Stuffed gem squashes with baked new potatoes

It's raining outside, so finally I'm officially allowed to post squash dishes like this, right? Gem squashes are small, mild, creamy and delicate. They taste nice and subtle and are quite versatile little vegetables. Today I roasted them with a stuffing and served with lovely baked new potatoes.

I decorated the squashes with some parmesan crisps (obviously made out of vegetarian parmesan), and don't they look cute on these gems! You can make some quickly: just grate vegetarian parmesan and place it on baking paper in circles. Bake at 200C for about 5 minutes until they are crispy. Let them chill after baking. Make sure you don't eat all of them before you get to decorating the dish.

Ingredients for the roasted gem squashes:

3 gem squashes

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Sage

Parsley

Rosemary

Lemon zest

Lemon & pepper bread crumbs

2 garlic cloves

Ingredients for the baked new potatoes:

New potatoes

Olive oil

Sea salt

Paprika powder

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Wash the new potatoes and cut off any bad bits but don't peel them. Roll them in a olive oil, sea salt and paprika powder mix and place on a baking tray. Bake them in an oven dish for about 40 minutes until they are soft with a golden brown outer skin. They could take longer depending on the size.

Cut the gem squashes in half and remove the seeds. Scoop some of the squash out by leaving a thin squash shell. Save some of the squash insides for the stuffing and then prepare the other stuffing ingredients. Grate some vegetarian pasta cheese (same as vegetarian parmesan) and mix it with the chopped herbs, garlic and grated lemon zest. Add some lemon and pepper bread crumbs and there you have the lemony and cheesy stuffing.

Place the stuffing on the squash halves and bake them at 180C for about 30 minutes until the squash halves are baked and the cheese has melted. Decorate with the parmesan crisps and serve with the baked new potatoes. I served them with a side salad. If you think the dish is too dry add some homemade herb butter to the potatoes.

Enjoy this autumn dish and keep warm!

Your VegHog

Swede and seed rolls

Now this is what I call a rustical and autumnal and even a very healthy meal. These are quite basic seed rolls with some added grated swede. Adding vegetables to bread is always fun and makes such a tasty result. These are also extremely easy ta make, no heavy kneading is required!

Ingredients for about 15-16 rolls

300g grated swede

800ml wheat flour

5dl water

25g yeast

2dl oat and barley flakes

2dl mixed seeds (poppy, sunflower etc.)

1dl flaxseed

1dl margarine

3tsp salt

2tsp sugar

Method

Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water. Melt the margarine and grate the swede. Add the grated swede, the seeds, the flakes, salt, sugar and the melted margarine to the yeast water.

Slowly add the flour to these ingredients while mixing. Once you have an even dough let it rise under a teatowel for about 30 minutes. Shape small rolls of the dough and place them on a greased baking tray. Let them rise again under a teatowel.

Before baking brush the rolls with water and sprinkle some seeds and oat and barley flakes on them. Bake them at 190C for about 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy the fresh rolls just with butter and cheese or use them as burger rolls. I loved having these as little breakfast rolls on the next day.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Urban gardening in September

I'm writing a quick update on what's currently happening on my balcony patch. It has been quite a warm September in England and my small urban garden is still nice and green and producing vegetables. I'm hoping for a long outdoor growing season before I'll have to move everything inside.

At the moment it's all about the tomatoes and peppers in my garden. The bush tomato basically provides a daily dose of tomatoes and the peppers are also growing nicely and the first ones have been harvested. There are even still occasionally new courgettes.

Mushroom bruchetta

Here's another mushroom dish from The VegHog's kitchen. I made these giant mushroom bruchettas today for breakfast and they were very nice.

Ingredients:

3 large bread slices

4 portobello mushrooms

1 mozzarella

Salt

Olive oil

For the basil drizzle:

Handful of fresh basil leaves

A few pine nuts

1 garlic clove

4tbsp olive oil (more if needed)

Make the basil drizzle first, which is pretty much like a pesto but slightly more liquid. Just puree the ingredients to a fairly fluid paste.

Slice your bread and spread some of the basil drizzle on them. Slice the mozzarella and place it on the top. Bake the bread at 200C for about 10 minutes until the bread is crispy and the cheese has melted.

Heat some olive oil in a pan and sauté the sliced portobello mushrooms in there. This takes about the same amount of time than the bread is in the oven.

When everything is cooked, place the mushrooms on the bread slices and pour the rest of the basil drizzle on them. You can cut the bruchettas in half if you prefer. And this is it in its simplicity.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Harlequin squash and new potato soup

Would you like to make a vegan soup for a change? I certainly would, once again... This is a super easy recipe, so there are no excuses for not making this.

The star of this soup is one single harlequin squash, and new potatoes make a good company for it indeed. As my regular reader you might know that I recently detected the harlequin squash, found it to be lovely and now constantly want to make dishes with it. So here we go!

Ingredients

1 harlequin squash

300g new potatoes

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

2 salad onions

Vegetable stock powder

Lemon and pepper bread crumbs

Vegetable oil

Black pepper

Salt

Method

Cut the new potatoes in half, or in several smaller pieces in case they are a bit larger. Cut the harlequin squash into small cubes. Be careful when making the first cuts as the squash can be tough.

Then chop the onion, garlic and salad onions. Prepare the vegetable stock.

Heat oil in a saucepan and fry the onion and garlic briefly. Add the potatoes and fry them for a few minutes. Then also add the squash and most of the chopped salad onions, save some of them as garnish.

Add the vegetable stock and let it all simmer under a lid for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Season with salt and pepper once the potatoes and the squash are cooked soft. Then puree the soup.

Garnish with salad onions and lemon and pepper bread crumbs, then serve the soup with some nice bread. I paired the soup this time with this artisan crispbread.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Watermelon and gin cocktail

Just when I promised you autumn recipes I'm coming with something that couldn't be more summerly: a watermelon and gin cocktail. Of course this drink can be enjoyed in any season, so I decided to post it instantly. It was quite a good mix for a refreshing cocktail and so wonderfully red – try it!

½ medium watermelon

1 lime

200ml gin

200ml tonic

Ice cubes

Squash the watermelon with a blender and pour the liquid through a sieve to remove the seeds. Add the juice of a lime, gin, tonic and ice cubes and there you have it!

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Chanterelle risotto

Chanterelles are in season and they are in fact my favourite mushrooms. Therefore I made this tasty risotto and I can only recommend it. It's also already September and I like autumn food (soups, squashes, mushrooms...), so in the near future I will be sharing some delicious autumnal recipes with you. 

Ingredients

2 cups arborio rice

1l fresh chanterelles

1 small red pepper

1 onion

1 cloveless garlic (This was a novelty for me but I detected it in a Finnish supermarket and found it to be brilliant, you could also use 2 regular garlic cloves instead)

1l vegetable stock

1dl dry Riesling (Riesling is one of my favourite white wines and it's so nice with chanterelles)

Grated emmental cheese (Red-label emmental is great for this dish, it has matured for about 6 months and is strong and aromatic)

50g butter

Vegetable oil

Fresh parsley

Black pepper

Nettle salt (Himalayan pink crystal salt with dried nettles)

Method

Clean the chanterelles up. Lightly sauté them in butter for only about 3 minutes and set them to side. They will be added to the risotto later.

Chop the onion, garlic and pepper and fry them in vegetable oil for about 5 minutes. Add some butter and the rice. Make a white wine addition once the rice is translucent. Let the wine evaporate and make a vegetable stock addition. Now let it all simmer until the rice is cooked al dente. Stir the risotto often and add more vegetable stock when the previous addition has evaporated. Add about 1dl of grated emmental.

Towards the end add the chanterelles to the pan and season with parsley, pepper and salt. Add more butter or cheese if needed. Let it simmer for a few minutes more and then serve with some nice fresh summer salad and a glass of Riesling.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog