Gnocchi with tomatoes and pine nuts

Here's just a very quick meal, gnocchi with tomatoes, pine nuts, basil and mozzarella quickly tossed together in a pan and served with garlic bread. I love this kind of quick meals when there isn't much time or strength to cook. I don't know why, but I'm extremely drained today. I could have fallen asleep while walking several times today. I'm not quite with it today, but let's hope it's only a severe case of Monday blues and I will be a bit more energetic tomorrow. I can't even write more right now, better luck tomorrow. I'll soon be off to bed.

Have a great week!

Your VegHog

Spinach, garlic and pine nut pasta salad

September has started really warm here in southern England. That means I'm having a small break from all the roasted vegetable dishes, pies etc. and making just a fresh pasta salad today. This is an ideal lunch to take with you to work or studies, I find. This is also an easy one to variate depending on what you have in your cupboards. Have a look!

Ingredients

250 g farfalle pasta

100 g spinach

2 garlic cloves

2 tbsp olive oil

40 g pine nuts

30 g vegetarian pasta cheese

A few fresh basil leaves

Salt

Ground black pepper

Grated nutmeg

Method

Boil the pasta soft. I normally boil it a little bit softer than I would for a warm bowl of pasta. Otherwise when cooled, the pasta might be too firm. After boiling rinse the pasta with cold water and drain.

Chop the garlic finely and cook it soft in one tablespoon olive oil. Add the spinach and one or two tablespoons water and wilt the spinach. This takes only a few minutes. Let the pan contents cool.

Toast the pine nuts in the oven or on a dry pan.

Combine the pasta with the spinach garlic mix and the pine nuts. Season the salad with the rest of the olive oil, fresh basil leaves, salt, ground black pepper and grated nutmeg. Grate the vegetarian pasta cheese and add it to the salad.

Done!

Your VegHog

Frozen pesto cubes

When I make pesto, I tend to make a fairly large batch that I sometimes don't manage to eat in time. That's when this idea of frozen pesto cubes comes in handy: freeze the excess pesto and take it out to melt, or add to pasta sauces or pizzas whenever needed.

I prefer to make the cheeseless pesto version for freezing, just a clean basil dressing with basic ingredients. The following amounts are enough to fill a normal ice cube tray.

Ingredients

80g basil leaves

50g pine nuts

6 garlic cloves

1dl olive oil

Method

Puree all the ingredients together and pour into the slots of an ice cube tray.

Freeze.

Use whenever convenient.

Easy!

Your VegHog

Mozzarella and pea shoot pesto stuffed peppers with new potatoes

A few days ago I posted the recipe for my pea shoot pesto and today I'm showing you what I cooked with it. I combined it with stuffed cheesy peppers and new potatoes and the whole thing is a fairly quick dish.

Ingredients:

500g baby new potatoes

2 yellow peppers

200g mozzarella cheese

Black pepper

Salt

For the pea shoot pesto:

250g pea shoots

1dl frozen peas

1-2 garlic cloves

Toasted pine nuts

Olive oil

Make the pea shoot pesto first by defrosting the peas and chopping the garlic. Then toast the pine nuts briefly in a dry frying pan. Put all ingredients into a bowl and puree them into a fine paste.

Chop the mozzarella into small pieces and mix it with the pesto. Season lightly with salt and black pepper. The rest of the pea shoot pesto can be stored for a few days in the fridge.

Cut the top off the yellow peppers and remove the seeds. Keep the lid. Fill the peppers with the pesto and mozzarella mix and close the lid. Bake them at 180C for about 30 minutes until the peppers are soft. During the baking also boil the new potatoes until tender.

And it's all done!

Your VegHog

Gnocchi and spinach bake

Let's continue with the green vegetables in an Italian style setting also today. I have previously shown how to make homemade gnocchi, which are Italian potato dumplings, and now I'm going to make a tasty oven bake with them. You can read my basic gnocchi making tips here.

This recipe makes a huge portion that would serve around four people. For this bake I would start by making the gnocchi first.

The gnocchi:

½ kg Potatoes

1 dl Wheat flour

1 tsp Salt

These amounts are approximate and flour should be added carefully while checking the texture of the dough. It's important to get a texture that holds together at the boiling stage and is neither too soggy nor floury. After a couple of times making gnocchi you'll know what I'm talking about.

Peel the potatoes and boil them for about 30 minutes until they are soft and let them cool down. Then mash the potatoes. Pressing through a potato ricer avoids lumps. Add a pinch of salt and some flour into the bowl and mix and knead until you have a bouncy firm paste that can easily be shaped.

Shape the dough into small balls and boil them in water until they float on the surface.

