Leek and potato soup

 

Soups are so good, don’t you think. I have made a few soups lately and this plant based leek, potato and lentil soup is one of them. It was so nice and easy to make so here is my basic recipe.

 

Leek and potato soup

Ingredients

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

2 leeks

6 potatoes

1tbsp vegetable oil

½ cup yellow lentils

1 vegetable stock cube

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Fresh chives

 

Method

Chop the onion, garlic and leeks. Peel the potatoes and also cut them to cubes.

Sautée the onion and garlic in oil. Then add the leeks to the pan and soften them.

Add the potatoes, lentils and seasoning.

Cover with water and let simmer under lid until all components have cooked.

Blend the soup until smooth and enjoy! I added a drizzle of wild garlic oil on the top for serving.

 

Your VegHog

Cheese-onion-potato pie

 

I haven’t been a very productive blogger in September. I have been cooking plenty of nice dishes though, and I hope that I will have the energy to post them here soon. We have a new vegetable market close by, so I can get even more incredible local produce, which is motivating for cooking nice dishes.

I will be on holiday next week, but it will be another staycation. The Covid-19 situation got worse again in Denmark and we have more restrictions in place. We had to postpone our trip to Norway to next spring. Hopefully by then things will have calmed down. So now I’m just looking forward to a week filled with quiet walks in the surrounding areas, reading, cooking and possibly some home decorating.

Now to today’s dish. Cheese, onion and potato, what a match. They go so well together that I sometimes think that I don’t need to eat anything else. I made this shortcrust pie with softened onions and garlic, mashed local organic potatoes, thyme and Cheddar cheese. It was so good and comforting, just perfect for the autumn.

 What are your plans for the weekend? Have a nice one in any case!

Your VegHog

Mexican dirty potatoes

Are you also seeing dirty fries on so many menus? I have only a few times seen a vegetarian version of these loaded fries and find them quite tasty and a nice change from the usual. I guess vegetarian dirty fries can be loaded with cheese, chilli, different vegetables and dips, anything basically that would go in that combo.

I was somewhat inspired by the “dirtiness” of the fries for this vegan roast potato dish. I stole the name from the fries, even though these weren't fries, but potatoes anyway. So I made roast potatoes with a Mexican twist by adding some pepper, black beans, sweetcorn and the typical Mexican spices. 

Mexican dirty potatoes

Ingredients

400 g potatoes

Olive oil for roasting

1 large red romano pepper

1 large onion

3 garlic cloves

1 small chilli

1 can black beans

1 small can sweetcorn

2 tsp smoked chilli paste

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

1 tsp smoked paprika

Sprinkle of salt

Fresh coriander (optional)

Method

Cut the potatoes into quarters or smaller pieces and cook them in water for about 15 minutes. Then place them into a baking tray with olive oil. Roast at 200 C for about 40 minutes.

Prep the rest of the ingredients in the meanwhile: chop the pepper, onion, garlic and chilli. Add the pepper first to the potatoes and roast for about 10 minutes. After that time also add the beans, sweetcorn, chilli, garlic and onion.

Roast for about 40 minutes more. I covered the dish for the first 20 minutes with foil, but that's optional. I just thought that without a foil the dish may dry out too much.

Mix the smoked chilli paste, ground cumin, ground coriander, smoked paprika and salt with a dash of olive oil and water to make a liquid paste. Season the contents of the oven dish with the seasoning paste and return to the oven for a few minutes until the flavours have blended in nicely.

You can serve this with some nice fragrant fresh coriander, or even a bit of grated cheese, if you want to have a non-vegan version.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Layered potato and onion bake

Oh, how nice that it's Friday! I'm finally home from work and have time to post something again. I haven't been too productive with blogging yet in May, so I'm really wanting to improve that. I've eaten out a few times and otherwise just cooked my basic weekday grub, so there hasn't been much to post about.

I'll end this week with a layered potato and onion bake, just a simple weekday meal, which however needs a little bit time to get really tasty. It's nice when the potato slices on the surface are crispy and the lower ones are nice and soft. The thinner you can slice the potatoes, the better. A mandoline would be really handy for this, unfortunately I had to use a peeling knife, but got there eventually. I hope you'll like this vegan recipe.

Ingredients

2 large onions

3 garlic cloves

Olive oil

1 kg potatoes

400 ml vegetable stock

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Thyme to taste

Rosemary to taste

Method

Slice the onions into half rings and the garlic finely. Fry them in olive oil until browned and soft.

Cut the potatoes into very thin slices, a sharp peeling knife is a good helper for this or a mandoline of course.

Heat the vegetable stock and season it with salt (if needed), ground black pepper, thyme and rosemary.

Layer the potatoes into a large oven dish and put some onions and garlic between each layer and pour some of the hot stock over it.

Cover the oven dish with foil and bake at 200 C for about one hour and with the cover off for about 25 minutes until the potatoes are soft and the surface is browned.

Let the bake rest on the counter at room temperature for about 30 minutes before serving, then it will get its firm and lovely texture and won't be too hot for eating.

Enjoy and have a good weekend!

Your VegHog

Thrice-cooked potato and leek bake

Potatoes and leeks are the best produce of this season for me and I love combining both of them with cheese, it's an old yet proved combination. So I don't know what made me think of thrice-cooked potatoes, but I was intrigued to see how it would work out. The potato slices were briefly boiled, then fried in oil and finally baked in the oven. They were combined with a cheesy leek mix in a hearty bake. This is a perfect dish to warm up on a chilly dark evening.

Ingredients

400 g potatoes

Vegetable oil

3 leeks

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

Vegetable stock powder

Fresh parsley

Salt

Ground black pepper

200 g grated Cheddar

Method

Slice the potatoes thinly. Boil them in water for about 5 minutes. Put them into a bowl and add some vegetable oil to them. Fry the potato slices for a few minutes in a hot pan until they get brown.

Slice the leeks and chop the onion and garlic finely. Cook them in oil until soft, then add a little vegetable stock powder and water. Season with parsley, salt and pepper and let simmer under lid by occasionally stirring.

Layer the leek mix, scalloped potatoes and cheese into an oven dish and bake for about 10-15 minutes.

I served the bake with steamed carrots and fried gem lettuce (too much Masterchef watching for me?). It was a nice dinner.

Your VegHog

Skin-on mash with veggie Schnitzel and mushroom sauce

This type of dish is one my absolute weekend favourites: potatoes, veggies and a vegetarian Schnitzel of some description and I quite often tend to have such meals. The components can and will vary, but the principle stays the same. So here's just one of those dishes. I would urge you to try skin-on mash, there's not a really a reason to remove the nutritious skins and they add a bit more interesting texture to the mash.

Skin-on mash

500 g potatoes

25 g butter

50 ml milk

1 tsp salt

Boil the potatoes in salt water until done. Mash them with the peels and add the butter, milk and salt.

Mushroom sauce

200 g closed cup mushrooms

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

Olive oil

100 ml oat cream

Salt

Pepper

Fresh basil

Slice the mushrooms ans chop the onion and garlic finely. Cook them in olive oil until soft and until the mushrooms have lost some of the excess water. Add the cream, salt, pepper and basil and let simmer until the cream has been infused nicely by the mushrooms and other components.

 

Leek side

1 leek

1 onion

25 g butter

50 g dry cider

Salt

Pepper

Slice the leek thinly and chop the onion finely. Cook them in butter until soft, add the cider, salt and pepper and let simmer.

Schnitzel

2 ready made vegetarian Schnitzel

Heat the Schnitzel in the oven until the surfaces are crispy.

Serve everything together and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Chickpea, spinach and potato curry

Today I made this chickpea, spinach and potato curry as planned as the Wednesday meal for this week. It was quick to make, as my partner had recently made a brilliant garam masala spice mix. Therefore I could luckily fully skip the spice mixing phase, which is fun, but also takes time and now I just wanted an easy weekday curry. Here is my chickpea, spinach and potato curry recipe.

Ingredients

½ cup dried chickpeas

500 g potatoes

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp vegetable oil

100 g cherry vine tomatoes

160 ml coconut cream

100 g spinach

1 vegetable stock cube

1 tbsp garam masala

Ginger powder to taste

Chilli flakes to taste

Curry leaves to taste

Ground cumin to taste

Method

Soak the chickpeas overnight and then boil them in water until they are done.

Cut the potatoes in halves or quarters depending on the size. Boil them in water until they are almost done. You can save some of the potato cooking water to be added later to the curry.

Chop the shallots and garlic finely and start cooking them in the vegetable oil. Add the finely chopped cherry tomatoes and then the garam masala. Stir for a while and add the potatoes and chickpeas and the coconut cream.

Let simmer slowly and season with vegetable stock cube, ginger powder, chilli flakes, curry leaves and ground cumin. Add a little water if needed.

Once the flavours have blended nicely and the potatoes are fully cooked, add the spinach towards the end and let it wilt in the mix.

I served the curry on its own, as it contains quite wholesome ingredients. I didn't think it needed rice or anything else with it. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Potato and rosemary focaccia

I have baked loads of things with potatoes lately, potato pizza and potato pies, and now I've done it again. Now I baked potato and rosemary focaccias with lovely red ruby gem potatoes. I love the taste of these local potatoes and purchase them quite often. I used mainly spelt flour in the dough, which I haven't done before in focaccias.

Here is how I made these focaccias. The recipe makes four focaccias or one large one.

Ingredients

For the dough:

300 ml spelt flour

200 ml wheat flour

1 tbsp dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

200 ml lukewarm water

2 tbsp olive oil

For the filling:

250 g small potatoes

Rosemary

Sea salt

20g grated mature Cheddar

Method

Mix the dry ingredients for the dough (flour, dry yeast, sugar and salt) and then add the lukewarm water and olive oil and knead to a dough. Let the dough rise for about 40 minutes under a teatowel.

In the meanwhile boil the potatoes until they are soft. Let them cool and cut them into chunky bits. I cut one small potato into 2-3 pieces. Mix the pieces in a bowl with a little olive oil, rosemary and sea salt.

Shape small round focaccias from the dough and place the potato pieces on them. Sprinkle grated cheddar on the top and some more sea salt and rosemary if you prefer.

Bake at 220 C for about 20 minutes and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Potato pies in spelt crust

I'm back home in England again, but of course my Finland holiday is influencing my cooking more than usual. I brought some lovely Finnish products with me and will be using them in my cooking. Today's recipe is my take on traditional Finnish potato pies.

I have already posted a similar recipe for these pies under the title Finnish potato pies, where you can read the detailed instructions. Only this time I made slightly different pies in spelt crust and unpeeled potatoes, but the making principle is the same. The potato mash maintained such a strong potato flavour as the potatoes weren't peeled and the spelt crust was basically just one of my easy spelt pizza doughs (similar recipe is here). Another difference was that I made these pies a bit bigger and rounder than usual. 

I always think that these pies take a long time to make, but in fact they can be quick especially due to some of the alterations I made this time. Even left-over mash can be used to make these. I'm only saying this to people, who might sometimes have left-over mash. I personally never have that, I love it too much and always eat all of it.

Anyway give these pies a try, they are wonderful served warm with butter!

Your VegHog

Potato pizza

I was partly influenced by my trip to Copenhagen and partly by the Vegetable Palette food blogging challenge to make this potato pizza. I have been planning this sort of a pizza for ages, but never made one. I made this in the style of a fried pizza (first stage is on a frying pan, then oven), like I have made a few before. In the meanwhile I think that it's the best way to get a crispy crusted pizza with a regular oven. The pizza turned out to be lovely, so from now on I will be making such potato pizzas more often. I used my typical spelt crust as the base and rosemary as seasoning. 

Naturally I want to share this post with the Vegetable Palette for April, where the theme for this month is “White vegetables”. The challenge is hosted by Shaheen from the A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. 

Here is my Potato pizza recipe:

Ingredients

Spelt crust:

2 tbsp dry yeast

200 g wheat flour

200 g spelt flour

2 tsp salt

350 ml lukewarm water

3 tbsp olive oil

Toppings:

1 small onion

1 garlic clove

3-5 potatoes depending on the size

Mozzarella pearls

Sea salt

Black pepper

Fresh rosemary

Olive oil

Method

Make the pizza dough first: Mix the dry ingredients, then add water and olive oil and knead. Let the dough rise in a bowl under a tea towel for about one hour. Later roll out thin pizzas from it.

Chop the onion in thin half rings and the garlic finely. Cut the potatoes into thin slices. I didn't peel mine, as then the potato taste was even more intense.

Cook the potato slices in boiling water for about 5 minutes so that they are pretty much cooked. Put them into a bowl with olive oil, rosemary, seas salt and black pepper and mix. Leave them in the bowl for about 5 minutes.

Heat a large frying pan with a metal handle to the highest setting and place the pizza dough on the dry pan. Place the toppings onto the pizza and leave in the pan for a couple of minutes. Then put the whole pan into the oven under the grill at 250C. Leave in the oven until baked and golden brown. It can take only a couple of minutes or a little bit longer depending on the power of the oven.

Serve immediately and enjoy! Have good pizza moments!

Your VegHog

Brussels sprout and potato bake

We don't traditionally eat sprouts in my family at Christmas, as they don't really belong to the Finnish Christmas vegetables. Things are different here in England though, sprouts are considered to be very much Christmas vegetables. I wouldn't mind having them anytime though, and I'm planning to possibly adding them to this year's nut roast, maybe shredded. But that will remain to be seen, as I haven't fully decided on the nut roast yet. But even this Brussels sprout and potato bake could be a nice addition to a festive meal, or served outside the holidays as a stand-alone dish.

Here's how I made this bake.

Ingredients

500 g miniature potatoes

550 g brussels sprouts

3 shallots

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp hazelnut oil

50 ml dry cider

1 tsp rosemary

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt

Ground black pepper to taste

Ground nutmeg to taste

300 ml vegetable stock

250 g cheddar and mozzarella mix

3 spring onions

Method

Clean the potatoes and sprouts and cut them in half. If you are using a bit bigger potatoes, cut them into even smaller chunks.

Chop the shallots and garlic finely and cook them soft in the hazelnut oil. Add the sprouts and potatoes to the pan. Then also add the dry cider, rosemary, thyme, paprika, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

After the cider has evaporated a little, add the vegetable stock and let simmer until the liquid has almost absorbed and the potatoes are cooked. I even preferred the potatoes to be quite soft already before the baking. But if you want firmer potatoes, don't cook them too long in the pan, as they are going to the oven as well.

Mix half of the cheese to the potatoes and sprouts in the casserole. Then fill an oven dish or dishes with it and layer cheese into the middle.

Bake at 200C for about 10-15 minutes until the cheese has melted and the flavours come together. Chop the spring onions and sprinkle them fresh onto the bake and it's ready to be enjoyed!

This dish is also my contribution to December's Eat Your Greens challenge by A2K – A Seasonal Veg Table. I linked a recipe there for the first time last month, and now I'm determined doing so every month. It's a great challenge and so is Shaheen's blog, check them out through the links! I found this dish quite suitable as the December contribution as it can be an addition to a festive meal or just a plain seasonal weekday meal (+ it's green!).

Your VegHog

 

Cooking video - Purple sprouting broccoli and potato soup

I tried something new and made a cooking video. It's not the most brilliant edit and not even my best recipe, but I thought it would be nice to introduce in a different visual way how I usually make my vegan soups. What do you think, should I make more of these in the future? That wouldn't be too often anyway as it's quite time consuming, but it is a great fun and I wish I could chop that quickly!

I have listed the ingredient amounts here in writing as well, but haven't written any further instructions. I hope that the video explains it mostly. You can variate the vegetable stock amount depending on how thick you want the soup to be. I initially added 500 ml, but added a little extra water later. Then just simmer until everything is cooked and the flavours blended nicely. This soup making method can be used for pretty much any vegetable combinations.

Ingredients

250 g purple sprouting broccoli

250 g small potatoes

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

500-700 ml vegetable stock

Salt, ground black pepper and sage to taste

Enjoy the video!

 

Music: Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Your VegHog

Potato and leek bake

Potato + leek + cheese = BLISS!

I'm not sure, if I would ever get tired of this combination. It works so well in soups, stews, bakes... A cheesy potato bake is a life saver especially in the autumn and winter.

I already made one to practise for the cold time, so here is my recipe for a simple potato and leek bake. As a contrast I served a fresh fig salad on the side.

Ingredients

3 leeks

500 g potatoes

300 g Red Leicester and Cheddar cheese mix

3 garlic cloves

25 g butter

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Nutmeg to taste

Method

Slice the potatoes. I didn't peel mine as the skins were very thin on them, but you can peel them if you prefer.

Parboil the potato slices in salt water for about 10-15 minutes.

Chop the leek into rings and the garlic finely. Grate the cheeses. Cook the leek and garlic in the butter until soft and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Layer the leek mix, potato slices and cheese into a oven dish. Cover the bake with cheese.

Bake at 180C for about 40 minutes until the potatoes are fully baked and the cheese is crispy and golden brown.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog