Roasted Coquina squash stuffed with risotto

When I started thinking of what would make a squash risotto more exciting, I thought of a stuffed oven-roasted squash. That is how this recipe was born, and I quite like how it takes a regular risotto to another level.

This post also features a new vegetable to this blog, the coquina squash. It's similar to the butternut squash by looks and taste, it only has funny stripes along its skin and it tastes very sweet. Once again I have to say that I like this squash very much, but then again, I don't think I have tasted a squash yet that I don't like!

Ingredients

1 coquina squash

1 red pepper

1 onion

2 garlic

Olive oil

1l vegetable stock

Fresh parsley

25g butter

250g arborio rice

1 cup dry white wine

80g Sussex Charmer hard cheese

Nettle salt (regular salt will also do)

Black pepper

Method

Cut the coquina squash in half, do not peel it, but remove the seeds. Brush it with olive oil and place into an oven dish and cover it with foil. Roast the squash halves for about one hour at 200C. Occasionally check up on them that the temperature isn't too hot. Our goal is to get a soft squash with a lovely roasted flavour.

While the squash is roasting, start a normal risotto making process. I have described my method often in this blog, simply because I love different vegetarian risotto, and here we go again.

Chop the pepper, onion and garlic and prepare a hot vegetable stock. Heat some olive oil in a pan and sweat the onions first, then the pepper and garlic. After a while add the butter and once it has melted, then add the arborio rice. Stir until the rice becomes translucent and pour the wine into the pan. Let the wine mainly evaporate and then also make some ladles of vegetable stock additions. Let the risotto simmer under the lid, but remember to stir often and to add more vegetable stock when needed.

Grate the cheese. I used the wonderful Sussex Charmer, an English hard cheese, but any vegetarian hard cheese is fine. Add the cheese to the risotto and season it with the parsley, salt and pepper. Also add more white wine or butter if needed.

When your squash is roasted, take it out of the oven and scoop some of the squash out in order to make a squash ”bowl” with approximately 0,5cm edges. Stir these scooped squash pieces into the risotto.

Once the risotto is done al dente, stuff the squash bowls with it and sprinkle some extra cheese on the top. Bake the stuffed squashes at 180C for about 20 minutes.

Serve hot. This is quite a fun dish to eat as you get to eat the bowl as well.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Vegan liquorice panna cotta

If you have read my blog before, you might already have seen my praises for liquorice, especially for salty liquorice salmiak. I absolutely adore these spicy sweets and frequently make desserts and alcoholic beverages with them.

Today I combine salmiak with smooth and creamy panna cotta, which makes a perfect combination for a nice dessert. And this is not all, my dear readers, this dessert is vegan as I substituted cream with oat cream! Panna cotta is one of my favourite puddings, but I have never had it quite like this.

50ml liquorice extraxt (+ little more for the topping)

500ml oat cream

1dl jelly sugar, sugar containing pectin

1tsp vanilla sugar

Tyrkisk Peber crush or other liquorice crush (optional)

Mix the oat cream, jelly sugar, vanilla sugar and the liquorice extract and quickly boil the ingredients for about 30 seconds. 

If you don't have jelly sugar, you can try this also with regular sugar and vege gel, vegetarian gelatine, combination. Prepare the veggie gelatine according to the instructions on the packet and add it to the mix before setting.

Pour the mixture into serving bowls of your choice and let them set for at least 3 hours in the fridge.

When the panna cotta has set, pour little bit liquorice extract, or liquorice extract with icing sugar, on the top and sprinkle Tyrkisk Peber crush on the desserts.

Then enjoy the party in your mouth!

Your VegHog

Baby vegetable pasta

I made an easy weekday dish and called it the Baby vegetable pasta as all the vegetables in there are the small baby variations. I am quite fond of all sort of miniature vegetables and this time the baby round courgettes caught my eye in the shop. They are just too cute, and some are even more intense or sweet in flavour. To add a little bit of excitement to this pasta dish I also added some fried halloumi dices.

Ingredients:

350g baby round courgettes

225g baby plum tomatoes

200g baby spinach

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

250g halloumi

Salt

Pepper

Nutmeg

Fresh basil

Lemon juice

Pappardelle pasta

Olive oil

Vegetable oil (for frying the halloumi)

Method:

Dice the halloumi and heat some vegetable oil in a small pan. Fry the halloumi dices separately until they are golden brown. Set to side as they will be added to the main pan later.

Slice the courgettes into smaller pieces and chop the shallots and garlic cloves finely. Then heat some olive oil in a larger pan and sweat the shallots and add the courgettes and garlic after a while. Heat for a few minutes and then add the tomatoes and the spinach leaves. There is no need to chop the tomatoes as they will become saucy once heated enough.

Simmer everything at moderate heat for about 10 minutes and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, basil and lemon juice. Add the halloumi dices as well.

Boil the pasta in salt water until al dente and mix it with the vegetables. And there you have a nice simple pasta with many vegetables and a halloumi twist.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Jack Ratt Vintage Dry Cider

I thought it was time to write a little drink review again as it has been a while since the last one. I really want to introduce one of my favourite British dry ciders to you: Jack Ratt Vintage Dry Cider by The Lyme Bay Winery.

They make a few Jack Ratt cider variations, which are truly authentic West Country ciders and even award winning British ciders. I have so far tried Jack Ratt Vintage Dry Cider and Jack Ratt Scrumpy Cider and I like both of them very much.

The Jack Ratt Vintage Dry Cider normally comes in whimsically shaped bottles, slightly old fashioned cider jugs, or huge canisters. I like it for its fruity yet dry apple taste. It's a perfect drink for autumn and winter nights. Unfortunately it's sometimes a little bit difficult to find in regular shops.

Have some pleasant cider drinking moments!

Your VegHog

Tomato and olive spelt crust pizza

To celebrate my 200^th blog post I decided to dedicate it to a wonderful favourite of mine, a vegetarian thin crust pizza. I wanted to reach the 200 post mark this year and it looks like there will be a few more to come as we are approaching the main eating season of the year. One thing is very clear to me, I certainly wouldn't have the strength and enthusiasm to do this without you, my dear readers. So thank you so much for reading, commenting and trying out the recipes, you are the best!

On to today's recipe: I made a juicy tomato and olive pizza on a spelt crust. The olives I used had a hint of lemon and I would recommend you to add little lemon juice if you can't get hold of such lemony olives. Unlike to my regular habits I didn't make a tomato sauce for this pizza, but covered the crust with great local selected tomatoes and huge basil leaves.

The crust:

14g dry yeast

200g wheat flour

200g spelt flour

350ml warm water

2tsp salt

3tbsp olive oil

The topping:

Selected tomatoes

Fresh basil

Mozzarella

Green olives

Ground black pepper

Make the spelt crust first. I normally prefer either half spelt or half rye crusts instead of crusts fully made of wheat flour. Mix the dry ingredients together and add the warm water. Knead it to an even dough and add olive oil. Then knead for a while further and let it rest under a tea towel for about 40 minutes.

In the meanwhile slice the tomatoes and grate the mozzarella. As you will notice, this pizza doesn't need much work at all.

When the dough has risen enough, roll it into a thin crust. Place the basil leaves, cheese, tomatoes and olives on it and grind some black pepper on the top. I would normally put the cheese on the top, but this time I placed it under the tomatoes and olives, which was a very good choice for this particular style of pizza.

Bake the pizza at 200C for about 10-15 minutes until the crust is crispy and the cheese melted and golden brown. Serve the pizza with good wine and enjoy.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Vegetable chili

A spicy chili made with a variety of vegetables is a great dish, especially for this time of the year. It doesn't require much technical skill, you can just let it simmer and only need to remember to stir sometimes. I used black beans as the main component, and to make the chili even simpler I chose to use the canned ones. I like to serve my chili with rice to get a neutral taste to balance the spiciness out.

This is how to make a vegetable chili.

2 bell peppers

4 onions

2 cloveless garlics

800g black beans (2 cans)

140g tomato puree

450g santini tomatoes

1 yellow chili

Juice of one lime

Fresh coriander leaves

2tsp paprika

2tsp cumin

1tsp cocoa powder

1tbsp vegetable stock powder

1tsp salt

Olive oil

100g red leicester cheese

1 cup rice

First of all chop the bell peppers, chili, onion and garlic and heat some olive oil in a suitable large pot. Fry the onion until soft, then add the garlic, chili and peppers and fry for another minute or two. Add the cumin, paprika, cocoa powder, black beans, tomato puree and tomatoes to the mix.

Let it simmer under the lid at moderate heat for about 20 minutes and stir occasionally. At some point start boiling the rice as well.

Season the chili with the juice of a lime, vegetable stock powder and salt. Taste to check whether the seasoning is right for you.

When the chili is almost done, add the fresh coriander leaves and the grated cheese. Serve hot with the rice.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Vegetarian cheesy oven sausages

This dish took me back in time to Finland of the 1980s and I want to take you there with me. I remember this honest and basic classic well from my childhood and now I have created a vegetarian version of it. This is a recipe for oven sausages with cheese served with potato mash. I really love it and sometimes it's just the best thing after a hard working day, especially in the autumn and winter! This is also a great dish for kids.

Sausages:

6 Lincolnshire vegetarian sausages or any other veggie sausages of your choice

Some hearty cheese slices, I used Emmental cheese

Mash:

Potatoes

Milk

Butter

Salt

Side relish:

1 red onion

1 yellow romano pepper

1 garlic clove

Pine nuts

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Prepare the potato mash as usual by boiling the potatoes soft, mashing them and adding little milk, butter and salt. This makes a lovely smooth mash. As decoration and extra flavour I sprinkled my nettle salt on the top for serving.

While the potatoes are boiling heat the oven to 180C. Make a few cuts across the sausages and place cheese slices into the cuts. Bake for about 20 minutes until the sausages are done and cheese has melted and partly crispy.

The side relish can be prepared in parallel. Slice the onion and pepper and chop the garlic. Heat a small pan and first roast the pine nuts in the dry pan until they develop a nice roasted flavour. Then set the pine nuts to side and add olive oil into the pan. Slowly sweat the onion and pepper rings at moderate heat until they reach a slightly sweet flavour. Later add the garlic and the pine nuts and season with salt and pepper. A fresh simple salad also goes well with this dish, if you don't want to make this relish.

Serve all these components together and enjoy!

Your VegHog