Speltotto with broad beans, spinach and purple sweet potatoes

The weekend is here, and not one second too early. I'm so ready just to chill and cook nice veggie food this weekend. Easter is also around the corner, and I will be going to Finland then. It's still full winter at my mum's place, so it will be quite nice.

Long time no speltotto, I thought, and started planning this dish. I wanted to make it quite colourful with a lot of veggies. I roasted some lovely and super sweet purple sweet potatoes that I got from the local market, and wilted fresh spinach for the top. I also used fresh broad beans, fresh onions and carrots in the speltotto itself. It was a tasty and comforting dish.

Here is my speltotto recipe.

Speltotto with broad beans, spinach and purple sweet potatoes

Ingredients

2 purple sweet potatoes (other colours also allowed)

Vegetable oil for roasting

200 g broad beans

200 g fresh spinach leaves

2 carrots

2 fresh onions with stalks

2 garlic cloves

Olive oil for frying

20 g margarine

1 cup pearled spelt

1 l vegetable stock

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Method

Prep the broad beans first, as the removing of the pods and skins can certainly take a while.

Heat the vegetable stock and also chop the carrots into small pieces.

Chop the onions and garlic finely. Set the green onion stalk to the side, and add them to the speltotto towards the end and also some fresh bits as a decoration on the top.

Start cooking the onion in olive oil until soft, and then add the garlic, soon followed by the carrot pieces.

Melt the margarine in the pan, add the pearled spelt. Then start making some vegetable stock additions, and let the dish simmer. Add also the broad beans to the pan at this stage.

Let the speltotto simmer, until everything has cooked nicely, and the flavours have blended. Season with salt and pepper.

Cut the sweet potatoes into generous cubes, brush them with oil, and roast in the oven until tender.

Also wilt the spinach in a separate pan with a little garlic, salt and pepper. Serve the spinach and sweet potatoes on the top of the speltotto.

Enjoy!

It's good to see more Eat Your Greens entries coming in for March, and there is still a bit more time! I will share this dish with Eat Your Greens as well, which I'm hosting this month, and the event is co-hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen blog.

Have a great weekend!

Your VegHog

Wild mushroom and asparagus speltotto

While I'm on holiday in Finland, I timed a couple of posts to be published in the meanwhile, as I may not be able to post so much from there. I will of course catch up later what I was up to, but here's just a basic recipe of mine.

I made a spelt risotto for a change. I haven't made one for a while although it's one of my main favourites. When the new season asparagus start appearing in the shops and markets, I always want to make a risotto or a spelt risotto with them. In this recipe I combined the new local asparagus with some dried wild mushrooms, chanterelles in my case. The wild mushrooms are so intense, and when you let them infuse the vegetable stock, even a small amount of them can add a lot of flavour to the dish. I added a bell pepper and carrots as additional veg to this dish, and I enjoyed it very much.

Here is my recipe that makes quite a nice spring weekday meal.

Wild mushroom and asparagus speltotto

Ingredients

1 l vegetable stock

20 g dried wild mushrooms

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 bell pepper

2 carrots

2 tbsp olive oil

20 g butter

1 cup pearled spelt

50 g grated vegetarian pasta cheese

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Bunch of asparagus

1 lemon

1 tbsp butter

Method

Heat the vegetable stock and add the dried mushrooms to it. Chop the onion and garlic finely, and dice the bell pepper and carrots.

Start cooking the onion in the olive oil, and cook until soft and a bit browned. Add the bell peppers and carrots and cook a while longer. Then also add the garlic.

After a few minutes, add the butter and the pearled spelt to the pan. Stir for a couple of minutes, and then make the first vegetable stock and mushroom addition.

Let the speltotto simmer under lid and keep making stock additions before the pan can dry up. When everything is nearly cooked, add the seasoning and cheese.

Prepare the asparagus in a separate pan by heating up some butter and cooking the asparagus spears there. Add juice of one lemon to finish. Serve the asparagus on top of the speltotto.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Pattypan squash spelt risotto

Maybe you already saw this dish in my lunchbox on Tuesday and here is the full recipe of my pattypan squash spelt risotto. I love the look of pattypan squashes, their shape is so quirky. Unfortunately I don't often find them in my local shops, but now my local health food store had a few of them in a great condition, so of course I had to buy them. The taste of this squash is quite mild and I think that they are closer to courgettes by taste and texture. That makes them quite versatile to use. I found this pattypan squash spelt risotto quite tasty, have a look how I made it.

Ingredients

1 pattypan squash

2 tbsp olive oil

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

1 red bell pepper

25 g butter

250 ml pearled spelt

100 ml dry white wine

1 l vegetable stock

50 g vegetarian pasta cheese

Sage

Basil

Salt

Ground black pepper

Method

Peel and cut the pattypan squash into small cubes. Brush them with olive oil and roast in the oven until done with darker roasting marks.

Chop the onions and garlic finely and also cut the bell pepper into cubes.

Start cooking the onions, garlic and pepper in olive oil, and once they are soft, add the butter and pearled spelt into the pan.

Add the white wine and let the pearled spelt absorb it. Then add about the third of the vegetable stock and simmer under lid. Keep adding more stock whenever needed.

Towards the end, add the roasted pattypan squash and grated pasta cheese to the pan, and season with sage, basil, salt and ground black pepper.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Butternut squash speltotto

I have been a little bit disappointed with the squash offering in my local shops this winter and spring. It seems that mostly just butternut squash or coquina squash were available. Well, there's nothing wrong with them, but there are better squashes as well that I would have liked to cook again. However due to the squash variation shortage, I grew to like butternut squash more again. Today's recipe is just a basic speltotto (=risotto made with pearled spelt instead of arborio rice) that I cooked the other day from roasted butternut squash and pearled spelt. It was really tasty and the best kind of comfort food for me. Yesterday I ordered a new large batch of pearled spelt and I can't wait for it to arrive. If you have never tried it, I would really urge you to, it's really nice. And if you have tried, I would also love to hear your opinions, but now to the butternut squash speltotto recipe.

Ingredients

1 medium butternut squash

3 tbsp olive oil

2 shallots

3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp butter

1,5 cup pearled spelt

100 ml white wine

500 ml vegetable stock

25 g grated mature cheddar

50 g toasted pine nuts

Salt and black pepper to taste

Fresh basil leaves

Method

Peel the butternut squash and cut it into small/medium cubes. Roast the cubes in the oven with olive oil.

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

Add butter and the pearled spelt into the pan and stir for a minute or so.

Add the white wine and let it mostly evaporate.

Then add about a third of the vegetable stock and let simmer.

Keep adding vegetable stock and stirring often until the spelt has cooked.

Towards the end, add the roasted butternut squash cubes and the grated cheese to the mix, season with salt, pepper and basil and serve with toasted pine nuts.

Your VegHog

Zucchini, tomato and pepper spelt risotto

When I was writing about my balcony gardening yesterday, I started thinking the lovely veg I'm trying to grow and got an instant inspiration for this recipe. I'm currently growing all the main vegetables that are in this dish (peppers, tomatoes and zucchini), and with some luck can cook this same dish from own produce later in the summer. This is again just an easy pearled spelt risotto, but the making of it is such fun – I'd really want you to try it! I love the texture of pearled spelt and the taste is great as well.

2 yellow romano peppers

100g cherry vine tomatoes

1 zucchini

1 shallot

3 garlic cloves

1tbsp olive oil

25g butter

1-1,5 cups pearled spelt

150ml white wine

1l vegetable stock

50g Sussex Charmer cheese

A few fresh basil leaves

1tsp salt

1tsp ground black pepper

Warm the vegetable stock up at moderate heat.

Chop the peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, shallot and garlic finely.

Cook the shallot and garlic in olive oil until soft and then add the peppers, and soon after the zucchini and tomatoes. Cook for a while longer so that the juices start flowing.

Add butter to the pan and stir in the pearled spelt. Let the spelt absorb the liquid for a moment and then pour in the white wine. Let the wine evaporate and add some of the warm vegetable stock to the pan and let it simmer at low heat under lid. Make sure that the pan doesn't get dry at any time, so keep stirring and adding vegetable stock.

When the spelt in cooked, add the seasoning and grated cheese. Add any seasoning or butter or white wine more, if you prefer.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Stuffed heirloom tomatoes and red onions

Finally the weekend is here and time to write a blog post again. I was quite busy this week, so now I just want to relax and eat well. The weather is too interchangeable to make any outdoor plans, so I think I will be cooking and possibly baking. Today's recipe is for stuffed heirloom tomatoes (regular tomatoes will also do, if you can't get heirlooms) and red onions. I stuffed them with a pearled spelt mix that was prepared in risotto fashion. Have a look how easy it is!

Please note that the onion and tomato amounts can vary depending on the size, mine were pretty much medium size.

6-8 red onions

4 heirloom tomatoes

3 garlic cloves

1tsp vegetable oil

1tbsp olive oil

25g butter

1tbsp vegetable stock powder + 1l water

1 cup pearled spelt

200ml white wine

1tbsp sage leaves

50g emmental

1tsp salt

1tsp black pepper

Peel the onions and hollow them out by leaving about 2 layers of onion as a shell. The hollowing out should be doable by removing the lid, making couple of cuts into the middle of the onion and then by scooping the insides out with a spoon. Just take care that you don't pierce through the outer shell. Place the onion shells in an oven dish and brush them inside and out with vegetable oil. Cover with foil and bake at 180C for about 30 minutes.

Prepare the vegetable stock and warm it up. Wash the heirloom tomatoes and also hollow them out, keep the insides and the lids for later. Place them in another oven dish, brush with olive oil and set to side. There's no need to pre-bake these as tomatoes cook fairly quickly.

Start preparing the stuffing: Chop the onion insides and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. Add the butter, pearled spelt and after a while the wine. This method of making the stuffing is just like risotto (or speltotto) making.

Once the wine has nearly evaporated, add couple of ladles of the warm vegetable stock and let the stuffing simmer under lid. Add the tomato insides to the pan. Keep adding more stock, don't let the pan get dry, and stir often. Repeat this until the pearled spelt is cooked nicely.

Grate the cheese and add it to the pan, and also season the stuffing with salt, pepper and sage. Add more butter or white wine, if you think it's needed.

Stuff the onion shells and the heirloom tomatoes with the spelt mix and bake at 180C for about 25 minutes. Then enjoy!

This was my my 300^th blog post, thank you for reading it!

Your VegHog