Aubergine stacks with hummus

In September I published my simple homemade hummus recipe and today I want to give you a dish idea using that hummus. I made char-grilled aubergine stacks with hummus on a bed of salad and it became a simple but funny looking vegan dish with several veggies. I always like the mix of warm and cold in salads.

For the salad:

1 aubergine

2-3 small peppers

Mixed salad leaves

Small plum tomatoes

Vegetable oil or groundnut oil for grilling

For the hummus:

200g dried chickpeas

2 garlic cloves

1 lemon's juice

4tbsp olive oil

4tbsp water

1tsp paprika

1tsp cumin

1tsp salt

Please read the making instructions for the hummus from my previous post. You can of course also use any other hummus.

Slice the aubergine and char-grill the slices in a grill pan on both sides. Also char-grill the peppers for the salad until they get charring marks.

Place the salad ingredients on a plate and stack the aubergine on the top of the salad. Put little hummus between each aubergine slice and build a stack as high as you dare. And there you already have it.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Thai inspired pumpkin soup

There probably can't be enough pumpkin recipes for October, so here comes yet another one. A friend of mine actually taught me how to make his thai style spiced pumpkin soup. You probably know that I don't usually use this many spices, but as I was so well instructed this time that it couldn't go wrong. I think you should try this too!

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin

1 onion

2-3 garlic cloves

2-3cm fresh ginger (about the same amount as garlic)

1 small red chili

Cumin powder

Coriander powder

1l water

2tsp Vegetable stock powder

Sesame oil

1 lemongrass stock

3 kaffir lime leaves

160ml coconut cream

2tsp miso or soy sauce

½-1 lime's juice

2tsp palm sugar

Fresh coriander leaves

Method

Fry the chopped onion pieces in sesame oil until they are glossy. Add the finely chopped garlic, ginger and chili and fry for about one minute more. Season with the cumin and coriander powders.

Peel the pumpkin and chop it into cubes and add them into the pot. Glaze them for a while and then add some water and vegetable stock powder.

Pour about half of the coconut cream into the soup. Add the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves and let the soup simmer under the lid at moderate heat. If you are using fresh lemongrass, make sure to chop it very finely.

Season the soup with lime juice, miso (or soy sauce) and palm sugar. Add more water at any time if needed. Chop fresh coriander and add it to the pot towards the end. Coriander leaves are also a good decoration for serving. Remove the kaffir lime leaves and the lemongrass from the soup.

Once the pumpkin is soft, puree the soup and taste if any seasoning needs to be added. I added rest of the coconut cream to mine. It depends a bit which taste is dominating at that stage and of course the sweetness of the pumpkin also impacts things. I also didn't want to make mine too spicy in terms of the heat, but if you like chili, feel free to add more.

Serve the soup warm with lovely bread and enjoy! This could be a good idea for surprising your Halloween guests as well!

Your VegHog

Cauliflower and gem squash bake

A good vegetarian oven bake is always good and I welcome them quite frequently to my life. Vegetable or pasta bakes are real comfort food for me.

This recipe is for making a slightly different cauliflower bake than you're probably used to and I made this just because I happened to have all these ingredients at home. Nothing against impulse cooking though since this turned out to be a very nice dish. Give it a try with the help of these easy steps.

Ingredients

1 cauliflower

2 gem squashes

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 halloumi

100g grated emmental cheese

1tbsp vegetable stock powder

Vegetable oil

Sage

Rosemary

Black pepper

Salt

Method

Wash and cut the cauliflower florets off and steam them until almost done. Chop the gem squashes into small cubes and also chop the onion and garlic.

Chop the halloumi into cubes and fry the cubes in vegetable oil until they are golden brown with a bouncy texture. Then add the garlic, rosemary and sage to the halloumi and let infuse at low heat for 10 minutes.

In the meanwhile fry the gem squash cubes and the chopped onion in another pan until the onions are translucent. Add vegetable stock powder and little water and simmer until the squash is almost cooked. Season with salt and pepper. Then combine the contents of the halloumi pan with this one.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Place the previously steamed cauliflower florets into an oven dish. Place the contents of the squash pan on top of the cauliflower. Sprinkle some grated emmental on top and bake at 180C for about 20 minutes.

And there you have it, an autumnal squash bake.

Your VegHog

Forest mushroom lasagne

I wanted to make a different sort of vegetarian lasagne than usually and started planning for this dish. I normally make tomato sauce based lasagnes, but this one has garlic and mushroom infused cream as the sauce. I used vegan oat cream, which is quite light. However tomatoes are not fully missing in this recipe, but they play a much smaller role.

The main mushroom taste here comes from funnel chanterelles that are very intense in their taste. These are part of the batch that The VegHog's father has picked in Finland and dried.

This recipe makes either one large dish lasagne or four small ones. Sometimes I quite like making small individual dishes.

Lasagne sheets

200g double Gloucester cheese grated

250g green beans

250g white cup mushrooms

25g dried funnel chanterelle mushrooms

2 shallots

3 garlic cloves

1tsp vegetable stock powder

100g small tomatoes

500ml oat cream (a vegan cream substitute made of oats)

Nettle salt (normal or herb salt will also do)

Ground black pepper

Fresh sage leaves

Olive oil

First of all prepare the sauce. Soak the dried funnel chanterelles in water with vegetable stock powder for about 30 minutes. Drain the mushrooms, but also save the water.

Peel the tomatoes by making small cuts on them and dipping them into boiling water for a few seconds. Then it should be easy to remove the skins. Crush the skinned tomatoes.

Chop the shallots and lightly fry them in olive oil. Then add the chopped garlic and the funnel chanterelles and fry them also for a couple of minutes. Add the oat cream and let lightly simmer for about 30 minutes to infuse the cream. Add some of the mushroom soaking water for more intense mushroom taste. Later add the crushed tomatoes into the sauce and season it with salt, pepper and sage.

While the sauce is simmering cut the green beans into short pieces of couple of centimeters each and steam them for a few minutes until they are almost soft.

Chop the white cup mushrooms into slices and grate the cheese. Layer the mushrooms, green beans, cheese, lasagne sheets and the mushroom sauce into an oven dish on several layers. Cover the lasagne with grated cheese and bake it at 180C for about 45 minutes.

Serve the lasagne with a side salad and garlic and basil oil ciabatta. Make the ciabatta when your lasagne is almost baked. Cut a ciabatta bread into slices and spread a pureed garlic, basil and olive oil mix on them. Then bake until crispy.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Apple pie

Apple crops in Finland in August 2013.

Fancy an apple pie for the weekend? Here's a really easy recipe for one spicy and nutty apple pie. You don't have to be a master baker for making this. This is all you need to know:

The base:

3,5dl flour

1 egg

125g soft butter

2tbsp water

1tsp vanilla sugar

The filling:

4-5 pink lady apples

0,5dl maple syrup

1tsp cardamon

1tsp cinnamon

1tsp ginger powder

0,5dl almond flakes

0,5dl mixed nuts chopped

Mix the ingredients for the base together and knead them to an even dough. Wrap it into cling film and let rest for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.

In the meanwhile peel and slice the apples. Once the dough has rested long enough press it into a pie dish as a thin base.

Place the apple slices on the top and season with cardamon, cinnamon and ginger powder. Pour the maple syrup on them and finally the almonds and nuts.

Bake at 180C for about 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Rye nachos

I bought such lovely sesame and sea salt rye nachos in Finland and combined them with some char-grilled vegetables, cheese and sauces. Any nachos are great with some extra veg, but these rye variations are especially tasty and filling. They are like thin rye bread crisps.

Here's how I made this nacho dish.

Tomato sauce:

200g tomatoes

1 garlic clove

1 small onion

Olive oil

Fresh basil

Black pepper

Salt

The tomatoes for this sauce came from my own garden, and it's quite a basic sauce. Chop the onion and garlic and fry them in olive oil. Add the tomatoes and let it simmer. Season the sauce with basil, pepper and salt and finally puree it. This sauce can be served either warm or cold, whichever you prefer.

Green pepper butter:

1 green bell pepper

Parsley

Chili flakes

Black pepper

50g butter

This was a quite nice addition to the nachos and especially melted over the char-grilled corn cob that I served with the nachos.

Chop the pepper very finely and mix it with parsley, chili flakes, black pepper and soft butter. Done!

Nachos:

1 bag of sesame and sea salt rye nachos (or other nachos or rye crisps)

1 red bell pepper

1 small zucchini

½ onion

Oltermanni and Emmental cheese (other cheeses can be used)

1 Corn cob on the side

Vegetable oil for grilling

Quarter the bell pepper and slice the zucchini. Cut rings of the onion. Char-grill these and the pre-boiled corn cob.

Place the pepper, zucchini and onion rings on the nachos into an oven dish. Grate cheese on them and bake at 180C for about 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the nachos warmed through.

Serve with the sauces at a film night or a party or just give yourself a treat and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Pumpkin and puff pastry twirls

Happy World Vegetarian Day and happy October!

It seems to be suitable to start this month with a pumpkin post and The VegHog's special recipe. These little pumpkin twirls are perfect for your upcoming October parties as they are very easy to make and are an unusual vegetarian canapé for your guests.

This recipe makes about 20 small twirls.

Ingredients

500g all butter puff pastry

¼ small pumpkin

50g Red Leicester cheese grated

1 egg

Chili flakes

Sesame seeds

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Roll the puff pastry out thinly into a sheet. You could also buy your puff pastry as a ready made sheet. Shave very thin strings with a peeling knife of the pumpkin. Grate the cheese and beat the egg.

Spread the pumpkin strings evenly on the puff pastry sheet. Do the same with the cheese and chili flakes. Be careful with the chili flakes not to make it too spicy.

Roll the puff pastry carefully over in the fashion of a Swiss roll until you have a log of pastry with the filling. Brush the end with the egg so that it will stick together.

Cut thin slices of the log and place them on baking paper lying down on their side. Brush them with the egg and sprinkle sesame seeds on them.

Bake for about 30 minutes until the dough has risen and is golden brown. They are ready to be served, but they taste nice even cold.

Have nice and tasty October festivities!

Your VegHog