Pineapple and halloumi salad

I'm back from my holiday in Finland, which was lovely as usual. The heatwave was there, and it's here in Copenhagen too. I'm just trying to cope with cool drinks and food at the moment, and not move around too much. I will post some photos from my holiday soon, I just need to look through them first.

Salads are pretty perfect for this weather, when you don't want to heat the kitchen up and there isn't even much appetite. So I made this pineapple and halloumi salad. I already posted a similar Pineapple salad recipe last year which was adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi. Today's salad is again slightly different, so I'm sharing the ingredients below, but you can also visit the other links for the variations. This recipe requires the oven to go briefly on, which is of course not so optimal in this weather, but it's really worth it for the pineapple slices.

Pineapple and halloumi salad

Ingredients

½ small pineapple

¼ tsp chilli flakes

½ tsp salt

3 tbsp olive oil

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil for frying

Mixed salad leaves

Green cabbage

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 220 C. Cut the pineapple into slices and coat them with the chilli flake, salt and olive oil mix. Bake them in the oven for about 15 minutes, and let cool after the baking.

Cut the halloumi into pieces and fry them in a pan until golden brown.

Place the mixed leaves and shredded green cabbage to a bowl, add the pineapple and halloumi and enjoy!

I'm sharing this salad with July's Eat Your Greens hosted by me and co-hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen blog.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Blueberry and lentil salad

Who knew that puy lentils would go wonderfully with blueberries and grilled cheese in a salad? Well, I didn't, but took my chances as I had some excess blueberries to be used. I decided to scatter them on top of the salad for some colour, et voilá, it was delicious. I can only recommend this trick now that blueberries are in season. Are you brave enough to try?

Otherwise this has been another hectic week, but making superfood salads does cheer me up quite a bit. So how has your week been, and are you happy to see the weekend approaching?

2 x melon and cheese salad

Here comes more summer food, and why not, it's July after all! How are you all doing? I've been busy again (or still) and haven't been able to return to my old posting shape. 

I had my first visitor over, so that took some of my time. Otherwise it has been a busy work schedule, and I'm also travelling to Finland over this weekend. 

This kind of melon + cheese combinations in salads are my absolute favourites in the summer. It's a refreshing yet filling dish with the protein addition, and perfect for barbecue parties with friends. The weather has been variable here in Copenhagen, but I've still found it to be warm the whole time, and definitely right for some summer food.

My go-to mix for these salads is any melon (often watermelon or cantaloupe melon), new season onions, fresh mixed leaves and grilled cheese or halloumi. Just perfect! 

Tell me about your favourite summer salad in the comment box below!

Summer's favourite dish

Today was a gorgeous summer's day. It was sunny and pleasant at about 22 C, so not too hot either. I spent most of the day lying around in the park, so relaxing! Then I ate a salad and am now watching a little bit of TV. I don't feeling like going out tonight.

What you see here is at the moment my favourite dish this summer: a plate full of fresh seasonal and local goodies. This time I had radishes, kohlrabi, fresh peas, tomatoes and hummus, served with a glass of refreshing juice.

I have been exploring my local vegetable markets and am thrilled to see that the offering is wide and of good quality. Especially now in the summer such good local produce is available, which is great.

I've been trying to eat a bit lighter, and therefore such plates of veggies are a perfect dinner after work. We have a very good lunch buffet at work, where I typically eat a lot of vegetables, salad, rye bread etc. and don't need to cook that much in the evenings anymore.

What is currently on your summer plates?

Just a salad

Sometimes just a salad is the right thing to eat. It's probably due to the spring and warmer weather that I have been craving for more salads lately, but I'm not at all unhappy about these healthier developments. This week seems to be getting very promising weather wise. Today is just a gorgeous summerly weather, but it's a shame that it's Monday and there isn't much time to do anything in the evening.

There are so many lovely ingredients around at the moment that are perfect in salads, and I want to use them all. I've also noticed that I order more salads in restaurants and cafés, which is quite unusual for me.

I tend to add cheese and nuts to make a salad more wholesome, and very often we notice how filling a salad dinner has been. It's not “just a salad” most of the time. I also added kabuki pea hummus to this salad plate, and it was very tasty. So here is this latest small salad creation.

What are your favourite salads like? Do you often have a salad lunch or dinner?

