Flower sprout pie

It has been all about tarts and baking recently, as I wanted to make some Christmassy food for the blog, and this is how I will continue for now. I also want to let you know that I will be travelling to Finland for Christmas, so it may become quieter in the blog. Hopefully I will have time to post a few times from there as well.

Here comes one of my original ideas that I came up with when I wanted to create a recipe with flower sprouts. Flower sprouts are a hybrid between brussels sprouts and kale and they are very tasty and cute indeed. They have now been in the shops a lot, so it's the perfect time to use them in cooking. I thought that they may be nice in a cheesy pie or tart with some root vegetables. So this is how this recipe came to life.

Ingredients

160 g flower sprouts

2 carrots

1 parsnip

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

Salt

Ground black pepper

Thyme

Vegetable oil

320 g shortcrust pastry

250 g Cheddar

Method

Steam the flower sprouts for one minute and set to side.

Cut the carrot and parsnip into thin slices and pre-roast them for about 10 minutes in the oven brushed with oil.

Cut the onion into thin slices and chop the garlic finely. Cook them in a pan in oil until soft and then season.

Place the rolled out shortcrust pastry into a baking tin and layer the ingredients onto it: the onion mix, parsnips and carrots, grated Cheddar and finally the flower sprouts.

Bake the pie at 200 C for about 30 minutes. The flower sprouts on the top will have turned partly crispy and the pie should be baked golden brown. I love the flower sprouts when they are a little bit crispy, similar to kale of course.

The theme for Shaheen's vegetarian cooking challenge Vegetable Palette in December is Wonderful Greens, so I want to share this seasonal recipe with the challenge. Shaheen has a lovely veggie blog A2K -A Seasonal Veg Table with constantly inspiring recipes and I try to take part in her monthly cooking challenges. 

Have a nice pre-Christmas time!

Your VegHog

Schupfnudeln mit Schnitzel

This dish is basically just something I assembled for a Sunday dinner. Only the sauce is my own creamy vegan mushroom sauce, but the other components are ready made. This is a perfect dinner for a Sunday when you don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

The main part of this dish are Schupfnudeln, which are southern German and Austrian potato dumplings or thick noodles that are just being pan-fried to get a nice and crispy coating. I'm determined to make my own some day, just like Schnitzel of this style, so watch this space! Schupfnudel can be purchased in various online shops and German shops even outside of Germany, so you should be able to get the ready made ones as well.

Here's a list of the components for this German inspired dish, and how I prepared each one of them.

300 g chestnut mushrooms

250 ml oat cream

1 tbsp olive oil

4 spring onions

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

4 vegetarian breaded Schnitzel

160 g flower sprouts

500 g Schupfnudeln

Butter for frying (oil is also fine for a lighter meal)

The mushroom sauce takes the longest to make, so start with prepping that. Slice the mushrooms and chop the spring onions, onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic soft. Add the mushrooms and spring onions, and let it cook for a few minutes so that the mushrooms turn a bit darker. Add the oat cream and seasoning. Let the sauce cook until the cream has absorbed the mushroom flavour nicely.

I baked the Schnitzel in the oven to avoid extra oil usage. They just needed about 15 minutes in the oven.

At the same time I steamed the flower sprouts, which are a hybrid vegetable between kale and brussels sprouts. They make a really nice side to many autumn and winter dishes.

Cook the Schupfnudeln in hot butter in a frying pan until they get golden brown and little crispy.

And that's all! Enjoy your meal!

Your VegHog

Flower sprouts and baby brussels sprouts with roasted potatoes and tomatoes

Have you heard about flower sprouts yet? I hadn't, not before I bought them, but I was delighted to detect this fairly new mild and nutty British vegetable, a crossing between brussels sprouts and kale. They are small, cute and tasty – and just made for steaming! Don't worry, they have their own web page, if you want to get more information.

Today I combined the sprouts with oven roasted potatoes and cherry tomatoes on the vine. I can imagine that these sprouts make a great addition to any veggie's Christmas meal.

Ingredients

160g flower sprouts

200g baby brussels sprouts

1 red onion

2 garlic cloves

Olive oil

25g butter

Sea-buckthorn salt (or herb salt)

Black pepper

Chili flakes

270g cherry vine tomatoes

Olive oil

500g potatoes

Olive oil

Paprika

Sea-buckthorn salt (or regular salt)

Prepare the potatoes first. Wash and halve them and roll them in olive oil. Sprinkle paprika and salt on the top and bake at 180C until soft, for about 45 minutes.

For the last 10 minutes also put the tomatoes on the vine to the oven after brushing them with olive oil. They will get lovely and juicy after some roasting.

Steam the flower sprouts for about 5 minutes and the baby sprouts for slightly longer.

Chop the onion and garlic and heat some olive oil in a large pan. Sweat the onion and garlic lightly and add the steamed sprouts to the pan. Season them with little salt, black pepper and chili flakes and add some butter. Cook the whole mix for a few minutes and it's already done.

Serve everything together or as a part of a Christmas meal.

Your VegHog