Hazelnut and kale pesto

It's nice to finally make some lighter spring dishes with all the new seasonal produce. I've already had some local asparagus, and it was so nice. I can't wait to spot more nice local produce in the shops and markets.

Kale has been used quite a lot in our kitchen lately. It's such a versatile green, and easy to cook with. I made this simple vegan nutty hazelnut and kale pesto, and enjoyed it very much. I tried it with pasta and with some rye crackers, and it was very flavoursome and fragrant in both dishes. Here's my recipe, if you want to try it too.

Hazelnut and kale pesto

Ingredients

2 cups kale

1 garlic clove

100 g hazelnuts

100 ml olive oil

Sprinkle of salt

Method

Purée all pesto ingredients together, but remember that you can vary the ingredient amounts to get a nice and creamy pesto. 

I left some of the hazelnuts a bit larger chunks in the pesto, as I like the extra crunch.

Serve the pesto with pasta, breads, crackers, anything you like, and enjoy!

This pesto is my Eat Your Greens contribution for this month. I'm hosting the challenge this month myself, and the event is co-hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen blog. Remember that there's still plenty of time to take part with your green recipes!

Your VegHog

Kale gnocchi with crispy sage butter

I got the idea for this wonderfully green dish from Mat Follas' cookbook Vegetable Perfection. Mat writes about Kale gnocchi with kale crisps (p. 38-39), and I was very much inspired by this recipe, but made my gnocchi slightly differently, so I'm sharing my own version below. I thought that it was a great idea using the nutty kale in gnocchi, instead of the usual spinach.

I served my portion with crispy sage butter, which is one of my all time favourite gnocchi sauces. Additionally I made a tomato-garlic sauce and a baked cheese twirl from vegetarian pasta cheese. Like Mat, I also made some kale crisps to be served on the side. I just tossed mine in little olive oil, smoked paprika and sea salt, and baked them crispy. All components went so well together, and my gnocchi held nicely their shape, so I was very pleased with this dish.

Kale gnocchi

Adapted from Kale gnocchi with kale crisps by Mat Follas, serves 4

700 g baking potatoes

100 g kale

2 egg yolks

1 cup wheat flour

½ tsp salt

Method

Bake the potatoes in the oven until soft. Once they are cooled down, remove the potatoes from the skins and mash.

Purée the kale into a smooth paste.

Combine the ingredients for the dough and knead. Add more flour of needed.

Wrap the dough in cling film and let rest in the fridge for about an hour.

Shape long sticks from the dough, cut into about 2 cm long pieces and press lightly with a fork. Repeat this for the whole dough until all gnocchi have been shaped.

Bring water to boil in a large pot and add the gnocchi. They are done after a few minutes when they float on the surface.

Before serving I fried the gnocchi a little bit in the sage butter. This is optional, but it does give them a nice flavour and a slightly chewier texture.

Serve the gnocchi with the sides and enjoy!

I want to share this green recipe with this month's Eat Your Greens, which Shaheen is hosting.

Have a nice Sunday!

Your VegHog

Black bean and kale tacos

I've been so fond of Mexican food lately. I think I could have it every day, as there are so many wonderful veggie options and beans are really good for you. It's also very dangerous that my local pub makes a very good veggie burrito and it's huge. I really shouldn't be having that so often, as I almost can't walk home anymore afterwards, that's how big the portion is.

Now I decided to make slightly different tacos with soft taco shells, filled with black beans with smoked chilli flavours and kale as the additional green. These were really nice tacos and the top kale bits crisped a little bit in the oven, which I love. So here is my recipe.

Ingredients

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tin black beans

1 small tin sweetcorn

Ground coriander to taste

Ground cumin to taste

Smoked paprika to taste

Chilli flakes to taste

Smoked chilli paste to taste

1 lime's juice

2 tbsp tomato purée

160 g kale

8 soft taco shells

Grated cheddar

Red jalapenos

Sour cream

Fresh coriander

Method

Chop the onion and garlic finely and start cooking them in vegetable oil until the onion is slightly browned.

Add the black beans, sweetcorn and seasoning to the mix. Also add the lime's juice and tomato purée.

Steam the kale for a few minutes and add to the beans.

Fill the taco shells with the bean and kale mix.

Add some grated cheddar on the top and bake them in the oven for a few minutes until the cheese has melted and the taco shells are partly crispy.

Serve with red jalapenos, sour cream and fresh coriander and enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with Shaheen for this month's Eat Your Greens. 

Your VegHog

Irish Colcannon

As St. Patrick's Day is approaching, I thought I'd cook something Irish and ideally green. After a while of browsing vegetarian, or potentially vegetarian, Irish recipes I found Colcannon (Irish: cál ceannann "white-headed cabbage"). However I didn't use cabbage for this recipe, but thought that kale would nicely update the dish into a more modern version. Also the cabbages at my local shop were so white that no green would've been to be seen. This organic kale was just perfect for the purpose. After having read a few traditional Colcannon recipes, I decided my ingredients and started cooking.

I once spent St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, but missed the parade, as I found a nice pub quite early on the day with my friend. We could see some of the parade on television in the pub (!) when it was just a few metres away outside... and then when we decided to leave the pub, the parade had passed our point and only piles of rubbish were left on the streets. Oh well, it was a fun experience nevertheless. Needless to say that we then continued to another pub. I still like to tell the story, which is possibly still a bit funnier than actually having watched the parade. And now after this interlude, to the cooking of the dish.

Ingredients

1 kg potatoes

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

3 leeks

180 g kale

50 g butter

100 ml dry cider

150 g mature cheddar

Salt and pepper to taste

On the side: 6 Cumberland veggie sausages + olive oil for frying + salad

Method

Peel the potatoes, boil them until soft and then mash. Chop the onion and garlic finely and cut the leeks into thin slices.

Start cooking the onion, garlic and leeks in butter until they are soft. Then add the kale and cook until it's wilted a little. Add the cider and let it mostly evaporate. Then also add the grated cheddar and season with salt and pepper. Combine the mash with the leek and kale mix and serve.

If you also want to serve veggie sausages on the side, fry them in olive oil until browned. Also prepare any side salad that you want to serve with the dish. I chose to serve just mixed salad leaves on the side.

In all its greenness I also want to submit this dish to this month's Eat Your Greens challenge. This is a vegetarian cooking challenge for dishes using green vegetables by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. 

Enjoy the dish and happy St. Patrick's Day next week!

Your VegHog

Warm pearled spelt, halloumi and kale salad

It's still winter since I last time checked, and I feel like hibernating. But since I'm wide awake, I might as well have a good time and eat nice food.

Today I made a warm salad with hearty ingredients halloumi, pearled spelt and kale. This is how it's made.

250 g halloumi cheese

1 tbsp vegetable oil (for halloumi frying)

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

1 orange romano pepper

1 cup pearled spelt

200 g curly kale

2 tsp vegetable stock powder + 500 ml water

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

Dice the halloumi and fry the dices in vegetable oil until golden brown. Set to side.

Chop the shallots, garlic and romano pepper. Heat olive oil in a pan and sweat the shallots and garlic in the pan for a few minutes. Then add the pepper, the vegetable stock powder and water to the pan and also the pearled spelt. Cook for about 15 minutes until the spelt is tender. Season with salt and pepper.

Remove any large stalks of the kale and boil it in water for about 5 minutes and drain.

Add the kale and halloumi to the spelt pan. Serve warm and keep yourself warm!

Your VegHog