Stuffed heirloom tomatoes

The VegHog's Tomato Festival will sadly soon be over for this year, but you still have time to submit your recipes before midnight on Saturday 23^rd July. I will be writing a round up post in the end.

Today I'm just sharing with you a quick side dish or lunch recipe of stuffed heirloom tomatoes. I stuffed the heirloom tomatoes with mozzarella and fragrant garlic and basil mix and then baked until nicely soft with a cheesy filling. I really like stuffed vegetables, although only quite rarely make them these days.

Ingredients

4 large heirloom tomatoes

250 g mozzarella

2 garlic cloves

Handful of fresh basil

Sprinkle of salt

Sprinkle of ground black pepper

Breadcrumbs

Olive oil

Method

Cut a lid off of each heirloom tomato and remove the insides.

Cook the inside pulp in a pan until it's a firm sauce and excess liquid has evaporated.

Cut mozzarella into cubes and mix it in a bowl with a with the finely chopped garlic and fresh basil and season with salt and pepper.

Stuff the tomato shells with the mozzarella mix, tomato sauce and little added breadcrumbs. Cover them again with the lid.

Brush the tomatoes with olive oil and bake at 200 C for about 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Harlequin squash and halloumi salad

How about a salad just before the weekend? In this salad I combined roasted harlequin squash wedges and pan-fried halloumi with heirloom tomato, gem lettuce and spinach. It was quite a nice and filling salad, just perfect for a weekday.

Ingredients

1 small harlequin squash

Olive oil for roasting

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil for frying

1 large heirloom tomato

1 gem lettuce

50 g spinach

Olive oil + balsamic vinegar + salt + pepper for the dressing

Method

Cut the harlequin squash into wedges, brush them with olive oil and roast in the oven.

Cut the halloumi into cubes and fry them in vegetable oil until golden brown.

Cut the heirloom tomato into slices and also cut the gem lettuce.

Mix the dressing ingredients well together.

Combine all the components on a plate and enjoy!

Your VegHog

The VegHog's Tomato Festival

While my tomatoes are slowly growing on the balcony, the tomato season is fully underway in Britain and many other places. Great produce can be obtained at the moment, so it's the perfect time to use it. I have been planning an event or a theme week for the blog and it's time to kick it off now: The VegHog's Tomato Festival. Tomatoes are so incredibly versatile in cooking and I normally use them quite a lot.

Over the coming week I'm going to post a variety of tomato dishes here on the blog and I would also like to invite you to participate. Please share your favourite vegetarian tomato recipes in the comment box below, and if you are a blogger, link back to your blog to your nice tomato recipes. You can also participate on Twitter and on Instagram (@TheVegHog). I'm sure that we can inspire each other, the more recipes, the better.

In this first post to start the tomato week, I'm writing about a really tasty and healthy pasta dish, heirloom tomato pasta. I love making this dish often and have posted it a few times previously with slight variations. Even though it's a simple dish, it's so nice when all the ingredients are good quality. I tend to use my best olive oil and the nicest tomatoes and pasta for this. This recipe can be elevated even more by making own pasta.

Basically all you need is: Heirloom tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, ground black pepper, basil, mozzarella and pasta in whichever shape you prefer. Also rocket can be added to this, but I didn't do so this time. Chop the tomatoes and garlic and fry them very quickly in olive oil in a hot pan. Season them with basil, salt and pepper. Cook the pasta and serve it with the tomatoes, mozzarella and an extra drizzle of olive oil. Enjoy with good white wine, and you'll have a feast.

I will be back tomorrow with another tomato recipe. Have a good week!

Your VegHog

Rye bruschetta

Almost Friday! I couldn't be happier about it and hopefully I'll have the chance to catch up more with posting and sorting out my holiday photos during the weekend.

Today I wanted to share with you my rye bruschetta idea. A fresh bruschetta is a lovely thing as breakfast or lunch and I made some now because I had tasty heirloom tomatoes at hand. This bruschetta is slightly different to the normal ones, as the base is rye bread, but it's very filling and healthy.

This is what you'll need for my rye version:

Rye bread slices

Heirloom tomatoes

1 small garlic clove

Fresh basil leaves

Pine nuts

Salt

Ground black pepper

Olive oil

Slice the tomatoes and cut the garlic clove in half.

Toast the bread and rub the garlic on the toasted bread slices.

Place the other ingredients on the bread and sprinkle little olive oil on them.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Cooking a summer recipe off-season

I tried to defy winter today by cooking this rather summerly dish. It's light and the ingredient combination reminds of summer, so not a typical February dish today. This is just what I would imagine eating al fresco on a summer holiday.