The sauce:

200g Spinach

A few pine nuts

2 Cloves of garlic

1 Red onion

A glass of white wine

Vegetable stock cube or powder

Nutmeg

Basil leaves

Olive oil

Chop the onion and fry it in olive oil until translucent. Chop the garlic and add it to the pan along with the pine nuts and spinach and fry them for a couple of minutes. Then pour in the wine and dissolve a little stock powder (or a cube) into the wine as it comes to the boil. Grate nutmeg into the sauce and let it simmer for further 10 minutes. Add a little chopped basil towards the end.

The bake:

Grated mozzarella

Mix the gnocchi with the sauce and put everything into an oven dish. Cover with grated mozzarella and bake at 180C until the cheese is melted and golden brown.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Oven potatoes with pine nut and saffron butter

Here's a quick entry about easy oven potatoes. This is a great side dish to many vegetables or vegetarian burgers and it almost makes itself. I have paired them with delicious home made seasoned butter. This pine nut and saffron butter goes well with potatoes, barbeque veg or baguette, anything you'd like!

For the oven potatoes:

Potatoes

Cayenne pepper

Salt

Oil

For the pine nut and saffron butter:

2tbsp of pine nuts

Pinch of saffron threads

1 Small garlic clove

100g Butter

1tbsp Milk

First make the seasoned butter, which can rest in the fridge while the potatoes are baking.

Take some saffron threads and put them into warm milk for some minutes. They'll colour the milk nicely yellow. Crush the pine nuts and garlic. Mix everything together with soft butter and shape into a rod inside of kitchen foil or cling film. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Please note: Consume the butter within couple of days.

All you have to do for the oven potatoes is to take some potatoes, wash and cut them in half or quarter. Then they can be placed on a baking tray and brushed with oil. Sprinkle cayenne pepper and salt on the potatoes and bake them for about one hour at 170C until they have a crispy exterior and soft interior. Regulate the heat during the baking if the oven is too hot.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Char-grilled pineapple and balsamic glazed tofu salad

I'm so enthusiastic about my new Le Creuset griddle pan and now pretty much everything I eat is char-grilled, all vegetables are marked! What a lovely smoky taste it gives to vegetables and also a great stripy look. It's certain that this won't be the last grilled dish in this blog.

Today I'm making a salad with char-grilled pineapple slices and balsamic glazed tofu bits and playing with the juxtaposition of warm and cold and savoury and fresh.

Ingredients

Tofu

Pineapple slices

Wild rocket

Pine nuts

Chili flakes

Balsamic vinegar

Soy sauce

Garlic

Oil

Preparations

First marinate the tofu and pineapple slices. Press the excess fluid out of the tofu, then slice it and put the slices into a sealable container. Make the marinade by mixing balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and chopped garlic and pour the marinade to the tofu. Seal the container and shake it a little bit to make sure that the marinade gets everywhere around the tofu. Let it marinate for at least one hour in the fridge, but the longer the better. You could marinate the tofu overnight if you're planning this salad ahead. Take another container where to place the pineapples. Pour soy sauce in and let them marinate in the fridge as well.

When tofu and pineapple have marinated long enough heat a griddle pan. When the pan is hot brush groundnut or vegetable oil on it with a heat resistant silicone brush. Grill the tofu first as it needs longer time to grill and quite a patient grill user. You would want it to be tough on the outside and soft in the inside. While turning the tofu pieces over you can brush more marinade on them. Once the tofu pieces are almost done add the pineapple slices to the pan. If they don't fit onto the pan at the same time put the tofu into the oven to keep warm. Pineapple is a more rewarding grilling fruit as it should get the stripes quite quickly.

While grilling you can prepare the rest of the salad: Wash the wild rocket and place it on a plate. Sprinkle chili flakes and pine nuts onto the plate. When tofu and pineapple are done, place them on the top when they're still warm and garnish the salad with balsamic vinegar.

Done!

The VegHog

Olive and pine nut pasta salad

Hello everybody!

It's time to make a salad again, but not in the traditional sense. A cold pasta salad is a nice lunch and quick and economical to make, for example using your excess pasta. This salad is light but also filling and you don't need many ingredients either.

Ingredients

Pasta (I used fusilli but you can use some other pasta as well)

A few leaves of fresh basil

A tin of green olives

A handful of pine nuts

Vegetarian pasta cheese (Parmesan equivalent)

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Boil the pasta until it's soft and let it cool down. Chop the olives into half and the basil leaves into smaller pieces and grate shavings of the vegetarian pasta cheese. You could also try using other cheeses, such as mozzarella.

Put the pasta into a bowl. Add the olives, pine nuts, cheese and basil. Mix them all together. Season with some salt and pepper.

Finally glaze the salad with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Stir. Done.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog