Broad bean and fennel stew

What busy times there have been. I will try to tell you everything in due course, but first I just wanted to get this dish posted quickly. It has mainly been work, so nothing really exciting, but I also have a couple of photo stories from some Copenhagen vegetable happenings for you.

It's still summerly and warm, but I slowly start craving for more wholesome warming dishes like soups and stews. So I made this vegan broad bean and fennel stew also containing carrots, romano pepper, heirloom tomatoes and peas.

I got the inspiration for this dish online when I was looking for broad bean and fennel recipes. The recipe is originally by Vicky Jones, published in her book Out of the Pod, and then re-published by Hodmedod's, where I found it. I have altered it for my means, so the version below is mine.

It was such a nice and comforting dish, and I can't wait to eat more of this kind of food in the autumn. I have also bought my first winter squash of the season, which I will be delighted to cook soon. But here is now this stew recipe.

Broad bean and fennel stew

Ingredients

1 fennel

1 onion

3 tbsp olive oil

2 red carrots

1 small romano pepper

2 garlic cloves

2 large heirloom tomatoes

1 cup broad beans

1 cup peas

½ cup red wine

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Fresh thyme

Method

Cut the fennel into slices and chop the onions. Heat olive oil in a pan and start cooking the onions and fennel in it. Cook them until they are soft and browned.

Slice the carrots and pepper, and add them to the pan.

Chop the garlic finely and also add it to the mix, followed by the cubed heirloom tomatoes, broad beans and peas.

Season the mix with vegetable stock powder, salt and ground black pepper to taste.

Let the mix simmer for a while and then add the wine to it. Simmer it under the lid for about an hour. Season with some fresh thyme.

Serve the stew with the side of your choice: crusty bread, potatoes etc.

I'm sharing the recipe with this month's Eat Your Greens hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen and co-hosted by me. Again, the dish doesn't look fully green, but it does contain plenty of greens and other vegetables.

Have further a nice week!

Your VegHog

Vegan Flemish inspired stew

My partner loves eating stews, especially the ones that contain beer. So I had to give in and make such a dish again, and I wasn't disappointed myself either, as this was a really nice and warming vegan winter dish. It may look a bit rustic, but it was full of flavour.

A rich and malty dark Belgian beer is the best for this dish. Hoppy beers or wheat beer wouldn't work in this dish, so I decided to use Gouden Carolus Classic, which was pretty much the perfect choice. This is a vegan stew with otherwise basic ingredients so it's perfect for economical eating as well. My cheap eats week is over, but it doesn't harm to make more economical cooking choices.

Vegan Flemish inspired stew

Ingredients

Vegetable oil

3 medium onions

Pinch of salt

400 g small potatoes

1 large carrot

2 cloves garlic

150 ml dark Belgian beer

1 tbsp vegetable stock extract or to taste

1 large bay leaf

Couple of grinds of black pepper

1 tsp dried thyme

½ cup dried broad bean crunch

Method

Chop the onions into half moons and caramelise them in the vegetable oil with the pinch of salt. Let them caramelise under the lid until they are very soft and brown. Stir every 5-10 minutes.

Chop the potatoes into chunks. I leave the peels on, but you can peel if you prefer.

Chop the carrot into fine slices and the garlic finely.

Add the carrots and the garlic and fry for a minute or two, and then add the beer.

Stir and cook off the alcohol for a couple of minutes, then add the potatoes.

Cover the potatoes with water or vegetable stock. I added water and then the vegetable stock extract.

Add the bay leaf, black pepper and thyme.

Let it lightly boil under the lid until the potatoes cooked and melting in the mouth. Stir occasionally while it's cooking.

Add the broad bean crunch to the stew and let it cook until done. Alternatively soy mince or beans can be used.

Once all the flavours have blended nicely after the slow cooking, serve the dish.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Belgian Beer Stew

Now here is something I cooked last week when it was a bit chillier. However today I have a horrendous fever and cold, but writing about this recipe warms my heart a little bit. So greetings from the bottom of the bed, hopefully back up and cooking soon!

Ever since my last holiday to Belgium, I have been planning a dish to cook with Belgian beer, as I brought a few nice bottles with me. I chose to make a vegetable and soya stew out of it and here's the recipe. The potatoes I used were ruby red and so is the award winning Gouden Carolus Classic beer, so there's a bit of a ruby red theme going on. 

Ingredients

1 cup soya protein chunks

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp olive oil

1 carrot

8 small potatoes

3 small onions

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder + 200-300 ml water

330 ml / 1 bottle dark Belgian beer (I used Gouden Carolus Classic beer 8,5 %)

Fresh sage leaves

Fresh flat leaf parsley leaves

Black pepper to taste

Method

Prepare the soya protein chunks as described on the packet. Mine needed to be boiled in water for a few minutes and then they can be fried in oil, which I also did. Pour a little soy sauce on them and set to side for later.

Chop the vegetables: carrots into slices, potatoes into halves or quarters depending on the size, onions into thin half rings and garlic finely.

Start slow-cooking the onions in olive oil at low heat and under the lid. They should simmer there until they start getting brown and very soft. Stir them occasionally. Then add the chopped garlic and simmer some more.

After that the potatoes and carrots can be added, first stirred in for a few minutes and then the beer can be added. Let it cook for a few minutes and then also add the vegetable stock.

Cook under lid for at least 40 minutes until the potatoes are cooked and the flavours have blended nicely.

Season with black pepper, parsley and sage and add more beer or stock, if needed. I didn't add any salt, because I felt that the beer and vegetable stock added enough saltiness.

And it's all done! Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Moroccan style stew with onion squash, chickpeas and sugarsnap peas

For a change I wanted to combine a squash with more exotic spices, so I came up with this recipe. I want to keep eating seasonal squashes for a long time still, so new ideas are always welcome. In this recipe I used Moroccan style spicing and combined the squash with chickpeas and sugar snap peas. Would Moroccans even use these vegetables? I'm not quite sure, but I have to say that they work with the spices. On the side of the stew I served couscous with almond flakes and a garlicky yogurt sauce to neutralise the spiciness a bit. I liked this dish very much and I'm sure I'll be making similar ones in the future. I also like making a large batch like this, as this is a good dish to take as packed lunch for the next day, or even eat it two days in a row. Feel free to scale the ingredient amounts down, if you don't want to have spare stew or don't have about four eaters.

Ingredients

Stew

100 g dried chickpeas

1 onion squash

240 g sugar snap peas

4 shallots

3 garlic cloves

1 small red chilli

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp ginger powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp turmeric

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ras el hanout

500 ml vegetable stock

1 tbsp honey

Couscous

1 cup couscous

50 g almond flakes

½ tsp salt

Yogurt sauce

150 g natural yogurt

1 garlic clove

1 tsp lemon infused olive oil

Method

Soak the chickpeas overnight and boil them in generous amount of water for about one hour. You can also use canned and cooked chickpeas, in that case this step is unnecessary.

Prepare the yogurt sauce. Chop the garlic finely and cook it for a couple of minutes in the lemon infused olive oil, but don't let it get brown. Let the garlic cool and mix it with the yogurt. Now the yogurt can rest in the fridge until serving. Lemon juice can also be added to it to taste before serving.

Then you can start making the stew. Peel the onion squash and remove the seeds. Cut it into cubes.

Cut the sugar snap peas in half. This is an optional step, you can also leave them whole, if you prefer.

Chop the shallots, garlic and chilli finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. I only use a little bit of chilli, but use more, if you like hot food.

Add the spices (paprika, ginger powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, cinnamon and ras el hanout) and the vegetable stock to the pan, and then also the squash and chickpeas.

Let simmer slowly under lid for about one hour until the squash is cooked soft. Taste the stew a few times when you go along so that you can adjust the spices according to your own taste. Only when I started cooking more, I started tasting the food as I went along, and that's really necessary to get the taste right. That's also the reason why I'm not always so keen giving amounts for spices here, because I think everyone wants to make the dish to their own taste anyway.

After the simmering, add the honey and the sugar snap peas to the stew and let it simmer for further five minutes. Veganise this dish by leaving the honey and the yogurt sauce out.

In the meanwhile also prepare the couscous. First boil two cups of water and take the pan off heat. Add the couscous, salt and almond flakes to the pan and leave them under the lid for about ten minutes.

Serve the stew, couscous and yogurt sauce together and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Mushroom and pearled spelt stew

I have heavily fallen for the taste and texture of pearled spelt, and this time I made a very mushroomy and herby stew out of it. No need to beat around the bush, let's get cooking!

Ingredients

15g dried chanterelles

5g dried porcini

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

200g small button mushrooms

1tbsp olive oil

1 cup pearled spelt

100ml dry white wine

500ml vegetable stock

1tsp salt

½tsp black pepper

Rosemary

Thyme

Sage

Method

Soak the dried mushrooms for about 15 minutes, drain them and save the soaking water for later.

Chop the shallots and garlic finely. Wash the button mushrooms, they don't need any chopping as they already are small.

Cook the shallots and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add the soaked mushrooms and the button mushrooms and cook for a couple of minutes more. Then also add the pearled spelt and after a moment stirring, pour in the wine. Let the wine evaporate a little and then add the vegetable stock and the mushroom soaking water and let it all simmer under lid until the spelt is cooked.

Season with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme and sage to taste and it's done. I served the stew with my chanterelle focaccia. 

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Tofu and seaweed stew

I don't know why I'm so crazy about seaweed, but that actually is the case. And I also don't know where it has been all my life?? Finally now seaweed will feature in this blog in today's dish.

This recipe is once again one that a friend of mine taught me, and I absolutely adore it. As you will notice, the seasoning is slightly different than in most of my dishes. So this Japanese style stew is a nice change to my normal recipes and makes such a warming winter impact.

Ingredients

200 g smoked tofu (you can substitute with normal tofu)

1 tbsp groundnut oil (for tofu roasting)

6 shallots

2 garlic cloves

2 carrots

250 g green beans

500 g baby new potatoes

2-3 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp maple syrup

4 tbsp mirin rice wine

3 tbsp soy sauce

1-2 tbsp miso

1-2 g toasted fine cut nori (dried sea vegetable)

green nori sprinkle (sea vegetable condiment) for decoration

Method

Dice the tofu (into about 1cm x 1cm sized dices). Place the dices in an oven dish and brush them with the groundnut oil (or any other heat resistant oil, such as vegetable oil). Roast them at 180C for about 40 minutes until they are slightly crispy yet still bouncy. Turn them a couple of times during the roasting.

Chop the shallots into generous rings and sweat them at low heat in one tablespoon toasted sesame oil for about 20 minutes. This is a dish where you really want to bring out the richness and the sweetness of the shallots.

After this time add the chopped garlic, potatoes and carrots. Also make a soy sauce addition of about two tablespoons and then add about four deciliters of water to just cover up the potatoes and carrots. Cook the ingredients under the lid while boiling slowly.

In the meanwhile chop the green beans into about 2 cm long pieces. When the potatoes are almost cooked, add the beans into the pan. Then cook the stew at least for further 10 minutes and add the tofu in as well.

Season the stew with the maple syrup, mirin rice wine and an extra tablespoon or two of sesame oil (keep tasting the stew during the seasoning). Also add a heaped tablespoon of miso, another tablespoon of soy sauce, if preferred, and the toasted nori. Add the nori to taste. I had a 10 g packet, which sounds like a tiny amount, but not a huge amount of this is needed.

When you are happy with the seasoning, place the stew into a bowl and sprinkle the green nori sprinkle on the top as decoration.

Enjoy warm!

Your VegHog

Tofu and potato stew

A friend of mine taught me how to make this magnificent Japanese style vegan stew. It's incredibly easy to make even though some ingredients are slightly outside my comfort zone. Just follow these simple instructions to make this autumnal dish.

Ingredients

500g miniature potatoes

2 garlic cloves

Fresh ginger (same quantity as garlic)

1 onion

1 small chili

Groundnut oil (for frying the tofu)

Sesame oil

200g smoked tofu

2 leeks (green beans also work well)

1tsp vegetable stock powder

1tbsp miso

2tbsp maple syrup

2tbsp mirin rice wine

Soy sauce

Method

Chop the tofu into small cubes. Heat some groundnut oil in a pan and fry the tofu until it's firm, bouncy and golden brown. I used smoked tofu for a special taste, but also plain tofu is perfectly fine.

If your potatoes have thin skins, there's no need to peel them. Just wash and cut in half or quarter them. Chop the onion, garlic, chili, ginger and leeks.

Heat some sesame oil in a separate pan and sweat the onion and then add the garlic, chili and ginger. Fry these for a few minutes and then add the potatoes.

Add some rice wine and then water and vegetable stock powder. The water should reach approximately the middle of the potato pieces, otherwise it might take ages to get the potatoes soft. Let this simmer under lid by occasionally stirring until the potatoes are almost fully cooked. Add the leeks and let simmer some more.

Towards the end, when you're happy with the texture of the leeks and potatoes, add the pre-fried tofu to the pan.

Season the stew with miso, maple syrup, soy sauce and further rice wine if needed. I would recommend to make it fairly savoury with the help of miso and soy sauce.

Serve the warm stew when you are happy with the seasoning and enjoy!

Your VegHog