Last Saturday I picked these lovely colourful heirloom tomatoes up from a food market, and was since then wondering what to cook with them. Then I remembered this dish that I posted in August and have made occasionally, Heirloom tomato and mozzarella pasta and made today's dish in a pretty much identical way to that. Go and have a look at the original post, if you fancy making such a dish!

This small summerly cooking and dining session at least cheered me up after a long and busy Wednesday. I also start thinking that there's actually hope that we are slowly going towards the summer, as the days are getting longer all the time. It's still chilly and we saw the first snow here yesterday, but hey, spring is bound to come soon!

I hope that everyone's having a good week!

Your VegHog

Fried heirloom tomato pizza

Fried pizza is my new passion. You can read my first post on the subject here, with all the drama around my scorched hand. Now I made a simple basic tomato and mozzarella pizza that was pan-fried first and then grilled quickly in the oven. This method gives the pizza an incredibly crispy crust and a slightly smoky taste.

I can only dream about the lovely tomatoes I purchased in France in the summer (*see the dreamy picture below), but luckily farmers' markets have some nice ones over here as well.

Here's how I made these small pizzas.

Spelt pizza dough

400 g spelt flour

1 tbsp dry yeast

2 tsp salt

350 ml lukewarm water

3 tbsp olive oil

Toppings

Tomato sauce (Tomatoes, shallot, garlic, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper)

Heirloom tomatoes

Buffalo mozzarella

Method

First make the dough by combining the dry ingredients, then by adding the water and olive oil and kneading. Let the dough rise for about one hour in room temperature.

Then make a basic tomato sauce, although you can skip this step completely and just put fresh tomatoes onto the pizza. That's also a very good alternative. This time however, I also added a tomato sauce.

Once the dough and the sauce are done, slice the heirloom tomatoes and tear the mozzarella, and you are ready for the frying bit.

Heat a non-stick and oven-proof frying pan very hot on the hob, and also heat the grill setting of the oven as hot as possible. Then place the stretched pizza dough and the toppings into the pan. You can also add the mozzarella onto the pizza after the frying and grilling, then it's nice and fresh.

Leave the pizza in the pan until the crust gets slightly brown below and then pop the whole thing into the oven under the grill for a further couple of minutes. My grill doesn't get that hot, so I had to leave the pizza for about five minutes to get nice colour. The first frying bit is also only a few minutes, so it's a very quick way to make a tasty pizza.

Then repeat the frying procedure to make a few more pizzas, unless you used a large pan that could accommodate the whole dough. This is the bit to be very careful at, as the pan and its handle will be extremely hot.

Drizzle some basil, chilli or garlic infused olive oil onto the pizzas just before serving. These always give a nice edge and extra flavour.

So how about making such pizzas on the weekend?

Your VegHog

Heirloom tomato and mozzarella pasta

This is a very quick and a very fresh pasta dish. I just love this kind of meals, where the ingredients are simple yet beautiful. There is hardly any chopping to be done and no lengthy sauce making at all. These flavours work really well together, so why add anything extra. Have a look how easy it is.

Ingredients

1-2 large heirloom tomatoes

3 garlic cloves

3 tbsp olive oil

200 g buffalo mozzarella

Fresh basil leaves

Fresh rocket leaves

Salt

Ground black pepper

300 g rigatoni (or other pasta)

Method

Cut the heirloom tomato into small cubes and chop the garlic finely. Boil the pasta until it's al dente.

In the meanwhile cook the garlic in olive oil for a couple of minutes, and then the tomatoes only for a minute or so. They should only cook slightly and stay fairly firm. 

In the end add the basil leaves to the tomatoes and season with a sprinkle of salt and ground black pepper.

When the pasta is cooked, put it into a bowl, and then the tomatoes, generous pieces of torn mozzarella and a handful of fresh rocket on the top.

Enjoy the meal with a bottle of nice white wine.

Your VegHog

Crusted baked heirloom tomatoes

I found these lovely heirloom tomatoes at the food market and planned a spontaneous dish with them. These crusted baked heirloom tomatoes are a great starter or side to any dinner and quick to make. The dish also has that summer feel to it. Have a read how easy it is.

Ingredients

3 heirloom tomatoes

1 tbsp basil infused olive oil

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp breadcrumbs

1 tbsp grated vegetarian pasta cheese

1 tsp oregano

¼ tsp chilli flakes

¼ tsp ground black pepper

½ tsp sea salt

Method

Cut the tomatoes in halves, place them in an oven dish and drizzle basil infused olive oil on the top.

Chop the garlic finely and grate the cheese. Mix these with the rest of the ingredients and sprinkle on the top of the tomatoes.

