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

Pasta with spinach pesto and roasted gem squashes

What can be better than a little mid-week pasta! I really enjoy one or two pasta dishes every week, as it's so easy, yet so good. So here's another pasta dish of mine that I cooked yesterday. Many of these items were in my last shopping bag and now they are here on the plate. I was quite keen to use the chunky Paccheri Rigati pasta I got. The different pasta type added something new to a fairly basic pesto and vegetable combination. I also roasted gem squash rings to add to the dish and they made a nice impact indeed.

Here is my easy recipe for Pasta with spinach pesto and roasted gem squashes

Pesto ingredients

1 cup baby spinach

Handful of basil leaves

4 tbsp pine nuts

1 garlic clove

4 tbsp olive oil

Other ingredients

2 gem squashes

Olive oil for brushing the squashes

Paccheri Rigati pasta or pasta of your choice

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Method

Make the pesto by puréeing the pesto ingredients into an even paste.

Cut rings from the gem squashes. I removed the centre with a small cookie cutter. Brush the rings with olive oil and roast in the oven until nicely roasted.

Cook the pasta, combine it with the pesto and serve with the squash rings. Enjoy!

I want to share this dish with Chris from Thinly Spread and Pasta Please! cooking challenge, which is co-hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

Your VegHog

Baby kale pesto with spelt spirulina tagliatelle

Fresh flowers and a green pasta dish in the house! Those things really make me happy. I might be weird, but that's how it is. I have been using alternative pastas for a while now and am very fond of them. They just make a nice change to the ordinary. Now I tried the very green sprouted spelt spirulina tagliatelle with a light spring pesto made from baby kale and cashew nuts. Baby kale was a great leaf to use in pesto, the result was quite nutty. I added some herby breadcrumbs and local Hampshire mozzarella on the top of the dish and it was very good, I really enjoyed it. I think that there can't be enough different pasta ideas, so here comes my recipe.

Ingredients

Pesto

60 g baby kale

2 garlic cloves

50 g cashew nuts

6-8 tbsp olive oil

Pinch of salt

Herby breadcrumbs

1 cup breadcrumbs

10-12 basil leaves

Pinch of salt

Pinch of ground black pepper

Pinch of vegetable stock powder

Other ingredients

250 g sprouted spelt spirulina tagliatelle

125 g mozzarella

Cherry tomatoes

Fresh basil leaves

Method

Purée the pesto ingredients into a smooth paste and set to side.

Prepare the herby breadcrums by chopping basil leaves finely and adding them to the breadcrumbs with the rest of the seasoning.

Tear the mozzarella and cut the cherry tomatoes in half.

Cook the pasta al dente and mix some of the pesto into it. There probably will be pesto left for another dish as well. Or you can always cook more pasta, if you have more eaters.

Sprinkle the breadcrumbs and mozzarella on the top and garnish with tomatoes and basil.

Enjoy!

This simple pasta recipe is my Eat Your Greens contribution for this month, which I'm hosting in April and the challenge is co-hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen blog. Share your recipes with green vegetables with us, if you haven't done so already! We'd love to see your dishes and there's still time. Here's the April call for entries.

Your VegHog

Roasted red pepper pesto with red lentil fusilli

I made this super quick flavoursome vegan dish, it probably took about 15 minutes, which makes it perfect for busy weekdays. For the red pesto I used roasted red peppers (the antipasti type), sundried tomatoes, garlic and cashew nuts. This was a really nice and intense pesto. I combined this pesto with pasta made from red lentils. I have recently experienced with different new pasta types and this one turned out to be quite nice. The pasta actually tastes a bit like red lentils. So all in all this was a fairly healthy meal as well with a few salad leaves on the side.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup roasted red peppers

3 sundried tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

50 g cashew nuts

5 tbsp olive oil

250 g red lentils fusilli

Method

Purée the roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, garlic cloves, cashew nuts and olive oil into an even paste. Add a pinch of salt, if you like.

Cook the pasta as per packet instructions, combine with the pesto and serve.

Can it get any easier than this?! I'm really happy about such dishes on a busy day when there isn't too much time for cooking. This also made an excellent lunch for the next day.

Your VegHog

Gnocchi with red pesto

So my theme week The VegHog's Tomato Festival is still going on and I'm not tired of tomatoes yet. I now made smoky red pesto with gnocchi. What makes it suitable to the theme, are the oak smoked tomatoes that helped to make the red pesto, and I also served a small tomato and mozzarella salad on the side. If you are unable to get the oak smoked tomatoes, the pesto can also be made with sundried tomatoes. If you then want to add smokiness, using oak smoked Cheddar could help there. I liked this red pesto very much and will be making it soon again, it's such a nice change from green pestos. Here is today's recipe. 

Red pesto:

80 g oak smoked tomatoes + smoked oil (from the tomatoes)

Handful of fresh basil

50 g pine nuts

30 g grated vegetarian pasta cheese

1 garlic clove

Other ingredients:

600 g gnocchi

1 large heirloom tomato

125 g mozzarella

Fresh basil

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Salt

Ground black pepper

Grated vegetarian pasta cheese

Method

Make the pesto first by puréeing the ingredients.

