Pearled spelt oven porridge

Savoury porridge is my true weakness. They make such a good breakfast and keep you going for pretty much all day. Here in England people don't tend to understand how much better a savoury porridge is, and they keep adding their sugars and honeys and berries to porridge. Well not me! I made this pearled spelt oven porridge, which takes a bit of time to prepare, but the result is totally worth it. It's the perfect weekend breakfast for me. I normally make this from pearled barley, but now tried with spelt and it was very good too. Have a look at my easy recipe!

Ingredients

1 cup pearled spelt

1 pint milk + some extra for eating

2 tsp salt

Method

Soak the pearled spelt in water overnight.

Next morning pre-heat the oven to 200 C.

Drain the spelt, put it into an oven dish, season with salt and cover with milk.

Reduce the heat of the oven to about 180 C after 10-15 minutes when the milk is slowly simmering.

Bake the porridge for about one hour until the spelt is cooked and most of the milk is absorbed.

The porridge will have a crust made from milk. This can be removed before eating, if you like, but it's fully edible.

Add some cold milk to the hot porridge and enjoy!

The ingredients for this dish are simple and once again, this is a total budget recipe, so I'm sharing this with Credit Crunch Munch hosted by From Plate to Pen this month and co-hosted by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All.

Your VegHog

Stuffed peppers

Stuffed peppers are perfect for this season, so comforting and warm straight from the oven. Even though they aren't the most innovative vegetarian dish, I really enjoy them with the right filling. I stuffed my huge Lamuyo pepper halves with a pearled spelt, carrot, tomato and pea mix and some cheese of course. I like my stuffed peppers well done with a succulent filling. I didn't need any sides for this, as the peppers were so huge.

Ingredients

2 Lamuyo peppers

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 carrot

100 g cherry tomatoes

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup pearled spelt

500 ml vegetable stock

1 cup frozen peas

50 g vegetarian pasta cheese

Salt

Ground black pepper

Method

Cut the peppers into halves and chop the onion, garlic, carrot and tomatoes finely.

Heat the olive oil in a pan and start cooking the onion, garlic and carrot there. Once these are softened, also add the tomatoes and cook for a while longer.

Add the pearled spelt and a third of the vegetable stock and simmer under the lid. Add more vegetable stock once it has absorbed and cook until the spelt is done.

Stir in the frozen peas and the grated cheese in the end.

Fill the pepper halves with the spelt mix and bake at 200 C until the peppers are roasted. Add more cheese on the top, if you prefer.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Harlequin squash spelt risotto with halloumi

I was happy to obtain some harlequin squashes again, and decided to make a spelt risotto with one of them. A spelt risotto is a wonderful weekday dish even though it takes slightly longer to make. I'm always so happy to have some of it left to take with me to work. This is a very filling and tasty dish and I can only recommend pearled spelt. However I just noticed how many spelt dishes I have posted again recently and should use some other main ingredients soon. I promise that it will be the case! First, here's today's recipe.

Ingredients

1 harlequin squash

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 bell pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

20 g butter

1 cup pearled spelt

1 glass white wine

1 l vegetable stock

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

40 g vegetarian pasta cheese

250 g halloumi + 1 tsp vegetable oil (optional)

Method

The method to this dish is my basic risotto method, nothing complicated about it, just some patience is needed.

Heat the vegetable stock in a separate pot.

Chop the harlequin squash into cubes. Also chop the onion, garlic and bell pepper.

Heat olive oil in a pan and start cooking the onion there for a few minutes. Then add the bell pepper and garlic and cook for further couple of minutes followed by the harlequin squash.

Add the butter and pearled spelt into the pan and mix for a few moments. Then add the wine and let it absorb.

Add a few ladles of the hot vegetable stock and let simmer under the lid. Stir often and keep making stock additions.

When all the components are cooked nicely and the flavours have blended, season the dish and add some grated vegetarian pasta cheese to it.

Serve with pan-fried halloumi slices like I did, if you feel like it. In that case no salt addition is needed to the risotto, or just a little bit.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Pattypan squash spelt risotto

Maybe you already saw this dish in my lunchbox on Tuesday and here is the full recipe of my pattypan squash spelt risotto. I love the look of pattypan squashes, their shape is so quirky. Unfortunately I don't often find them in my local shops, but now my local health food store had a few of them in a great condition, so of course I had to buy them. The taste of this squash is quite mild and I think that they are closer to courgettes by taste and texture. That makes them quite versatile to use. I found this pattypan squash spelt risotto quite tasty, have a look how I made it.

Ingredients

1 pattypan squash

2 tbsp olive oil

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

1 red bell pepper

25 g butter

250 ml pearled spelt

100 ml dry white wine

1 l vegetable stock

50 g vegetarian pasta cheese

Sage

Basil

Salt

Ground black pepper

Method

Peel and cut the pattypan squash into small cubes. Brush them with olive oil and roast in the oven until done with darker roasting marks.

Chop the onions and garlic finely and also cut the bell pepper into cubes.

Start cooking the onions, garlic and pepper in olive oil, and once they are soft, add the butter and pearled spelt into the pan.

Add the white wine and let the pearled spelt absorb it. Then add about the third of the vegetable stock and simmer under lid. Keep adding more stock whenever needed.

Towards the end, add the roasted pattypan squash and grated pasta cheese to the pan, and season with sage, basil, salt and ground black pepper.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Heirloom tomato, mozzarella and pearled spelt salad

Today's dish is very easy, as it's only a salad. However I tried to make it slightly more filling with a pearled spelt addition and mozzarella balls. Of course tomatoes are an important ingredient here again, like in all my dishes this week, since I'm celebrating The VegHog's Tomato Festival. Have a look at the two previous posts and share your tomato recipe, if you feel like it. 

This one is quite a basic summer salad, but still a little alteration from the normal tomato and mozzarella salad.

Ingredients

6-8 tbsp pearled spelt

1 tsp vegetable stock powder

2 large heirloom tomatoes

½ red onion

50 g rocket

150 g mozzarella balls

Olive oil

Fresh basil

Salt

Pepper

Method

Cook the pearled spelt in water with the added vegetable stock powder until they are done.

Slice the tomatoes and the red onions. Quickly fry the onion slices in olive oil in a pan.

Assemble all the components onto a plate and drizzle olive oil on the top and season with basil, salt and pepper.

That's how simple it is, enjoy!

Your VegHog

Mushroom and pearled spelt cabbage roulades

I couldn't stand cabbage roulades, casseroles, soups or basically any cabbage dishes in my childhood and youth, but one seems to grow into liking them. It probably is one of those adult type of foods. After I cooked a Finnish cabbage casserole with my mum a while ago, I wanted to make other cabbage dishes as well. Now I wanted to try a vegetarian version of cabbage roulades, so I made these cabbage roulades filled with mushroomy pearled spelt. They were pretty good and my technique was also successful. I would make these again with the same filling and also with something else. The pointed spring cabbage was a very good choice for this dish with its large and even leaves, that made the assembly fairly easy. 

Here is my recipe for mushroom and pearled spelt cabbage roulades:

Ingredients

1 cup pearled spelt

1 vegetable stock cube

250 g chestnut mushrooms

1 red onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

Fresh thyme

Salt

Ground black pepper

50 g Cheddar and Emmental grated (optional)

1 pointed spring cabbage

A few notches of butter

½ tbsp black treacle

Method

Cook the pearled spelt in water with the vegetable stock cube until done.

Chop the mushrooms, onion and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil until the excess liquid has evaporated. Add the cooked spelt and season. Then also add the grated cheese. Leave the cheese out, if you want a vegan dish.

Remove the cabbage leaves and cook them in water for a few minutes until they are bendy enough to shape roulades. Save some of the cabbage cooking water and set to side.

Place some of the filling onto the cabbage leaves and wrap them firmly into parcels. Place them on an oven dish, put a little butter on the top and bake at 220 C for about 30 minutes until the surface has received some brown colour.

Lower the oven temperature to 175 C. Pour some of the cabbage cooking water on the roulades and brush the black treacle on them. Cover the oven dish with a foil and return to the oven for about an hour.

Enjoy! One way to serve them is with roasted potatoes and a salad, like I did here.

I want to share this recipe with this month's Eat Your Greens. I don't cook that much with cabbage, so I thought it would be a nice change to my usual green vegetables. Eat Your Greens is a monthly vegetarian cooking challenge involving green vegetables hosted by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table blog.  

Have a relaxing Sunday everyone!

Your VegHog

Butternut squash speltotto

I have been a little bit disappointed with the squash offering in my local shops this winter and spring. It seems that mostly just butternut squash or coquina squash were available. Well, there's nothing wrong with them, but there are better squashes as well that I would have liked to cook again. However due to the squash variation shortage, I grew to like butternut squash more again. Today's recipe is just a basic speltotto (=risotto made with pearled spelt instead of arborio rice) that I cooked the other day from roasted butternut squash and pearled spelt. It was really tasty and the best kind of comfort food for me. Yesterday I ordered a new large batch of pearled spelt and I can't wait for it to arrive. If you have never tried it, I would really urge you to, it's really nice. And if you have tried, I would also love to hear your opinions, but now to the butternut squash speltotto recipe.

Ingredients

1 medium butternut squash

3 tbsp olive oil

2 shallots

3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp butter

1,5 cup pearled spelt

100 ml white wine

500 ml vegetable stock

25 g grated mature cheddar

50 g toasted pine nuts

Salt and black pepper to taste

Fresh basil leaves

Method

Peel the butternut squash and cut it into small/medium cubes. Roast the cubes in the oven with olive oil.

Chop the shallots and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil until soft.

Add butter and the pearled spelt into the pan and stir for a minute or so.

Add the white wine and let it mostly evaporate.

Then add about a third of the vegetable stock and let simmer.

Keep adding vegetable stock and stirring often until the spelt has cooked.

Towards the end, add the roasted butternut squash cubes and the grated cheese to the mix, season with salt, pepper and basil and serve with toasted pine nuts.

Your VegHog

Stuffed portobello mushrooms with pearled spelt

I think that stuffed mushrooms are always a good idea and I have served them in a variety of combinations. I quickly came up with these ones stuffed with pearled spelt for a light weekday dinner.

Four stuffed portobellos make a neat starter for four people or a main for two people with some side dishes.

Ingredients

4 portobello mushrooms

1 shallot

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

½ cup pearled spelt

1 vegetable stock cube

50 g mature cheddar

Fresh sage leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

10 g pine nuts

Method

Remove the stalks of the mushrooms and chop the stalks finely. Also chop the shallot and garlic. Cook these in olive oil for a few minutes and then add the pearled spelt, vegetable stock cube and about 250 ml water. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes until the spelt is cooked and season the mix with salt, pepper and sage.

Grate the cheese and mix with the spelt. Stuff the mushrooms with the mix. Coarsely chop the pine nuts and sprinkle on top of the mushrooms.

Bake at 180C for about 15 minutes. Serve instantly and enjoy! Very easy!

Your VegHog

Stuffed marrow

I have been very busy lately and haven't really been able to cook any nice dishes. Nevertheless I thought I could share this stuffed marrow recipe with you, as I didn't want to leave you hanging for too long. I promise to improve my ways for the Christmas season, which is soon enough upon us!

I do admit that on the photos this dish does not look appealing at all, but I can assure you that these stuffed marrow halves were very succulent and tasty. It was a very filling dish as well due to the pearled spelt addition.

Here's my stuffed marrow recipe, if you would like to give it a go.

Ingredients

1 marrow

1 bell pepper

1 red onion

2 garlic cloves

4 tomatoes

3 spring onions

1 tbsp olive oil

½ cup pearled spelt

½ cup vegetable stock

1 tsp salt

1 tsp Herbes de Provence

½ tsp ground black pepper

250 g halloumi

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

Cut the marrow in half and remove the insides by shaping two boats, but also save the insides. Cook the marrow halves in hot olive oil, just that they get a small glaze around the surface. You can leave them in the oven at 150 C while you make the other preparations.

Chop the bell pepper, onion, garlic, tomatoes and spring onions finely. Start cooking the onion and pepper in the olive oil, and then add the tomatoes, garlic, marrow insides and spring onions. After these have been cooked for a few minutes, add the spelt and the vegetable stock.

Let simmer until the liquid has mostly absorbed and the spelt is cooked. Leave the filling a little bit moist so that it doesn't dry out in the oven. You can add little water before the baking if needed.

Stuff the marrow halves with the filling and bake covered in foil at 180C for about 40 minutes. You can remove the foil for 5-10 minutes before the end, if you think that the top needs some colour.

Fry the halloumi slices in the vegetable oil and place the fried slices on top of the marrows.

All done and ready to be enjoyed!

Your VegHog

Stuffed gem squashes

Gem squashes are everywhere now and I just can't resist them because they are so cute. Their flesh is a little bit similar to courgettes and the taste is mild. Taste wise they might not be my absolute favourite squashes, as I prefer something more nutty, but they are very good for a change.

I made again stuffed gem squashes as their shape is really suitable for good-looking stuffed squash halves (here's another stuffed gem squash recipe of mine). Pearled spelt based stuffing mix felt like the right choice for these, and I made a really uncomplicated and easy version. Have a look how I made them.

Ingredients

4 gem squashes

1 orange bell pepper

1 shallot

2 garlic cloves

3 tomatoes

½ cup pearled spelt

1 vegetable stock cube

50 g cheddar and mozzarella cheese mix grated

Olive oil

Salt, black pepper and herbes de Provence to taste

Method

Chop the shallot and garlic finely. Also chop the bell pepper and tomatoes.

Cook the shallot and pepper soft in olive oil. Then add the garlic and the tomatoes.

After a while simmering also add the pearled spelt, vegetable stock cube and ½ cup water.

Let it all simmer under lid until the spelt is cooked al dente. Then season and add the grated cheese.

Cut the squashes in half and remove the seeds. This leaves a suitable hole for our stuffing.

Quickly fry the squash halves in olive oil in a pan on each side. Stuff them with the spelt and vegetable mix and bake at 180C for 30-40 minutes.

Serve for example with homemade chunky chips on the side like I did.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Harissa and spelt stew

September is here! I'm quite excited about all the lovely autumn dishes that I can cook now and I hope you are too! I had a small break from posting in the end of last month, but now I'm very motivated to post, cook and eat a lot.

Today I'll start with a savoury and spicy dish just to kick things off for the month. I cooked an autumnal dish with the feel that I really appreciate in this season. I used harissa, which is such a handy thing to have around and it goes oh so well with halloumi. Have a read what a simple dish this is, only a bit of slow-roasting needed.

Ingredients

4 red bell peppers

4 large shallots

2 tbsp olive oil

250 g cherry vine tomatoes

250 g halloumi

1 tsp vegetable oil

4 garlic cloves

1 cup pearled spelt

500 ml vegetable stock

3-4 tsp harissa

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp honey

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp thyme

Method

Chop the peppers and shallots coarsely and brush them with olive oil. Roast at 180C for about 40 minutes and then also add the tomatoes to the dish and roast for further 30 minutes.

Chop the halloumi into cubes and fry the cubes golden brown. Set them to side to wait until later.

Chop the garlic finely and cook it in olive oil. Then add the pearled spelt to the pan, soon followed by the roasted vegetables. Stir and add ground cumin, harissa and half of the vegetable stock to the pan and let simmer under the lid until the spelt is cooked nicely.

Add more vegetable stock when needed. You might not need all of it depending on the moistness of the dish. Season with honey, paprika and thyme and taste, whether more harissa or cumin is needed. Add the halloumi dices and let simmer for further 5 minutes.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Zucchini, tomato and pepper spelt risotto

When I was writing about my balcony gardening yesterday, I started thinking the lovely veg I'm trying to grow and got an instant inspiration for this recipe. I'm currently growing all the main vegetables that are in this dish (peppers, tomatoes and zucchini), and with some luck can cook this same dish from own produce later in the summer. This is again just an easy pearled spelt risotto, but the making of it is such fun – I'd really want you to try it! I love the texture of pearled spelt and the taste is great as well.

2 yellow romano peppers

100g cherry vine tomatoes

1 zucchini

1 shallot

3 garlic cloves

1tbsp olive oil

25g butter

1-1,5 cups pearled spelt

150ml white wine

1l vegetable stock

50g Sussex Charmer cheese

A few fresh basil leaves

1tsp salt

1tsp ground black pepper

Warm the vegetable stock up at moderate heat.

Chop the peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, shallot and garlic finely.

Cook the shallot and garlic in olive oil until soft and then add the peppers, and soon after the zucchini and tomatoes. Cook for a while longer so that the juices start flowing.

Add butter to the pan and stir in the pearled spelt. Let the spelt absorb the liquid for a moment and then pour in the white wine. Let the wine evaporate and add some of the warm vegetable stock to the pan and let it simmer at low heat under lid. Make sure that the pan doesn't get dry at any time, so keep stirring and adding vegetable stock.

When the spelt in cooked, add the seasoning and grated cheese. Add any seasoning or butter or white wine more, if you prefer.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Your VegHog