Veggie barbecue in the park

I told you yesterday that we were going to spend the day in the nearby park, as the weather was really nice and sunny. We actually ended up doing it, and I wanted to tell you a little bit about our veggie barbecue in the park. Our local park is the biggest in Copenhagen, and it's permitted to barbecue there. Most tables even have a metal griddle in the middle, which is handy for single-use barbecues. I really like the park, as it has different features: flower garden, playgrounds, football fields, a lake with loads of water birds. I hope you enjoy my photos from the place.

We bought this biodegradable and sustainable single-use grill, CasusGrill, and I was so curious to try it out. I quote from the CasusGrill website: “CasusGrill is made from cardboard lined with lava stone that both retains heat and reduces the risk of burns. The grill rack is made from bamboo.” 

The grill was easy to assemble and to use, and it worked perfectly for our little vegetable barbecue. I can only recommend it, if you need to use a disposable grill. I ruined the ecological theme a bit by using foil for the potatoes and onions, and also cardboard plates, but better than nothing I guess. Those plastic wineglasses, by the way, I have used many times already after we got them at an event. 

We barbecued veggie sausages, grill cheese, onions and pre-boiled new potatoes. On the side we had cherry tomatoes, fresh peas in pods and strawberries. We even had a couple of beers, ciders and a little bit of rosé wine with us. 

It was a nice little picnic, even though our table was most of the time in the direct sun. Otherwise I was happy with the table we found in the busy park, as it was kind of a quiet corner next to trees. Next time I will bring my chess figures, if we can secure the same spot.

This morning started with heavy thunderstorm that is still continuing, or at least it's still raining. I'm glad that the plants got some water. It should clear up for later, but I'm not sure, if we can do as much outdoorsy stuff today. I would like to go for a walk at some point. 

What about you, how has your weekend been? Is it hot where you are?

Your VegHog

Summer vegetable sandwiches

Here's just a quick post from me after a busy weekend. We had visitors from England this weekend, so we did some of the touristy stuff. It was great though, as I'm not getting tired of the Copenhagen sites yet, and tried to recommend some of my favourite sites to visit. We went to a couple of museums and mainly just walked around looking at the architecture. Luckily the weather was fairly nice throughout.

We also got to enjoy some nice veggie meals out. It's always nice to get to know new restaurants. But after all this walking, I just want to relax for the rest of the Sunday evening, and I hope that I'll get to post more next week.

Now I'm just posting about some sandwiches that I recently made. These sandwiches contained slices of corn, roasted aubergine, peppers and tomatoes, fried halloumi and fresh pomegranate seeds. They were a bit more unusual than my regular roasted vegetable breads, but they were quite tasty nevertheless, and also looked very colourful.

Have a good start to the new week everyone!

Your VegHog

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!

New potatoes with mushroom sauce

Yes, indeed this is another plate of summer food. Today I'm having boiled new potatoes (with skins of course as per the Scandi style), creamy mushroom sauce and a fresh salad with watermelon and strawberries. This is so good and comforting!

This kind of dishes will be my standard all summer long, and I'm very sorry that I have less recipes to share. I try to at least occassionally share what I'm eating so that you can also have a look. I would also be curious to know your favourite dishes in the summer. Is it all about fresh and local produce or what are you eating? Please share in the comment box below, and enjoy your summer food!

New potatoes and cauliflower cheese

Ah the summer is truly here and it's time to enjoy some of the wonderful seasonal produce. I hope it's not too hot where you are! Here in Copenhagen a fresh wind has already started, so we are coping well.

New potatoes have always been my favourites, already as a child. In the Nordic countries they are served in the summer as soon as they have grown a bit, but some of them are actually still quite tiny. They are boiled and served with just butter and dill, or sometimes in a milky sauce. They are eaten with the skins on, as the skin is at this point of growth very thin.

The new potatoes of the north have a special sweet and nutty taste to them, something that I can't quite describe. They just melt in your mouth. Some say it comes from the growing under the midnight sun. There might be some truth to it, as at least in the UK and Germany the new potatoes don't taste the same.

In this dish I combined some of the finest Danish new potatoes with a cauliflower cheese. It really was a fine feast.

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?

Spicy summer tacos

So the time has come, I'm off to Copenhagen today. Goodbye my friends in Britain, I will miss you very much and wish you all the best! I will write to you from Copenhagen as soon as I can. Take care!

Just before I go, I want to share this lovely summer taco recipe with you, my last dish cooked in Britain. These are quite light and quick to make. You can make them either vegan or serve with cheese and chilli mayo, both versions are perfectly good.

Spicy tacos

Ingredients

3 romano peppers

300 g cherry tomatoes

Oilve oil

2 onions

1 fresh garlic bulb

1 small chilli

1 small can sweetcorn

1 cup dried broad bean bits

2 tsp smoked chilli paste

1 tsp sea salt

Grated Emmental cheese (optional)

Chilli mayo (optional)

Lime wedges

8 taco shells

Method

Cut the peppers into pieces, brush them with olive oil and roast. Also roast the tomatoes for a slightly shorter time.

Chop the onions, chilli and garlic and cook them in olive oil until soft. Add the sweetcorn and the cooked broad bean bits (these can be substituted by soya products or pulses) and finally the seasoning.

Also mix the roasted vegetables in and serve this mix in taco shells.

Enjoy!

The VegHog

Rhubarb cupcakes

I rarely fancy cakes, but when there are nice seasonal berries, apples or rhubarb around, I always feel like baking, especially traditional cakes from my home country Finland. That seasonal produce always looks so tempting. So now I wanted to make rhubarb cupcakes when I got some beautiful seasonal rhubarb stalks. It's also getting late in the rhubarb season, so didn't want to miss out.

Unfortunately I wasn't concentrating very well when I cooked these cupcakes, and made them a bit too hastily. Therefore the result wasn't the prettiest, but actually they were quite tasty and especially my partner liked them a lot.

I followed this Finnish recipe by Valio, which is actually for a rhubarb pie. Maybe that's where the mistake lies trying to divide the dough into cupcake sizes. I have translated the recipe below, if you still fancy rhubarb cupcakes, or maybe better try it with the pie straight away. The picture in the original recipe looks just fine.

Ingredients

Dough

1 egg

1,5 dl sugar

¾ dl soft margarine

2 dl milk

4 dl wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

Filling

6-7 dl rhubarb pieces / 4 rhubarb stalks

2 dl sugar

Method

Cook the chopped rhubarb with the sugar until it's jam like texture. Add water, if needed. Let it cool.

Whisk the egg and sugar. Add the soft margarine, milk and flour with the baking powder by mixing fast.

Pour the dough into cupcake cases or cake tin.

Pour the rhubarb mix on the top.

Bake at 175 C for about 30-35 minutes.

Enjoy!

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

Char-grilled summer vegetable pizzas

I haven't made pizzas at home for a while, which is weird, because they are quite easy to make and always tasty. Now the seasonal vegetables tempted me to make a pizza with them. I bought these beautiful summer squashes and stripy aubergine at a farmers' market and wanted to use them in some nice dishes. The tomatoes came from my own balcony. In my local pub I can get this wonderful char-grilled vegetables pizza and I kind of got my inspiration from that to make these pizzas.

Ingredients

Pizza dough semi-spelt-wheat for 4 crusts (similar recipe here) 

Toppings:

1 pattypan squash

1 aubergine

200 g cherry tomatoes

1 garlic clove

Fresh basil leaves

Mozzarella

Method

Make the pizza dough first and while it's rising, chop up the toppings.

Slice the pattypan squash and aubergine and char-grill them in a grill pan on both sides until they have grilling marks.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves and chop the garlic finely.

Grate the mozzarella.

When the pizza dough is ready, roll it out thinly and cover with the toppins.

Bake at 250 C for about 10 minutes or until done.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Nachos with char-grilled vegetables

Nachos with char-grilled vegetables are great. The beauty of the dish is that you can use any seasonal vegetables that you fancy. You can make the dish as colourful as you want and it's also a nice one to share with friends. For these ones I chose gem squashes, bell pepper and onion, which made quite a good combination. The making of this dish is so easy and the grilling and baking times are short, so this is fine to make when the weather is hotter as well.

Ingredients

2 gem squashes

1 red bell pepper

1 onion

Vegetable oil for grilling

200 g tortilla chips

100 g grated cheese

Chilli-tomato sauce for dipping

Method

Cut the vegetables into fairly large chunks and grill them in a grill pan until they have nice grilling marks.

Cover the tortilla chips with cheese and the vegetables and bake them briefly in the oven until the cheese melts.

Serve with a dipping sauce of your choice. I didn't have guacamole, sour cream and tomato salsa this time, but just a homemade chilli-tomato sauce.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog