Pea Schnitzel with potato mash and marinated carrots

Collecting fresh pea pods from the field was one of my favourite childhood pastimes in the summer. Now I still think of those times fondly and am always happy to see the new season pods to appear in the shops and markets. Still, the self picked field ones were the juiciest and tastiest ever. This dish is basically built around the idea of summer peas, although my Schnitzel are made from dried pea crush. I served them with potato mash and marinated carrots that were just the perfect side for such a summer feast with thyme flavour running through. I only rarely marinate vegetables, which is a shame, as they are so good and I should be doing more of it.

Here are the instructions how to make the marinated carrots and pea Schnitzel.

Marinated carrots:

3 large carrots

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp olive oil

Sprinkle of salt

Few twigs of fresh thyme

Peel the carrots and cut them into about 6 cm long and 3-4 mm thick slices. Heat some olive oil in a pan and quickly fry the carrots in the pan. Stir them there for a couple of minutes only. Add the finely chopped garlic to the pan, stir and let cool.

Mix the marinade of maple syrup, olive oil, salt and fresh thyme and pour it onto the carrots. Close them into an airtight container and let rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Pea Schnitzel:

1 cup dried pea crush

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

2 onions

2 garlic cloves

Olive oil

3 wedges of queens squash or other squash

Few twigs of fresh thyme

Salt

Ground black pepper

1 egg

4-6 tbsp breadcrumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Cook the pea crush in water with the added vegetable stock powder for about 10 minutes. Drain any liquid off and let cool.

Chop the onion and garlic and cook in olive oil until the onions are lightly browned and softened. Add them to the peas once cooled.

Grate the squash wedges and add to the pea mix.

Season with thyme, salt and pepper.

Then also add the egg and breadcrumbs. The mixture should hold together even without the egg, so you could try to veganise the recipe.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan, shape Schnitzel from the mix and fry them on both sides until properly fried and coloured.

Serve with potato mash, fresh peas and the marinated carrots and enjoy!

This is my own Eat Your Greens contribution for this month due to the dried peas in the Schnitzel and the fresh ones in the serving. I'm hosting the event this month and Shaheen is my co-host and we hope to see many green veggie recipes from you, so please share!

Your VegHog

3-Lentil-Schnitzel

I made these 3-lentil-Schnitzel containing green lentils, puy lentils, red lentils and carrot with a hint of smokiness and served them with creamy mushroom sauce and potato mash (my favourite combination). The Schnitzel started crumbling a bit when fried, but with some careful shaping and frying they'll stick together just fine. The Schnitzel were very tasty and I will be making them again. I also tried a vegan version without an egg and it also seemed to be fine with its texture.

In this recipe all seasoning is to taste and it makes about 15 Schnitzel.

Ingredients

½ cup green lentils

½ cup puy lentils

½ cup red lentils

1 vegetable stock cube

2 carrots

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

Oak smoked sea salt

Ground black pepper

Ground coriander

Ground cumin

Fresh coriander leaves

1 egg

Breadcrumbs (optional)

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Cook the lentils with a vegetable stock cube until done.

Cut the carrot into pieces, cook in water and mash.

Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. Mix them with the cooked lentils and carrots.

Season the Schnitzel mix with some oak smoked sea salt, ground black pepper, ground coriander, ground cumin and fresh coriander leaves.

Add the egg and breadcrumbs to the mix, or just the breadcrumbs, if you wish to keep it vegan.

Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan, shape Schnitzel from the lentil mix and fry them until golden brown.

Enjoy!

I'm sharing the recipe with this month's My Legume Love Affair hosted by Sadhna, created by Susan and co-hosted by Lisa.

Your VegHog

Chickpea and butternut squash Schnitzel with kohlrabi mash

For a change I made some vegan Schnitzel. I normally use eggs for Schnitzel binding, but this time I decided to go without them and cheese, so I created these chickpea and butternut squash patties. They were quite soft in texture, but they still stuck together. I served them with kohlrabi mash to have a change to potato mash and also some roasted purple carrots.

Here is my recipe.

Chickpea and butternut squash Schnitzel:

½ cup dried chickpeas

1 butternut squash

1 vegetable stock cube

1 large onion

3 garlic cloves

A bunch of fresh coriander

Salt

Pepper

Ground cumin

Smoked paprika

Breadcrumbs (if needed)

Vegetable oil for frying

Method:

Soak the chickpeas overnight and cook them until they are done.

Peel the butternut squash, cut it into pieces and cook with a vegetable stock cube until it's done. Then mash it.

Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook in olive oil until soft.

Combine the components and mash them a little bit. I still like having some whole chickpeas in there, so I don't make too smooth of a burger material.

Shape burgers from the mixture and cook on both sides in oil.

Kohlrabi mash:

2 kohlrabi

1 garlic clove

2 tbsp butter

Salt

Pepper

Method:

Peel the kohlrabi and cut it to pieces. Cook the pieces in water until they are soft and mash them.

Chop the garlic finely and mix it into the kohlrabi.

Add the butter, salt and pepper.

Combine the components on a plate and enjoy!

As it happens, the theme for the vegetarian cooking challenge Vegetable Palette is orange this month, so I would like to share this vegan Schnitzel recipe with the challenge. Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table, who hosts this challenge made a good choice with the colour, as this season is full of orange veg, at least in my kitchen with all the squashes, pumpkins and carrots.

Have a great week!

Your VegHog

Courgette and carrot fritters

I have been fully spoiled by my family members, who already served me many lovely veggie meals during this holiday. Now I made these simple courgette and carrot fritters for my mum and granddad, as they tend to like them.

These are very basic fritters that are quick to make and they are quite juicy thanks to the combination of grated vegetables and cheese. So they were just perfect to make on this occasion.

Ingredients

1 small courgette
4 small carrots
2 new season onions
25 g Oltermanni cheese (or other cheese)
1 egg
1 dl wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil for frying

Method

Grate the courgette, carrots and cheese and chop the onions finely. Mix them together and add the egg, wheat flour and seasoning. Add more flour, if the texture of the batter is too moist. The fritters should keep their shape when fried.

Heat a pan and add about a teaspoon of vegetable oil. Put a couple of tablespoons of the batter onto the pan in a fritter shape for each fritter and fry from both sides until properly fried. Repeat the method until the batter is gone and add more vegetable oil between the batches.

Serve with potatoes and sauce, as we did now, or as burgers.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Bean and lentil burgers

My weekly cooking plan didn't go exactly as planned. I was keeping up pretty well during the week, but on the weekend I started slipping. I want to thank everyone for the comments throughout the week how organised I am, but now I have to admit that I didn't quite keep to the plan. On Friday I had a lovely pub meal as planned. I had a wonderful char-grilled pepper and halloumi ciabatta with thin chips and coleslaw on the side washed down with local ciders. On Saturday however I didn't make the veggie burgers, as originally planned. We decided to go to New Forest for a relaxing stroll and I didn't have any time for cooking. I will post photos from this walk later as well, but I'm making the veggie burgers today. This means the vegetarian Sunday roast won't be made at this occasion, but I don't mind that much, as it's quite warm today and I don't want to spend all day roasting vegetables and having the hot oven on. 

I was contemplating long and hard what kind of burger patties I would make this time and decided for a mix of different beans and lentils. That kind of veggie burgers tend to work always. Here is my recipe for today's burgers.

Ingredients

½ cup dried bean mix (Black eyed beans, black turtle beans, butter beans, haricot beans, lima beans, pinto beans, red kidney beans, rose cocoa beans, alubia beans, mung beans)

½ cup red lentils

¼ cup puy lentils

1 large shallot

3 garlic cloves

1 tsp chilli flakes

Ground black pepper

Salt

Ground cumin

Smoked paprika

2 eggs

1 cup breadcrumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Served with: homemade spelt and carrot rolls, char-grilled bell peppers, fried red onions, smoked cheese, pea shoots, fresh peas and plum tomatoes.

Method

Soak the dried beans overnight. Then boil them for about one hour until done. Also boil the lentils until done. Actually I cooked the lentils extra mushy so that they are better binding agents for the burger batter. Drain well and let them cool down.

Chop the shallot and garlic finely and mix them with the lentils and beans. Season the mix with chilli flakes, ground black pepper, salt, ground cumin and smoked paprika.

Add the eggs and breadcrumbs (monitor the amount of the breadcrumbs while adding, as you might need less or slightly more than given in the ingredients) and mix into an even batter.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan, shape burgers from the batter and fry them on both sides until golden brown.

Serve with your favourite veggie burger fittings and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Vegan Schnitzel with potato mash, roasted baby carrots and creamy mushroom sauce

It is possible to make a really filling vegan meal, for example something like this vegan Schnitzel with potato mash and creamy mushroom sauce. The vegan Schnitzel are shop bought, but everything else is made from scratch. The creaminess to the sauce comes from oat cream, a great vegan ingredient. Have a look how easy it can be to get absolutely stuffed from a vegan meal.

Ingredients

4 vegan Schnitzel

1 kg potatoes

2 tbsp margarine

4 tbsp soya milk

1 tsp salt

10 baby carrots

2 tbsp olive oil

200 g baby chestnut mushrooms

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

250 ml oat cream

Method

Boil the peeled potatoes for the mash for about 30 minutes, mash and add margarine, soya milk and salt.

Brush the baby carrots with olive oil and roast in the oven until nicely browned.

Chop the mushrooms into thin slices and the shallots and garlic finely. Heat olive oil in a pan and fry the shallots and garlic until soft. Add the mushroom slices and cook for further 5 minutes. Then add the oat cream and let simmer for about 15 minutes until the cream has been infused with lovely mushroom flavour.

Heat the Schnitzel in the oven for a more low-fat result.

Combine the components on a plate and serve. Maybe something green could also be added to this meal.

And have a great weekend!

Your VegHog

Sweet potato and bean burgers

Why can't a veggie burger or Schnitzel be part of a Christmas meal, especially in various pre-Christmas parties? I think it certainly can, and would make a refreshing change. That's why I made Christmassy sweet potato and bean burgers.

Make with this recipe about 16 generous sized burgers.

Ingredients

1 kg sweet potatoes

240 g / 1 can red kidney beans

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp chilli flakes

½ tsp ground coriander

½ tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp salt

Ground black pepper to taste

Ground nutmeg to taste

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 dl spelt flour (or wheat)

3 eggs

2 dl semolina

1 dl breadcrumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Peel the sweet potatoes, boil them in water and mash. I did this stage on the previous night, as I'm known to be impatient to wait for the mash to cool. It also gets a bit firmer and easier to handle, if it rests longer. Anyway, let the mash cool, even if you boil the sweet potatoes on the same day.

Chop the onions and garlic finely and cook them soft in olive oil. Add the beans to the pan with the seasoning and let cook for a few minutes. Then also let this mix cool.

Combine the bean mix with the sweet potato mash and add the maple syrup. Add couple of tablespoons of flour to the batter, if it feels too soft and the burgers won't hold together.

Make an assembly line of three plates: flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs combined with semolina.

Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and start shaping the burgers. Then roll them first in the flour, then the egg wash and finally the breadcrumbs. Fry the burgers on both sides until crispy.

Serve with rolls or as Schnitzel. I also served here some sea buckthorn jelly on the side in whimsical hedgehog and mushroom shapes.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Schupfnudeln mit Schnitzel

This dish is basically just something I assembled for a Sunday dinner. Only the sauce is my own creamy vegan mushroom sauce, but the other components are ready made. This is a perfect dinner for a Sunday when you don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

The main part of this dish are Schupfnudeln, which are southern German and Austrian potato dumplings or thick noodles that are just being pan-fried to get a nice and crispy coating. I'm determined to make my own some day, just like Schnitzel of this style, so watch this space! Schupfnudel can be purchased in various online shops and German shops even outside of Germany, so you should be able to get the ready made ones as well.

Here's a list of the components for this German inspired dish, and how I prepared each one of them.

300 g chestnut mushrooms

250 ml oat cream

1 tbsp olive oil

4 spring onions

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

4 vegetarian breaded Schnitzel

160 g flower sprouts

500 g Schupfnudeln

Butter for frying (oil is also fine for a lighter meal)

The mushroom sauce takes the longest to make, so start with prepping that. Slice the mushrooms and chop the spring onions, onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic soft. Add the mushrooms and spring onions, and let it cook for a few minutes so that the mushrooms turn a bit darker. Add the oat cream and seasoning. Let the sauce cook until the cream has absorbed the mushroom flavour nicely.

I baked the Schnitzel in the oven to avoid extra oil usage. They just needed about 15 minutes in the oven.

At the same time I steamed the flower sprouts, which are a hybrid vegetable between kale and brussels sprouts. They make a really nice side to many autumn and winter dishes.

Cook the Schupfnudeln in hot butter in a frying pan until they get golden brown and little crispy.

And that's all! Enjoy your meal!

Your VegHog

Red kidney bean Schnitzel

First veggie Schnitzel post from me in October!? Well, better late than never. Somehow I haven't made that many veggie burgers lately, maybe the more autumnal recipes have taken over. But now I have been once again experimenting in my kitchen for a different bean burger, and this time my recipe is for red kidney bean Schnitzel with nice spices. These Schnitzel are very versatile to use, and you can even freeze some of them for later spontaneous usage.

I have made a few veggie burgers before using semolina instead of my standard binding ingredients wheat flour or breadcrumbs. I also find that these burgers can be very easily veganised as the batter binds together pretty well, meaning it probably would bind okay without the egg as well. Maybe I'll try a vegan version next time.

Ingredients for about 10 Schnitzel

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp vegetable oil

480 g / 2 cans red kidney beans

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp sage

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper
1 dl semolina + some extra for the surface

1 egg

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook them in vegetable oil until soft.

Add the beans and the seasoning and let cook for about 10 minutes. All excess liquid should be evaporated during the cooking. Crush the beans a little bit after the cooking and let the mix cool.

Add the egg and semolina to the mix and stir it into an even firm dough.

Shape burgers from the dough and roll them in some extra semolina.

I made mine oven baked, but what I noticed then was that they became fairly dry. I think this mixture works better when pan fried in vegetable oil.

But if you still decide to go with the baking method, which is more effortless, here's what to do: place the Schnitzel on a baking tray lined with baking paper, and bake at 200 for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy as a Schnitzel meal with salad and other sides or inside a burger bun. I served mine with steamed purple sprouting broccoli and salad, a little bit different combination this time.

I'm off to Germany today, but I hope I have the opportunity to post something from there. Certainly there will be a couple of Germany related posts once I'm back. Have a great week!

Your VegHog