you are! I want to spend a lot of time outdoors today, but first I'll have to do some blogging and shopping and then I'll go out.

I made this potato, spinach and chickpea curry with some roasted romanesco and cauliflower florets on the top. I noticed that I've been too elitistic by always using fresh vegetables and despising their frozen counterparts. I recently bought a bag of frozen spinach, where the spinach had been frozen in nice cubes that could so conveniently be added to any dish. This made me think that it's not so bad sometimes to resort to frozen vegetables in order to save money and still make dishes with loads of vegetables. Now I'm using those spinach cubes everywhere. Of course I still prefer fresh vegetables and also want to support the local market by shopping them there instead of supermarkets, but I've learned to be less strict about this and to appreciate the alternatives.

I served this curry with some homemade naan bread on the side, which was also very nice freshly baked. It could of course also be served with rice. Here is my recipe below, if you would like to make a similar dish.

Potato and chickpea curry

Ingredients

8 small potatoes

1 cup cooked chickpeas

½ cup frozen spinach

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 green chilli

2 cm fresh ginger

1 tbsp garam masala

½ tsp ground turmeric

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

2 bay leaves

Fresh coriander

Roasted romanesco and cauliflower

Ingredients

Cauliflower and romanesco florets

Vegetable oil

Smoked paprika

Ground cumin

Onion powder

Salt

Method

Peel and cook the potatoes separately until they are done.

Chop the onion and start cooking it in the vegetable oil. Cook until they are browning.

Finely chop the garlic, chilli and ginger and add them to the onions.

Then also add the chickpeas and the spices.

Cook for a while and then add some water to simmer the curry. You can also use the cooking water from the potatoes.

Then also add the potatoes and spinach to the curry and cook until the flavours have blended nicely. Add more water, if needed.

Roast the cauliflower and romanesco while the curry is simmering.

Cover the florets with the spice mix and oil and roast them in the oven until they are done.

Place the cauliflower on top of the curry for serving, and serve them with naan bread on the side.

I'm sharing this recipe with this month's Eat Your Greens hosted by me and co-hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen. Remember that there is still plenty of time to submit your recipe!

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Potato and chickpea curry with roasted purple cauliflower and naan bread

December just seems to be flying by without much time for posting. I'll try to make up for it, but can't promise anything yet.

This recipe isn't very Christmassy at all, but maybe it's nice to enjoy different kind of cuisines in December too. I happen to like such comforting vegan curries very much, so here comes another one of them. 

This time I made my curry with potatoes, carrots and chickpeas and served roasted purple cauliflower and homemade naan bread on the side. I didn't add the naan bread recipe here, but you can refer for example to this older post, as I made these pretty much the same way. So have a look below how I made the curry.

Potato and chickpea curry with roasted purple cauliflower

Ingredients

1 purple cauliflower

400 g potatoes

½ cup dried chickpeas

3 carrots

2 onions

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

1 cm fresh ginger

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp ground cumin

250 ml coconut milk

1 vegetable stock cube

2 tbsp tomato purée

Method

Soak the chickpeas overnight and then boil them in water until they are done.

Cut the cauliflower into florets, brush them with vegetable oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven until done. I decided not to add them to the curry, because they would have coloured it weird. Of course also plain old white cauliflower can be used in this dish.

Cut the potatoes in halves or quarters depending on the size and boil them in water until they are nearly done.

Chop the onions, garlic, chilli and ginger finely and cook them in the vegetable oil until soft.

Slice the carrots and add them to the pan followed by the potatoes and chickpeas.

Then mix the garam masala and ground cumin in.

Stir for a while and add the coconut cream.

Let the curry simmer slowly and season it with vegetable stock cube and tomato purée.

Serve all components together and enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #123 edition hosted by Archana from The Mad Scientist's Kitchen. The MLLA event was started by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook in 2008, and has been hosted by Lisa from Lisa’s Kitchen since February 2013. Check out the challenge, it's great fun to take part!

Your VegHog

Chickpea and spaghetti squash curry

I bought another spaghetti squash, because there have been so many around and they are quite cheap at the moment. I've quite grown into liking spaghetti squash, as it can be slipped into so many dishes, like curries, veggie lasagnes, pasta sauces etc. I always roast the squash brushed with oil and then just scoop out the flesh. Have you tried any other cooking methods with it?

Now I made another curry with spaghetti squash. I also added bell pepper, chickpeas and red lentils to the curry, and it was really wholesome and flavoursome. The bell peppers brought the slight crunch and nice red colour, and the red lentil added nicely body to the sauce. Chickpeas are of course always good in warming curries.

The curry is fully vegan, and also quite a budget meal, if you want to save some money before Christmas. Have a look at my recipe below.

Chickpea and spaghetti squash curry

Ingredients

½ spaghetti squash

1 red bell pepper

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

2 cm fresh ginger

1 cup cooked chickpeas

1/3 cup red lentils

Vegetable oil

2 tbsp garam masala spice mix

½ tsp ground turmeric

1 tbsp vegetable powder stock

250 ml coconut milk

1 cup jasmine rice

Method

Roast the spaghetti squash in the oven, and scoop the flesh out once it's done.

Soak the lentils in water.

Chop the vegetables and start cooking the onions in the vegetable oil.

Add the garlic, chilli, ginger and bell pepper to the pan.

Than add the chickpeas, lentils and spices.

Stir for a while and then also add the coconut milk and let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely.

Stir the roasted spaghetti squash in.

Cook the rice and serve it with the curry.

Enjoy!

I'm sharing the recipe with My Legume Love Affair #122 hosted by Renu from Cook with Renu.

The cooking event was started by Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook and is now hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen. It's a lovely cooking challenge for vegan and vegetarian food featuring legumes.

Your VegHog

Green bean and wild garlic curry

It's the weekend again, and soon we'll be heading to a new streetfood market. It's been around now for a month or so, and it has already become one of our favourite places. I'm not sure yet, what I want to have for lunch, as there are quite many vegetarian options. In the evening we will go to a public viewing of the football world cup game Peru-Denmark in our local stadion. Let's see how our home team will do, while we have some beers and picnic on the grass. So that's pretty much the plan for today.

I've been cooking more light summer food lately: pasta dishes, halloumi salads, corn cobs, new potatoes, fresh peas etc., but now I made a vegan curry again after a little while. It was very nice and surprisingly summerly due to the ingredients. Have a look below, if you want to know how I made this curry.

Green bean and wild garlic curry

Ingredients

2 shallots

3 cloves of garlic

2 cm fresh ginger

1 red chilli

150 g green beans

50 g potatoes

1 can coconut milk

Vegetable oil

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

2 tbsp tomato purée

Wild garlic stalks

Jasmine rice

Method

Chop the shallots, garlic, ginger, chilli, green beans and potatoes.

Cook the potato pieces in water until they are nearly done.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan, and start cooking the onion, followed by garlic, ginger and chilli.

Mix the spices into the onions and let fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the coconut milk, green beans and tomato purée to the pan, and let it simmer.

Cook the rice while the curry is simmering.

When the curry is nearly done, add the potatoes and while garlic and cook them for a few minutes in the curry.

Serve with the rice and enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with this month's Eat Your Greens. The challenge is hosted this month by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen, and co-hosted by me. You can read more about the challenge via the link, and do also visit Shaheen's lovely vegetarian blog from Wales.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Thai curry with fennel and beetroot tofu

Remember that beetroot tofu I bought in Finland? Well, now dish number one has been made with it. I had two tofu steaks, so I can still cook something else with the other one. It was a really nice firm tofu with a subtle hint of beetroot, and it really added a nice splash of colour on top of that vegan Thai curry. There were some small chunks of beetroot inside of that tofu as well.

I made my pretty basic golden Thai curry with fennel and carrots. I used fresh turmeric for the first time, which was interesting. I think that I'll be buying it much more now. I didn't even manage to colour my whole kitchen yellow with it.

I'm looking forward to more colourful bowls of food towards the spring and summer. Yesterday I saw the first local asparagus appearing on the market. I can't wait to cook with it. 

Thai curry with fennel and beetroot tofu

Ingredients for the curry paste

1 red chilli

1 cloveless garlic

2 cm fresh turmeric

2 cm fresh ginger

1 tomato

1 lemongrass stalk

1 lime's juice

2 tbsp white miso

2 tsp palm sugar

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 vegetable stock cube

Other ingredients

125 g beetroot tofu

1 onion

1 fennel bulb

2 carrots

Vegetable oil for frying

400 ml/1 can coconut milk

1 cup Jasmine rice

Method

Make the curry paste first by puréeing all paste ingredients into a smooth paste.

Chop the fennel, carrots and onion.

Cook the onion in vegetable oil until softened, then add the fennel and carrots to the pan.

After a while of cooking, also add the curry paste.

Cook for a couple of minutes, and then add the coconut milk.

Let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely.

Cook the jasmine rice.

Cut the tofu into generous chunks and fry them in vegetable oil.

Serve the curry with the tofu chunks on top and with the rice. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Chickpea and spaghetti squash curry with homemade garlic roti

How has your weekend been? I can't believe that it's Sunday again, the weekend went past so quickly! But I guess there's still time to enjoy Sunday. I will head to the vegetable market after writing this post. Then soon after I will start preparing our Sunday dinner, another vegetarian comfort dish. But first I wanted to share this vegan curry recipe with you.

I've been making a lot of vegan comfort curries lately, and this was just one of them. I also used roasted spaghetti squash in it, which added something nice, and served the curry with homemade garlic roti bread. I didn't make the garam masala mix myself this time, as I've found the cutest little spice shop that make a wonderful garam masala mix.

Here is my recipe for Chickpea and spaghetti squash curry with homemade garlic roti.

Chickpea and spaghetti squash curry

Ingredients

1 spaghetti squash

3 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 cup cooked chickpeas

½ cup red lentils

3 onions

3 garlic cloves

2 cm fresh ginger

1 red chilli

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

2 tbsp tomato purée

1 large can coconut milk

Fresh coriander

Garlic roti

200 g spelt flour

125 ml water

1 tsp salt

2 garlic cloves

¼ tsp chilli flakes

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

Method

Cut the spaghetti squash in half, brush it with rapeseed oil and roast in the oven until tender.

Chop the onions, garlic, ginger and chilli finely, and start sautéeing the onion in oil. Once it's soft and slightly browned, add the garlic, ginger and chilli into the pan and also sautée them for a while.

Add the spices and mix them in, then pour in the coconut milk, lentils and chickpeas and let simmer. Once the lentils are cooked and you want to simmer the curry some more, scoop the flesh of the spaghetti squash out with a fork and add it to the mix.

While the curry simmers, you can prepare the bread. Knead the spelt flour with the water and salt, and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.

Stretch small breads from it, and fry them on both sides in a hot pan until they get some frying marks. Pour garlic and oil mix onto them. I fried the garlic briefly in the oil. You can also add it raw, if you want it to be more punchy.

Serve the curry with the roti and enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #113, which is hosted by Archana from The Mad Scientists Kitchen this month. The challenge was conceptualized by Susan and hosted by Lisa.

Have a nice Sunday!

Your VegHog