Green tomato chutney

“A Tigerella never loses its stripes”, I said when I had finished this chutney. With mixed feelings I have now officially ended my tomato growing season and next week I will cut the remaining vines down. Couple of weeks ago I harvested the green tomatoes that weren't able to ripen anymore in this lack of light and cold nights. Some I was able to ripen in a vase indoors, but there was still a fair amount left that I didn't want to go to waste. So I explored the possibilities what to make of them and went with the chutney idea. I just made a basic chutney like I normally would, and it got actually very nice. Now I can still enjoy my tomatoes during the winter.

Ingredients

400 g green tomatoes

1 onion

100 ml Aspall cyder vinegar

200 g sugar

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp ginger powder

Method

Chop the onion and the tomatoes.

Cook the onion with the vinegar, sugar, chilli flakes and ginger powder for 5 minutes.

Then add the tomatoes to the pan.

Let the pan contents simmer for about 40-50 minutes or until the liquid has mostly evaporated and the mixture has reached a sticky texture.

Pour the chutney into sterilised preservation glasses and store. I got a large jar and a small one out of this.

Chutney has many uses, have it for example with cheeses, veggie nuggets, sandwiches or roasted vegetables.

Your VegHog

Slow-cooked tomato sauce with tagliatelle

My very productive tomato vines on the balcony, have persuaded me to cook a tomato dish again. Not that I have anything against tomatoes, quite the contrary. At the moment my vines save me quite a bit of shopping as tomatoes would always be on the shopping list. If you want to know more about my tomato growing ventures, also read yesterday's post TomatoTigerella – A love story.

So this time I decided to slow cook my sauce to make it really intense with tomato taste. I find that a tomato sauce should either be made very quickly or slow-cooked. This is how I made mine.

Ingredients

400 g tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp basil infused olive oil

20 g vegetarian pasta cheese

Fresh basil leaves

Ground nutmeg to taste

125 g buffalo mozzarella

250 g tagliatelle

Method

Chop the garlic finely and cook it in olive oil until soft. Also chop the tomatoes and add them to the pan. Simmer the sauce under lid for at least one hour by stirring occasionally. If the sauce gets too liquid, simmer also without the lid on.

Once you are happy with how the tomato taste has developed, add the basil oil, grated vegetarian pasta cheese, basil leaves and nutmeg. You can also add salt and pepper to taste.

Boil the tagliatelle until al dente. Serve the pasta with the sauce and torn mozzarella.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Tomato Tigerella – A love story

Would you like to have a wild guess, which of these is The VegHog's balcony? I'm sure you'll get it!

Earlier this summer my lovely reader Adi requested me to publish a photo of my whole balcony, so now I'm trying to show you in some wider shots what it looks like. Please also visit Adi's great blog Vegetarian Courtesy, where she writes about vegetarianism, food, environment, animals and more. 

So, in case you've missed my previous praise for the cute stripy Tomato Tigerella that I am growing this year, here comes more.  

I'm so proud of how well the Tomato Tigerella vines have done. I guess weather wise it was quite a good summer, too. Earlier this year I was planning to plant bush tomatoes like last year, which are bit more suitable for balcony growing. The fascinating looks of the Tigerella however got me distracted and I realised only when it was too late that they actually were vine tomatoes. Luckily the growth is slower now and they shouldn't get much taller. Besides there's still a little bit room before they reach the upstairs neighbour's balcony.

I've already harvested and cooked loads of the tomatoes and there still are so many more. Do you have any good suggestions what I should cook with them next? Tomorrow I'm going to post a recipe cooked with these tomatoes, but I need more ideas, and would be very grateful for any input. I will also soon post an update on my other balcony plants.

Your VegHog