Cook the gnocchi and chop the salad ingredients.

Dress the salad and mix the cooked gnocchi with the pesto.

Sprinkle cheese on the top and serve.

What an easy and quick weekday meal this is, but I would gladly also eat it on a weekend.

Have you been cooking with tomatoes this week?

Your VegHog

Panini with tomato, mozzarella and pesto

Good morning! Today I'm writing about a breakfast or lunch tip, which is always a favourite of mine and easy to make. I like panini very much, and I think that a tomato-mozzarella combination is one of the best for the filling. That's why I chose those ingredients now as well and also added pesto to the panini.

These are the ingredients I used:

• Panini bread
• Tomatoes
• Mozzarella
• Basil pesto

Then all you need to do is to slice the tomatoes and mozzarella, and possibly make the pesto. Here is one basil pesto recipe of mine, but you can also use a ready made pesto. 

Cut the panini bread in half and place the ingredients on it. Press the panini halves together.

Grill the panini on a dry grill pan on both sides until there are grilling marks and the cheese is melting.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Potato and spelt flatbreads with walnut pesto and roasted courgette

I made some potato and spelt flatbreads filled with walnut pesto, roasted courgette and salad fixings. It was quite the ultimate bread and it was filling enough to be had as the main meal of the day. Making these requires a little bit of effort as bread baking is involved. However these flatbreads are pretty much the easiest kind of breads that you could be baking. And isn't it so nice to have fresh homemade bread? This huge yellow courgette grew in my garden, and now it was time to get rid of it. It was still surprisingly firm considering its size, it hadn't gone yet quite a marrow.

Potato bread is very nice tasting and can easily be made from left over potato mash. The walnut pesto adds a crisp, sharp taste to it and the roasted courgette and other vegetables are just full of freshness. Here is how I made my breads.

Potato flatbreads

500 g potatoes

1 egg

1 dl spelt flakes

2 dl barley flour

1 tsp salt

This recipe makes 2-3 large flatbreads.

Peel the potatoes and boil them until soft. Then chase them through a potato ricer or just mash them as usual and let cool.

Add a little water to the spelt flakes to moisten them, but pour any excess water off that they aren't absorbing.

Then add the egg to the potatoes and stir. Also add the spelt flakes, barley flour and salt and knead until the dough is even.

Shape large flatbreads of the dough and place them on a baking paper. These should be rolled out quite thinly.

Stab with a fork on the top of the breads and bake them at 200C for about 20-30 minutes until they have received brown marks.

Walnut pesto

50 g walnuts

1 garlic clove

80 g fresh rocket

5 tbsp olive oil

Pulse all ingredients together with a hand mixer and let cool in the fridge. This pesto will be later spread on the flatbreads.

Topping

1 large courgette

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp oregano

3 spring onions

3 tomatoes

Fresh rocket

50 g Sussex Charmer cheese

Roast the courgette slices at 220C for about 20 minutes brushed with olive oil and oregano. Turn them a couple of times during the roasting. They should still be a little bit firm, so don't roast them for too long. At least that's the texture that I like more.

Chop the spring onions and cut the tomatoes into slices. Also cut small pieces or make shavings of the cheese.

Assemble the breads by spreading the pesto on the bread and then layering all the ingredients onto it. You can enjoy them either open or closed.

Your VegHog

Tasty summer breads

Light, fresh food is the best thing to have in the summer, and even better if you can get tasty local vegetables. As mentioned before, I often like to have just a bread lunch or dinner with vegetables and possibly cheese. I'm not always up for baking my own bread, especially in the heat, but then a nice artisan bread from the bakery is just right. I added my watercress pesto (recipe here) on these breads to bring an extra punch and freshness.

These are the ingredients I used today.

1 loaf of olive bread

150 g char-grilled pepper antipasti

200 g red & gold santini tomatoes

250 g mozzarella

Watercress pesto

Basil leaves

Sea salt

Ground black pepper

Simple instructions for a simple dish.

Slice the bread and the tomatoes. Spread some watercress pesto on the breads. You can replace this by a regular pesto or a basil and olive oil drizzle.

Then place the tomatoes and the antipasti on the bread slices, and tear the mozzarella on the top. When mozzarella is torn it releases less of its liquid, and I tend to prefer this method these days.

Sprinkle basil leaves, salt and pepper on the top and the breads are done.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Watercress pesto

Here's a quick recipe now to have a break of all the holiday posts, this is mainly a food blog after all! This is a lovely green summer recipe.

A watercress pesto is fresh and punchy and a perfect company for a light summer pasta. It's so easy and quick to make, so there are really no excuses for not making it. These are the ingredients that I just puréed together and stirred into a pasta dish.

100 g watercress

50 g pistachios

1 garlic clove

25 g vegetarian pasta cheese

4-8 tbsp olive oil

Mix the pesto into pasta or spread it on crusty breads and enjoy with fresh vegetables.

Your VegHog