Your VegHog

Pineapple salad

Pineapple salad and the summer can come! While it's still snowing in Finland a bit, the spring is far here in southern England and today is a beautiful weather. What could be better than a salad for dinner.

I recently saw this wonderful Oven-dried pineapple and bitter leaf salad recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi, and of course had to make it. I'm a bit of an Ottolenghi fan anyway, so I'm always following what new vegetarian recipe creations he has. This salad was absolutely gorgeous combining sweet and spicy notes, and that pineapple baking method was just inspired. I altered his recipe a bit by making some minor changes and adding chilli-honey glazed halloumi, so my version is below and his can be found through the link above.

Pineapple salad

Adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe

Ingredients

1 pineapple

½ tsp sugar

¼ tsp chilli flakes

3 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp salt

200 ml pineapple juice

1 tbsp cider vinegar

1 red chicoree

150 g mixed salad leaves

250 g halloumi

2 tbsp chilli-honey

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 220 C. Cut the pineapple into slices and coat them with the sugar, chilli flake, salt and olive oil mix. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, and let cool after the baking.

Boil the pineapple juice and cook rapidly for 7-8 minutes, until it's reduced to about two tablespoons of syrup. Then mix it with the vinegar.

Chop the chicoree and prepare the salad leaves.

Cut the halloumi into pieces and fry them in a pan. Coat them with the chilli-honey.

Finally mix the salad ingredients together and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Healthy January salad

 

Let's keep the January posts healthy and light for now. Who knows, maybe very soon I'll be craving heavier comfort food, but this week I've been happy with lighter eating. It has been a very busy week at work, but I've felt more balanced and have had more energy. I'm not sure whether it's the new year's boost, or if a lighter diet can really have such a fast impact.

I very much enjoyed this salad yesterday evening and took the left-overs to work for lunch. The radish and cabbage that I pickled last autumn added a nice punch to the salad. I also added some more filling agents like the quinoa and lentils. My partner looked a bit disappointed first by a salad dinner, but especially the pickles won him over.

This salad contained:

• fresh mixed green leaves
• beetroot cubes
• carrot cubes
• with beetroot coloured quinoa
• puy lentils
• pickled radish
• pickled cabbage

How has your January started in regards to eating? Have you been trying to eat healthier, or even taking part in challenges like veganuary? I could have done veganuary and probably will be eating mostly vegan, but I brought some of my favourite cheese from Finland and already opened the packet, so it's too late for full veganism for me.

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Christmas salad

Of course also a lot of salad needs to be eaten at Christmas as a side, so I named this salad a Christmas salad. It's colourful and would go nicely with nut roasts and casseroles that are usual dishes in my family. This salad is of course vegan containing some seasonal root vegetables and pulses, and would also work as a standalone dish. You can get as creative as you like with such salads.

This salad consisted of:

• carrot slices
• parsnip slices
• beetroot spirals
• cherry vine tomatoes
• baby spinach
• quinoa coloured with beetroot
• chickpea hummus
• black badger pea hummus

I cooked the quinoa with beetroot chunks, and the colour got deeper after a couple of days in the fridge. I made a large batch to have on the side for a few days. If you have too much cooking for the dinner, this salad can always be made in advance.

I was also happy to use my black badger peas again, and this time in the shape of hummus.

Have a nice day!

Your VegHog

Busy weekday salad

Well, I would've been very surprised, if this week hadn't been a busy one again. It seems that's the way these days. It's good to keep busy on the other hand, as the time goes by quickly, but then again, there isn't much time for anything other than work. Colourful and crunchy salads are just perfect for such busy work weeks. When there isn't much time or strength for cooking in the evenings, a salad is an easy option to put together. I also like their uplifting colourfulness.

For this salad I spiralised kohlrabi and mixed it with gem lettuce, chickpeas, pomegranate seeds and carrots. It had a real seasonal feel to it and it was so nice to crunch away at work the next day as well. I've been lucky finding a few kohlrabi, but probably not for very long anymore. It looks so quaint before peeled and spiralised.

I've also been making more vegan salads lately, as I have noticed that when pulses and nuts are added, there's certainly no need for adding any cheese to the salad.

Okay, this was my small post for today. Enjoy your week further!

Your VegHog

Rainbow root vegetable salad with red currant vinaigrette

Weather is hot again here and light salads are in high demand. I made this colourful salad with the amazing seasonal vegetables on offer. It's so nice to cook with the late summer's produce whilst still enjoying the warmth outside.This salad already has a promise of autumn about it, though.

By the way, I changed the appearance of my blog slightly trying to make the background less busy and such. The hedgehog artwork on the top is by my mum. It's so cute. I would've wanted to show it more, but this is all I managed to do yesterday. Might have to sit with the blog layout again a couple of hours more when I have time. But I hope that it's a bit better now for a change.

Here is my rainbow salad:

Ingredients

1 carrot

1 sweet beetroot

¼ kohlrabi

1 gem lettuce

Handful of pumpkin seeds

50 g fresh red currants

White wine vinegar to taste

Method

The method is simple. First make the vinaigrette. Cook the red currants in a pan until they are softened. Press them through a sieve to remove the seeds. Then mix them with a little white wine vinegar to taste.

Spiralise the carrot, beetroot and kohlrabi and cut the lettuce. Mix these ingredients with the pumpkin seeds and serve with the red currant vinaigrette.

This salad is a perfectly good standalone dish, but also nice as a side salad with for example potato mash and a veggie Schnitzel like I had it.

I'm sharing this salad with No Croutons Required vegetarian soup and salad cooking challenge hosted this Month by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

Your VegHog

Lentil and pea salad

What a week! It's always a bit stressful and overwhelming going back to work after a long holiday. I was even lucky just to have a four day working week due to the bank holiday, but now feel quite drained anyway. Well, I'll get used to it again.

I didn't want to leave you hanging because of this and wanted to post a quick weekday meal, quite suitable as a work lunch actually. I've been fond of the fresh garden peas again lately, as they are in season and have been adding them here and there. So I also added them to this lentil salad with lettuce, cashew nuts, tomatoes and a yogurt dressing. Simple but very good!

Here is my recipe.

Ingredients

½ cup puy lentils

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

Handful of fresh peas in pods

4 baby gem lettuce

100 g cashew nuts

100 g tomatoes

Yogurt dressing with Greek yogurt, herbs and olive oil

Method

Make the dressing by mixing the ingredients.

Cook the lentils with the added vegetable stock powder.

Remove the peas from the pods and slice the lettuce and tomatoes.

Combine the ingredients and serve with the dressing.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Halloumi, pepper and tomato salad

It's so hot over here! I shouldn't be complaining, as summer finally seemed to arrive to England, but around +22C is more than enough for me. In such a hot weather a salad is a very satisfying meal, as there isn't much hunger generally. I always try to add a filling agent to salads as well, whether it's pulses, nuts or cheese. Halloumi is one of the most frequent ones, as it's just so delicious when properly fried or grilled. Nothing disappoints me more than get some uncooked halloumi served. In the summer it's nice to grill halloumi on a barbecue. For this salad I also quickly fried the pepper slices, but they could also be barbecued.

Here is my salad recipe.

Ingredients

250 g halloumi fried

1 red bell pepper fried

Vegetable oil for frying

Tomatoes sliced

Lambs lettuce

Olive oil + balsamic vinegar + salt + pepper as dressing

Method

Fry the halloumi on both sides until golden brown.

Also quickly fry the pepper slices in hot oil so that the pepper gets some frying marks.

Combine the ingredients in a bowl and dress with a light olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Nectarine and beluga lentil salad

So I'm back from my holiday and first of all wanted to share a salad with you, which I made in Finland. I had a wonderful time with my family and have a lot to write to you about. I feel refreshed and still have a few days off work to spend here in England. I am going to post plenty of holiday pictures soon and write about my activities and the products I bought in Finland, but here is this colourful summer salad now before I get the other stuff sorted.

This salad consisted of freshly picked white currants, mixed salad leaves, briefly fried nectarines, fried grilling cheese (similar to halloumi, but made from cow's milk), beluga lentils and tomatoes. This was a really filling salad and could be eaten as a stand-alone dish. 

I especially loved the addition of the white currants and nectarines adding a summery freshness to the salad. We picked the white currants in my granddad's garden ourselves. That always gives a nice touch to cooking, adding something that you have gathered or foraged yourself, and in Finland it's often possible for me. The berry season was still full on and I will post about some of my other findings later.

Have a nice week! More posts to follow soon. It's good to be back!

Your VegHog