Bake the tomatoes at 180C for about 30 minutes until the crust is crispy and the tomatoes are baked to a succulent state.

Serve the tomatoes on top of pasta, with crusty bread, as canapés or on the side of veggie burgers. They would compliment many things, so just get creative.

Your VegHog

Stuffed heirloom tomatoes and red onions

Finally the weekend is here and time to write a blog post again. I was quite busy this week, so now I just want to relax and eat well. The weather is too interchangeable to make any outdoor plans, so I think I will be cooking and possibly baking. Today's recipe is for stuffed heirloom tomatoes (regular tomatoes will also do, if you can't get heirlooms) and red onions. I stuffed them with a pearled spelt mix that was prepared in risotto fashion. Have a look how easy it is!

Please note that the onion and tomato amounts can vary depending on the size, mine were pretty much medium size.

6-8 red onions

4 heirloom tomatoes

3 garlic cloves

1tsp vegetable oil

1tbsp olive oil

25g butter

1tbsp vegetable stock powder + 1l water

1 cup pearled spelt

200ml white wine

1tbsp sage leaves

50g emmental

1tsp salt

1tsp black pepper

Peel the onions and hollow them out by leaving about 2 layers of onion as a shell. The hollowing out should be doable by removing the lid, making couple of cuts into the middle of the onion and then by scooping the insides out with a spoon. Just take care that you don't pierce through the outer shell. Place the onion shells in an oven dish and brush them inside and out with vegetable oil. Cover with foil and bake at 180C for about 30 minutes.

Prepare the vegetable stock and warm it up. Wash the heirloom tomatoes and also hollow them out, keep the insides and the lids for later. Place them in another oven dish, brush with olive oil and set to side. There's no need to pre-bake these as tomatoes cook fairly quickly.

Start preparing the stuffing: Chop the onion insides and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. Add the butter, pearled spelt and after a while the wine. This method of making the stuffing is just like risotto (or speltotto) making.

Once the wine has nearly evaporated, add couple of ladles of the warm vegetable stock and let the stuffing simmer under lid. Add the tomato insides to the pan. Keep adding more stock, don't let the pan get dry, and stir often. Repeat this until the pearled spelt is cooked nicely.

Grate the cheese and add it to the pan, and also season the stuffing with salt, pepper and sage. Add more butter or white wine, if you think it's needed.

Stuff the onion shells and the heirloom tomatoes with the spelt mix and bake at 180C for about 25 minutes. Then enjoy!

This was my my 300^th blog post, thank you for reading it!

Your VegHog

Heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad

I'm back home from my holiday in Finland. I'm missing my family, but on a more positive note, it's really warm and sunny here. I did some balcony gardening today, some of the seedlings moved outdoors and I tidied the balcony a bit. I think I'm ready for April!

Due to the warmer weather I thought a salad would be a suitable recipe for today. This is just a tomato and mozzarella salad, but I used beautiful heirloom tomatoes to make it more special.

These are the simple ingredients and preparation method. Depending on the amount of the eaters you can determine the ingredient amounts, it can be roughly one heirloom tomato per one mozzarella and seasoning to taste.

Heirloom tomatoes

Mozzarella

Fresh basil leaves

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Salt

Black pepper

Slice the tomatoes and mozzarella. Place them on a plate and scatter the basil leaves on them and season with salt and pepper. Pour some olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the top and serve.

Enjoy the spring!

Your VegHog

Heirloom tomato and pesto barley flat breads

I managed to secure some of these heirloom tomato beauties from the food market, and I'm making barley flat breads with them. The main ingredients for such a dish are there: tomato, mozzarella, pesto and basil – always a winner for me! As the weekend is luckily approaching, maybe you can get some heirloom tomatoes from your local market.

This recipe makes 2 good sized breads.

For the flat bread dough:

50g wheat flour

100g barley flour

1tbsp dry yeast

1tsp salt

100ml lukewarm water

1tbsp olive oil

For the topping:

1 large heirloom tomato

125g mozzarella

2tsp pesto

Fresh basil leaves

Make the dough for the flat breads first by mixing the dry ingredients (wheat flour, barley flour, dry yeast and salt) together. Then add the lukewarm water and olive oil and knead into an even dough. Let it rise in a warm place under a tea towel for about one hour. This dough is very similar to a pizza dough.

In the meanwhile you can slice the heirloom tomato and mozzarella, and prepare the pesto, if you want to make it from scratch.

Once the dough has risen, divide it into two parts and roll each one out thinly to a base. Spread the pesto on the dough and place the tomato and mozzarella slices on them (tomato on the top). Bake at 200C for about 15 minutes.

Put some basil leaves on the top and serve warm. Enjoy!

Your VegHog