Squash dishes

 

Once again my apologies for being super quiet here on the blog. I am fine, but getting a little bit into that usual end of year busyness. I’ve been cooking a lot, but just didn’t find the time or energy for posting here. So now I decided to say hello and make a compilation post of my recent squash dishes, as I have been cooking a lot with squash.

I hope you are all fine. It would be nice to hear from you. Also tell me what is your favourite squash recipe. Here are some of my recent dishes.

Homemade ravioli with a chestnut and crown prince squash filling served with a brown soy butter, balsamic glazed cherry tomatoes and a glass of Prosecco.

Roasted pumpkin risotto with spinach.

Spicy squash burger with a homemade butternut squash patty.

Vegan oven stew with onion squash, butter beans, carrots, tomatoes and vegan sausages,

 

Here are some variations of squash soups. My favourite is a warming squash soup with Thai spices.

Pasta shells with squash and grill cheese.

Roasted butternut squash risotto with crispy sage butter and garlic bread on the side.

Tomato, carrot and squash soup with red lentils and heat of chilli.

Your VegHog

 

Loaded pumpkin nachos

 

It’s a great autumn weather today, a bit windy but not rainy. We are planning to go to a local deer park to see of course the deer, but also some vibrant colours in the trees. The park is just by the sea and you can see straight to Sweden from there. Sometimes I receive a “Welcome to Sweden!” sms to my phone when I’m there. It’s nice to pop down to the beach also.

I'm sure that after the walk, I will be very hungry for some comfort food. These loaded pumpkin nachos are just a perfect dish for the Halloween season. I made them with roasted pumpkin and pepper, spicy kidney bean and sweetcorn mix and of course cheese. It was a very nice dish for sharing.

Enjoy your weekend!

Your VegHog

 

Roasted pumpkin risotto

 

Is anyone else excited for the pumpkin season? I just adore it, both for cooking and decorating. I do realise that Halloween is kind of cancelled this year, but we can still spend nice time in our homes.

So here comes another comforting autumn dish from the VegHog’s kitchen. Have a look at the easy, but tasty recipe for a roasted pumpkin risotto below.

This was an excellent risotto with roasted pumpkin, crispy sage butter and a hint of chilli. You can easily veganise this recipe by using vegan butter. I haven’t tried the sage butter with vegan butter yet, as I’m not sure if it will brown as nicely as dairy butter. Please let me know how it is, if you’ve tried.

 

Roasted pumpkin risotto

Ingredients

¼ - ½ of a medium pumpkin

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

½ small chilli

1 tbsp butter

1 cup arborio rice

1 cup white wine

1 l vegetable stock

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Fresh sage leaves + 2tbsp butter

 

Method

Peel and cut the pumpkin to cubes. Brush them with vegetable oil and roast in the oven. You can save the pumpkin seeds and roast them. They are really healthy and tasty.

Heat the vegetable stock in a pan. In a separate pan start sauteeing the chopped onion, garlic and chilli. Once they are softened, add one tablespoon of butter and the rice. After a few moments, add the wine and let it absorb to the rice.

Add some vegetable stock to the rice, let it simmer under the lid and gradually keep adding more stock until the rice has cooked. Season with salt and pepper.

Once the pumpkin cubes are roasted, take about one half of them, mash them and add to the rice. Add the rest of the pumpkin on top just before serving.

While the rice is cooking, make the crispy browned sage butter in a separate pan. When you are ready to serve, pour it over the risotto.

Enjoy!

 Your VegHog

Savoury pumpkin pie

My inspiration for this dish was Anna Jones’s recipe for savoury gruyere and pumpkin pie from The Guardian. Initially I was planning to follow the recipe, but once I started making the dish, I changed quite a few things. On the day I couldn't find fresh sage in my local shops, so I thought that thyme would also be nice. I didn't use a pumpkin either, but a squash from my seasonal dining table decorations. First I wasn't fully sure, if this squash would be tasty, and started roasting it first to have a taste. And indeed, it was fine, so I decided to use that very squash. When I was well into the cooking, I wanted to add some potatoes, and plenty of cheese as well. Only I didn't have any gruyere, so it had to be Cheddar. This is it how it went on, and I'm not sure how much was left from Anna Jones' idea in the end, if anything.

The essence is that I wanted to make a savoury pie, because I enjoy them more than sweet ones, and I think that this was a very nice one. Maybe one day I'll have to follow Anna's recipe, though. Have a read in the article, if you're curious about her version. This recipe below is how I made the pie. I also skipped making own pastry this time, which made it a perfectly manageable weekday meal. I think that such a savoury pie could also be nice at the Christmas table.

Savoury pumpkin pie

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin or squash

3 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

25 g butter

2-3 small potatoes

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

Handful of fresh thyme

1 tsp smoked salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

½ tsp cumin seeds

100 g grated Cheddar

250 g shortcrust pastry

Pumpkin seeds as decoration

Method

Peel the squash and cut it into small wedges. Brush the wedges with olive oil and roast in the oven.

Chop the onion and garlic finely, and start sautéeing the onion in the olive oil and butter mix until soft and browned.

Add the potatoes, peeled and sliced, followed by the vegetable stock powder and about one cup of water. Let simmer under lid until the potatoes are done and the liquid has mostly evaporated.

Add the seasoning, garlic and the squash and let simmer a while longer.

While the mixture is still hot, stir in the cheese and set to side to cool.

Spread the pastry on a pie dish and spread the filling in.

Bake at 180 C for about 30 minutes. Add the pumpkin seeds on the top towards the end, and return the pie to the oven for a few minutes more.

Let the pie set a little while before serving, and then enjoy!

Your VegHog

Beavertown Stingy Jack Spiced Pumpkin Ale

Here comes a quick drink recommendation for the season: Beavertown Brewery's Stingy Jack Spiced Pumpkin Ale. I just had to push this post in before October ends.

I always tend to like the Beavertown beers, but with this pumpkin ale they really have outdone themselves. It's a very spicy drink with many different flavours. There's a background of heavy nutmeg and juicy fruit esters, a gingery tingle on the tongue and a banana flavour. The colour of the beer is deep orange, suitably for the season. The mouthfeel is oaty with some barley, nutmeg and spicy flavour. I strongly recommend this beer and am quite sad that I have none left for this evening.

Once again, have a good time with your Halloween celebrations!

Your VegHog

Spicy pumpkin soup

I guess it could be too late to post a pumpkin recipe for Halloween now, as everybody has probably already made their plans. I didn't have time to post this earlier, as I was on holiday, but here it is anyway, maybe pumpkin recipes are needed after Halloween too. I know that I will be cooking loads with pumpkins and squashes still this autumn and winter, as I just can't get tired of them.

I have already posted the recipe for this vegan soup here: Thai inspired pumpkin soup. It's my partner's signature dish, with which he tired to win me over many years ago and succeeded. It may not have been the soup alone, but I can't deny that it had something to do with it. 

This time I added some fresh thai basil leaves to the soup to give an extra anisseed type of flavour, but otherwise I followed the originally posted recipe pretty closely. The seasoning was made more to taste and I added the ingredient amounts pretty much randomly. However the result was great and I soon want to make this again!

Have a nice All Hallows' Eve everyone!

Your VegHog

Bread and pumpkin fondue

When I saw this recipe for a bread and pumpkin fondue by Yotam Ottolenghi I instantly knew that I would have to make it at some point. And here we are, I have made my own slightly different version of this dish and it turned out to be the perfect dinner for a chilly day. It's nice and tasty, cheesy and savoury and very simple to make. I love the combination of sage and pumpkin.

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin

2 small turnips

120g gruyère cheese

120g emmental cheese

3 slices of sourdough bread

350ml dry white wine

200ml vegetable stock

2 garlic cloves

½tsp nutmeg

10g sage leaves

Butter

White pepper

Salt

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 190C. Cut the pumpkin and the turnips into small chunks and place them into an oven dish.

Gently fry the garlic in butter in a pan. Then add the chopped sage leaves, grated nutmeg, pepper, salt and the vegetable stock and finally add the wine. Pour 2/3 of this liquid on the pumpkin and turnip chunks into the oven dish.

Toast the bread slices and place them on top of the vegetables. Place the grated cheese on the breads and pour the rest of your seasoning liquid on the top.

Cover the dish with a foil and bake for about one hour. Then remove the foil and bake the gratin for further 15 minutes.

Serve with lovely dry white wine or cider and keep warm!

Your VegHog

Ricotta stuffed munchkin pumpkin with vegetable crisps

Munchkin pumpkins, those sweet mini sized pumpkins, are so cute and versatile in side or main dishes especially in this season. They simply make the perfect Halloween food and something that kids also enjoy. And as you can see, I bought a pile of them.

Today's recipe is an effortless ricotta stuffed munchkin pumpkin served with some vegetable crisps from the shop – easy! This recipe can be easily expanded for several pumpkins and this is how it's done.

Munchkin pumpkins

Ricotta cheese (about 30g per pumpkin)

1 garlic clove

Applewood smoky cheddar (optional)

Lemon & Pepper breadcrumbs

1 small bag of vegetable crisps (mine were parsnip, beetroot and sweet potato crisps)

Smoked pepper hummus (my recipe for this special hummus will be posted here soon)

Rocket

Cut a small lid off the pumpkin and remove the seeds. Chop the garlic finely and grate the smoky cheese. Mix the stuffing ingredients (ricotta, garlic, cheddar and breadcrumbs) together and fill the pumpkin with it. Place the lid back on.

Bake the pumpkin at 180C for about one hour until fully baked. Serve it on a bed of rocket with the vegetable crisps and hummus.

Enjoy the cosy autumn evenings!

Your VegHog

Baked thick-cut potato chips

I'm very fond of Irish style chunky potato chips as this sort of fries are so nice and full of potato flavour. They make a lovely meal on their own or a brilliant side to vegetarian burgers and other dishes. These chips are surprisingly easy to make as oven chips, no deep frying or loads of oil needed.

So I made mine in the oven and served them with a homemade tomato sauce, peas and roasted munchkin pumpkins. The tomatoes for the red sauce were from my own balcony garden and it was just a basic tomato and garlic sauce. Munchkin pumpkins are so cute and seasonal and I eat them a lot at the moment. I brushed them with oil and roasted in the oven for about 30 minutes. You can remove the seeds before roasting if you prefer as the munchkins are tiny, but the seeds are still normal pumpkin seed size.

This recipe makes two portions of chips or side chips for a few more portions and this is all you'll need:

2 large oven potatoes

Sea salt

Paprika powder

Vegetable oil

Peel the potatoes and cut them into long thick chips. Boil them in water for about five minutes and pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Place the chips into an oven dish and brush them with vegetable oil. Sprinkle sea salt and little paprika powder on them. I tend to add paprika powder although I don't think it will be added to the authentic Irish chips.

Bake the chips for about 40 minutes until they are fully baked and slightly crispy. Turn them over couple of times during baking.

Enjoy! What's your favourite combination for such chips?

Your VegHog