Braised fennel

I hope you are all having a relaxing Sunday! My day has started very chilled, the sun is shining, I'm slowly making coffee and some pretzel rolls are waiting to be eaten. I will head out soon, as the weather really seems to be lovely, but first I wanted to share a dish with you that I made yesterday.

This braised fennel that I pretty much improvised made such a lovely side to our Saturday night dinner. We had buttery potato mash and a veggie Schnitzel with it. It was basically comfort food, but kind of with a touch of spring. The liquid of the fennel made a perfect sauce to moisten the dish a bit, and actually the liquid is probably my favourite bit. I think that this braised fennel would go with many kind of dishes, even just with a salad. The cooking only needs some patience, as I think I cooked it for a couple of hours, just slow baking in the oven. The preparation itself is not much work, though.

Braised fennel

Ingredients

1 fennel bulb

100 ml vegetable stock

1 tsp salt

Sprinkle of ground black pepper

100 ml white wine

3 garlic cloves

100 g grated cheese (I used a Cheddar and Red Leicester mix)

Method

Cut the fennel into four slices and remove the hard stalk. Cut the green bits on the top into finer slices. Put the thin slices on the bottom of an oven dish and then the larger fennel bits on the top.

Pour the vegetable stock in and season with salt and pepper. Cover the dish with a foil and slow bake at about 180 C for one hour. Have a look sometimes, how the fennel is doing and turn the pieces around midway of the cooking.

Chop the garlic finely. Once the fennel is already fairly soft, pour the wine in, and cook some more. At this stage I removed the foil, and also added the garlic.

After a while, add the cheese and bake until it has melted.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Fennel and chickpea curry

I want to be quite productive with cooking, posting and commenting this week... let's see how that goes. At least I'm full of cooking ideas, if only I can make it all happen. Slowly it's starting to be bright when I leave for work in the morning, and the sun hasn't fully set yet when I get home on most days. So that's quite energising, and hopefully I'll get some daylight for my food photos soon!

Today's recipe is another fennel dish of mine. This time I used fennel in one of my favourite curries, a chickpea one with garam masala. I simply served it with some basmati rice. This was a really good vegan meal, one that I will certainly be making again. I added some purple carrots in order to add slightly more colour and texture.

Fennel and chickpea curry

Ingredients

1 onion

4 garlic cloves

3 cm fresh ginger

1 small chilli

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 purple carrots

1 fennel

1,5 cups cooked chickpeas

1 tbsp garam masala spice mix

Sprinkle of turmeric

160 ml coconut cream

1 cup basmati rice

Method

Chop the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli finely. Heat vegetable oil in a pan and start cooking the onions first. Once the onions are soft and slightly browned, add the garlic, ginger and chilli.

Slice the carrots and fennel and also add them to the pan. Stir for a few moments and then add the chickpeas and garam masala spice mix and turmeric.

Then add the coconut cream and let simmer until all components have nicely cooked and the flavours blended.

Cook the rice separately and serve it with the curry once done. Enjoy! 

I want to share this recipe with Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen, who is hosting My Legume Love Affair this month.

Your VegHog

Thai rice with fennel, carrots and cashews

Light vegan Thai dishes are my favourites at the moment, and I can imagine cooking more this type of dishes towards the spring. I made once again a similar rice dish with Thai flavours, as I have done a few times before. You can use whatever vegetables you have, but as I have been also so fond of fennel lately, I chose to use fennel paired with the basic and economical carrots that go well in so many dishes. This was a very tasty and flavoursome dish.

Thai rice with fennel, carrot and cashews

Ingredients

1 fennel

2 carrots

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

3 cm fresh ginger

1 small chilli

1 tbsp vegetable oil

160 ml coconut cream

Bunch fresh Thai basil

Bunch fresh coriander

2 dried lemongrass stalks

1 lime's juice

2 tbsp soy sauce

150 g cashew nuts

1 cup jasmine rice

Method

Cook the jasmine rice in water.

Chop the cashew nuts coarsely and toast them on a dry pan.

Chop the fennel into slices and the carrots into slices. Also chop the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli finely.

Start cooking the onion in vegetable oil, and once it's soft and slightly browned, add the garlic, ginger and chilli to the pan.

After a while also add the carrots, soon followed by the fennel. Cook for a little while and then add the coconut cream and spices.

Let the mix simmer, and shortly before serving, mix in the rice and cashews.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog