Fried potatoes with sausage

I got more of these excellent Snällkorv by Astrid och Aporna, when we visited Sweden again the other week. These are really nice juicy vegetarian sausages made from wheat gluten and soya. I also bought loads of other stuff there, which you will be seeing before long here on the blog. But now I felt like a veggie sausage dish.

For this dish I took inspiration from my childhood, from something that especially my father would frequently cook as a rather heavy evening snack: fried potatoes with fried sausage pieces. I of course made a vegetarian version of this dish, and added just some onions and garlic, salt and pepper, and fried the pre-boiled skin-on potatoes with the veggie sausage pieces. It was very nice grub for the winter.

This dish is also quite good for the cheap eats category, as I'm still trying to save some money when cooking. Actually veggie food isn't that expensive when you cook yourself, but sometimes I want to use just basic ingredients, and still make sure that there will be some protein in each dish. That reminds me that I want to write about the local vegetarian restaurant and café scene in Copenhagen soon. There are too many good options, so I'm only getting through them very slowly.

Your VegHog

Homemade veggie sausages

I find that there can never be enough veggie sausage experiments, and therefore today's recipe is again for vegetarian sausages.

I've been cooking with some Finnish protein products again. This time with Härkis, the one made from broad beans. It's really versatile, but this time I wanted to make some homemade veggie sausages from it. This mix stuck very firmly together, probably better than any of my previous veggie sausage attempts. I think that you can substitute this product with some soya or wheat gluten products.

Have a look at my recipe here!

Homemade veggie sausages

Ingredients

250 g Härkis (protein product made from broad beans)

200 g potatoes

1 onion

2 black garlic cloves

1 tsp salt

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp vegetable stock powder

2 tbsp tomato purée

1 egg

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Peel and boil the potatoes and mash them.

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

Mix all ingredients together and shape sausages from the mix.

Fry the sausages in a pan until they have a crispy outside layer.

Serve with for example potato mash and cabbage mix on the side like I did.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Not Dogs

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a really nice festive season and have been able to start the new year well. I've been slowly back to the normal routine, but the whole end of year felt very busy. At least I got to go to Finland briefly to celebrate Christmas, and then we had some of my partner's family members for a visit over the New Year. I'm actually quite happy to be back to normality, cooking some normal food again and just chilling at home in the evenings. I have no health resolutions for the new year, but I'm trying to make economical food at least in January. What about you? Are you having a vegan or an alcohol free month etc. to start the year off?

It was also my 5^th blog anniversary on Sunday, but due to some internet problems I wasn't able to post this then. I can't believe that it has already been five years! Thank you so much for reading my blog over all these years! It has been such a nice time and I have made some really good blogging friends.

I made these Not Dogs, vegan hot dogs, with the tastiest vegan chorizo sausages by Astrid och Aporna. Hot dogs of course are an important street food in Denmark, and actually it isn't too hard to find a veggie option. I however prefer making my own ones. 

 

Not Dogs with an optional mac'n'cheese on the side

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 vegan chorizo sausages

4 hot dog buns

1 red onion

1 red pepper

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Handful of mixed shredded cabbage and kale

Method

Prep the fillings first. Cut the pepper into small cubes and the onion into rings and cook them in oil until soft. Press in the garlic. Cook for a while and season with salt and pepper. Briefly also add the cabbage and kale to the pan. However I prefer keeping these fresh and crisp, but you can also cook them a bit, if you like.

Fry the vegetarian sausages and heat the buns. Fill the buns with the sausages and other fillings and serve. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Veggie sausage pasties

It has been another hectic week here and Christmas is approaching almost too fast. I'm going home for Christmas, but need to get all the presents sorted before I leave. I also want to decorate our apartment here in Copenhagen more, so I think that we'll buy a small Christmas tree today.

These open and closed veggie sausage pasties could be something for Christmas. I played around a little bit with my hedgehog cookie cutter, and this was the result. I think that these would also look nice made with Christmas cookie cutters like stars. We scoffed these cheesy sausage rolls away in no time, they were so tasty.

Ingredients

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

4 vegetarian sausages

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp sea salt

80 g grated cheese

200 g puff pastry

1 egg

Method

Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook them in rapeseed oil until soft. Add the cut vegetarian sausages and seasoning. Also mix the cheese in.

Prepare the puff pastry. Roll it out thinly and cut rectangular pieces from it, and corresponding lids with holes made with a cookie cutter. You can use the pieces that were cut off as decorations for some closed pasties.

Put some sausage filling on each bottom bit of the pastry and close the lids with a fork. Brush the pasties with a beaten egg.

Bake them at 200 C for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy hot or cold, both variations are good.

Have a lovely weekend!

Your VegHog

Seasonal Sunday Supper

I always look forward to Sunday dinners, because I then have the time to cook for longer, often pretty much all day long. I don't usually have many other plans for Sundays, I just want to spend cosy time at home cooking and relaxing.

That's what I will do today as well, but this dish is our last week's Sunday dinner. We had Glamorgan sausages, roasted potatoes, steamed baby brussels sprouts, onion gravy and salad. I was happy to see brussels sprouts arriving to the shops and will cook plenty of dishes with them. Do you have any unusual and new ideas, where or how to use brussels sprouts? I would like to use them in all kinds of different dishes, not just as a side.

This dish was fairly quick and effortless to make apart from the gravy, which needs to cook for longer. It doesn't need that much attention though, apart from the occasional stirring. The shop bought Glamorgan sausages by Good Life were excellent and I think they'll become a regular in my freezer. Welsh Glamorgan sausages consist of leeks, cheese and mustard and are very tasty, I need to make some myself soon again. But sometimes it's just easier to add ready made veggie burgers and sausages to such meals and not make everything from scratch.

How has your Sunday been? What are you cooking and eating today?

Your VegHog 

Sausage rolls

Vegetarian sausage rolls are so nice that I could eat them every day. They are really nice especially for gloomy Mondays. I really can't imagine that anyone would miss any meat when eating these ultra savoury sausage rolls containing pearled spelt and spices. The easy way to the savoury result in this recipe is the concentrated vegetable stock, which I used for the first time. It was really effective, so I will be using it much more in the future. It's very much stronger than my usual dry vegetable stock powder. I also added a few herbs into these sausage rolls along with onion, garlic and carrot.

Ingredients

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 carrot

Rapeseed oil

½ cup pearled spelt

1 tsp concentrated vegetable stock

Oak smoked sea salt

Ground black pepper

Bunch of fresh parsley

Marjoram

Sage

320 g puff pastry

1 egg

Black and white sesame seeds

Method

Make the sausage filling by chopping the onion, garlic and carrot finely. Cook them in rapeseed oil until they are soft.

Add the pearled spelt, concentrated vegetable stock and water to the pan and let simmer until the spelt is cooked.

Season with herbs, salt and pepper and let cool down.

Roll the pastry out and cut two long rectangles from it.

Fill each rectangle with the sausage mix and close the pastry. Cut the pastry into smaller rolls.

Brush the rolls with a beaten egg and sprinkle sesame seeds on the top.

Bake the sausage rolls in the oven for about 15-20 minutes at 200 C.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Vegetarian sausage rolls

Veggie sausage rolls are a good snack or lunch to brighten up a regular day. These are very easy to make, especially, if you buy the ready rolled out puff pastry like I often do. We took these veggie sausage rolls as snacks for a forest walk, and they were just perfect for that purpose, filling and easy to transport. The only problem was that a slightly unfriendly bull tried to attack us and we had to escape through the forest into safety to the next gate. I'm not sure, if it was just so fond of us due to our sausage rolls...

Anyway, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

320 g puff pastry

6 vegetarian sausages

Vegetable oil

Smoky firepit rub

6 Emmental slices

1 egg

Sesame seeds

Method

Cook the sausages in vegetable oil and rub them with the smoky firepit rub and let them cool.

Roll the puff pastry out and cut it into 6 equal sized bits.

Cut slices of the cheese.

Wrap the puff pastry pieces around the sausages and cheese slices.

Brush the pastry with the beaten egg and sprinkle sesame seeds on the top.

Bake at 200C for about 15 minutes until the pastry is done.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Spicy Veggie Dogs

I'm generally not too keen in replicating meat eaters' favourites as veggie versions, but sometimes I do try to create such dishes. This time I made vegetarian hot dogs, aka veggie dogs, with cheese, spices and a homemade tomato sauce. I can't imagine that a meat version could ever be better than this and I can only wish that some meat eaters would admit that. Of course I personally think that meat never improves things. However I must confess that I have never eaten a hot dog in my life! You might be shocked by this, but it has just been that way, as I already was a vegetarian when such dishes would've been available to me. They are not very typical food in Finland in the countryside. So I'm not sure how authentic today's recipe is, but then again, I'm sure that these were pretty good what comes to veggie dogs. Do you have any experiences with vegetarian hot dogs?

Ingredients

8 submarine rolls

8 vegetarian sausages

1 tsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp smoky firepit rub (consisting of smoked paprika, chipotle chilli and herbs and spices)

200 g grated mature Cheddar

Chilli flakes

Fried onions

Tomato sauce: 1 onion, 1 garlic cloves, 1 tsp olive oil, 200 g plum tomatoes, fresh oregano, tomato purée, salt and pepper.

Method

Make the tomato sauce first. Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil. Add the tomatoes and let simmer. Season with fresh oregano, tomato purée, salt and pepper. Finally purée it all into a smooth sauce.

Fry the vegetarian sausages in the vegetable oil until golden brown. Towards the end, add a sprinkle of the smoky firepit rub and toss the sausages in the pan.

Make a cut into the submarine roll and place the sausage into the roll. Put some grated cheese and chilli flakes on the top.

Bake in the oven at 200 C until the cheese has melted.

Put the fried onions on the top and serve the veggie dog with the tomato sauce (warm or cold depending on preference).

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Glamorgan sausages with potato mash and salad

When my partner made a humble request that I should cook Glamorgan sausages again, I was surprised, not because he requested them, but because I became aware that I hadn't made them for a long while. I love these breaded Welsh leek and cheese sausages and should make them much more often. Anyway I was instantly ready to make some and planned a simple dish around them. I though they would be good in a rustic combination with potato mash and some side salad.

So I just made a smooth buttery potato mash on the side from lovely English potatoes. To add some freshness to the dish, I chopped tomatoes and a small shallot and seasoned them with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice. My salad was extremely simple, just some mixed leaves on the side.

You can find my Glamorgan sausage recipe here and I followed this same recipe again. They become so wonderfully crispy in the oven, yet still had a fluffy and tasty inside. The six chunky sausages also disappeared pretty quickly.

What would you serve the Glamorgans with?

Your VegHog

Vegetarische Currywurst mit Pommes

I love languages and I have learned a few of them in my time, but I would still like to learn so many more. I always liked all language lessons at school, but German became quickly my favourite language. Already early on I was determined to study in Germany one day, which I later did. I try to list here the ridiculous amount of languages I have learned, but please take into consideration that I'm only fluent in Finnish, German and English. Swedish is kind of fine sometimes, it depends, and French is regrettably poor at the moment... So here we go: Finnish (+ Ostrobothnian dialect), English, German, Swedish, French, Middle High German (Medieval German language), Latin and Irish Gaelic. Quite a funny bunch, wouldn't you say so, plenty of dead and half-dead languages. But the amount of speakers was never a motivation for learning for me, I just happen to love grammar and words. Anyway, long introduction to a simple thing: today I would like to make my first multilingual post. Today's recipe is a classic German dish, and I am writing it in English, German and Finnish. I hope you enjoy the diversity in this post and find it at least a little bit interesting.

My autumn trip to Germany is approaching in a couple of weeks, and I already started craving German food. It's not particularly easy to find veggie food over there, but I have now transformed one of their absolute classic meat dishes, curry sausage, into a vegetarian version. This has of course been done before, and even a Currywurst ready meal is available in well equipped German supermarkets, but this is simply my version. And indeed it is fully my version as I have never even tasted a Currywurst, as I was already a vegetarian when I went to Germany for the first time. I didn't consult many recipes either before making this, I just made a version of Currywurst how I imagine it to be. I liked the end result very much, a spicy sauce, juicy fried sausage and chips, but I still can't tell you if I got close to the taste of the original. Maybe some of the readers have a better idea?  

Curry sausage with chips

I will start in English as my blog is normally in English only. But even if you don't know German or Finnish, have a little read below. The texts aren't exact translations as I'm writing more from the heart and might not mention everything in every language. However the recipe is of course complete in all language versions.

This recipe makes either 2 large or 4 small portions, and I served the Currywurst with typical thin-cut chips.

Ingredients

500 g tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

70 g double concentrated tomato purée

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp smoked paprika

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp medium curry powder + some for sprinkling on the top

2 large baking potatoes, vegetable oil and salt

6 vegetarian Lincolnshire sausages + vegetable oil for frying

Method

Start with the sauce by chopping the tomatoes and garlic. Cook the garlic in olive oil for a few minutes before adding the tomatoes. Let the sauce simmer for a couple of hours until the tomatoes have reached a nice and intense taste. Purée the sauce with a hand mixer and add the tomato purée and the seasoning and cook for a while longer.

Cut thin chips from the potatoes, brush them with vegetable oil, sprinkle salt on the top and bake in the oven until crispy.

Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the sausages until they are nicely fried. Cut the sausages into about 1cm long pieces.

Assemble the dish by placing the sausage bits on a plate and pouring some of the curry sauce on the top. Also sprinkle some extra curry powder onto the sauce and place the chips on the plate. Now the dish is ready to be enjoyed.

Enjoy your meal!

Vegetarische Currywurst mit Pommes

Ach, ist das schön hier endlich auf Deutsch zu schreiben. Vielleicht sollte ich das öfter tun! Ich hoffe, dass jemand tatsächlich auch diese Sprachversion liest.

Am Ende des Monats fahre ich nach Hamburg und Bremen in den Urlaub, und ich dachte, es wäre ganz passend vor der Reise einen deutschen Klassiker zu kochen. Ich habe die Currywurst als Gericht gewählt, denn obwohl ich beinahe zehn Jahre in Deutschland gewohnt habe, habe ich noch nie eine Currywurst probiert! Ich war halt bereits Vegetarierin, wenn ich Deutschland zum ersten Mal besucht habe. Heutzutage gibt es sogar ein Currywurst Fertiggericht in den Supermärkten, aber ich glaube, dass es erst nach meiner Zeit erhältlich wurde.

Jedenfalls habe ich heute ein wenig experimentiert und eine vegetarische Currywurst mit Pommes hervorgezaubert. Ich kann euch kein originaltreues Rezept versprechen eben aus den Gründen, dass ich nie Currywurst probiert habe, und auch nicht wirklich viele Currywurst Rezepte angeguckt habe. Dieses Rezept ist wie ich mir dieses Gericht vorstelle und haben möchte. Ich hoffe, dass ich damit keine Currywurst Freunde verletze, falls meine Version etwas anders ist.

Aber nun, lass uns kochen. Dieses Rezept reicht für entweder zwei grosse oder 3-4 kleine Portionen.

Zutaten

500 g Tomaten

2 Knoblauchzehen

1 EL Olivenöl

70 g Zweifach konzentriertes Tomatenmark

½ TL Salz

1 TL Kreuzkümmel

1 TL Geräuchertes Paprikapulver

¼ TL Cayennepfeffer

2 TL Currypulver + etwas extra zum drüberstreuen

2 Grosse Kartoffeln, Pflanzenöl und Salz

6 Vegetarische Würste (Ich habe Lincolnshire Würste benutzt) + Pflanzenöl zum Braten

Zubereitung

Fang mit der Sosse an. Schneide die Knoblauchzehen und Tomaten in kleine Stücke. Brate den Knoblauch in Olivenöl für einige Minuten und dann gib die Tomaten dazu. Lass die Sosse unter dem Deckel ein Paar Stunden simmern bis die Tomaten ein richtig intensives Geschmack erreicht haben. Püriere die Sosse mit einem Mixer und gib das Tomatenmark und die Gewürze dazu. Lass alles eine Weile länger köcheln.

Schäle die Kartoffeln und schneide von den dünne Pommes. Pinsel sie mit Pflanzenöl und bestreue Salz auf sie. Backe die Pommes im Ofen bis sie knusprig sind.

Erhitze Pflanzenöl in einer Bratpfanne und brate die Würste bis sie schön gebraten sind. Schneide sie nach dem Braten in etwa 1cm lange Stücke, sozusagen in mundgerechte Happen.

Setze das Gericht zusammen. Lege die Wurststücke auf einen Teller und gib die Sosse dazu. Bestreue sie mit etwas extra Currypulver. Gib auch die Pommes dazu. Jetzt ist das Gericht fertig zum Geniessen.

Guten Appetit!

Curryvegemakkara ranskalaisilla

Ajattelin tehdä monikielisen reseptijutun, vaikka tuntuukin erittäin oudolta kirjoittaa suomeksi tänne. No, eiköhän se tästä, ainakin keksin heti alkuun mahtavan suomenkielisenkin nimen tälle ruokalajille. Saatan joskus tulevaisuudessakin kirjoitella tänne useammalla kielellä.

Ruokalistalla on tänään siis saksalainen klassikko Currywurst, eli currymakkara, josta minä tein tottakai kasvisversion. Hampurin ja Bremenin reissuni lähestyy kovaa vauhtia ja olen miettinyt jälleen enemmän saksalaisia ruokia, ja mitä niistä minun on mahdollisesti ikävä. Asuin siis Saksassa lähes kymmenen vuotta, joten monenlaisia paikallisia pöperöitä on tullut maisteltua. Kuitenkaan Currywurstia en ole vielä koskaan päässyt maistamaan, koska olin jo kasvissyöjä mennessäni Saksaan ensimmäistä kertaa. Kuvittelen kuitenkin, että oma reseptini on melko lähellä alkuperäistä: paistettu makkara, tomaattikastike currylla ja muilla mausteilla ja ohuet ranskalaiset. Tykkäsin ainakin lopputuloksesta, mikä lienee pääasia. Toivottavasti en onnistu loukkaamaan tällä versiolla saksalaisia makkaran ystäviä.

Ja sitten kokkaamaan! Tällä reseptillä valmistuu joko kaksi isoa annosta tai 3-4 pienempää.

Ainekset

500 g tomaatteja

2 valkosipulinkynttä

1 rkl oliiviöljyä

70 g tomaattipyreetä

½ tl suolaa

1 tl kuminajauhetta

1 tl savustettua paprikajauhetta

¼ tl cayennepippuria

2 tl curryjauhetta + vähän ekstraa kastikkeen päälle ripoteltavaksi

2 isoa perunaa, kasviöljyä ja suolaa

6 kasvismakkaraa + kasviöljyä paistamiseen

Valmistusohjeet

Aloita tekemällä kastike. Hienonna valkosipulinkynnet ja leikkaa tomaatit pieniksi paloiksi. Paista valkosipuleita oliiviöljyssä muutaman minuutin ajan ja lisää sitten tomaatit. Hauduta kastiketta peräti parin tunnin ajan, jotta tomaateista tulee todella intensiivisen makuisia. Soseuta kastike sauvasekoittimella ja lisää siihen tomaattipyree ja mausteet. Anna kastikkeen hautua vielä jonkun aikaa.

Kuori perunat ja leikkaa niistä ohuita ranskanperunoita. Sivele perunat kasviöljyllä ja ripottele päälle suolaa. Paista niitä uunissa kunnes ne ovat pinnaltaan rapeita.

Kuumenna kasviöljyä paistinpannussa ja paista vegemakkaroita kunnes ne ovat ruskistuneet ja muutenkin mukavasti paistuneet. Leikkaa makkarat paistamisen jälkeen noin 1cm pituisiin paloihin.

Kokoa annos asettelemalla makkaranpalat ja ranskalaiset lautaselle. Kaada kastiketta makkaroitten päälle ja ripottele päälle vielä hieman lisää curryjauhetta. Nyt annos on valmis nautittavaksi.

Hyvää ruokahalua!

So, how did you find this trilingual edition? Would you like to see more posts with other language versions in the future? Maybe I could occasionally do this for international classic dishes gone vegetarian (unless they already are vegetarian).

Thanks for reading this marathon post! Danke schön! Kiitos!

Your VegHog