Vegan Flemish inspired stew

My partner loves eating stews, especially the ones that contain beer. So I had to give in and make such a dish again, and I wasn't disappointed myself either, as this was a really nice and warming vegan winter dish. It may look a bit rustic, but it was full of flavour.

A rich and malty dark Belgian beer is the best for this dish. Hoppy beers or wheat beer wouldn't work in this dish, so I decided to use Gouden Carolus Classic, which was pretty much the perfect choice. This is a vegan stew with otherwise basic ingredients so it's perfect for economical eating as well. My cheap eats week is over, but it doesn't harm to make more economical cooking choices.

Vegan Flemish inspired stew

Ingredients

Vegetable oil

3 medium onions

Pinch of salt

400 g small potatoes

1 large carrot

2 cloves garlic

150 ml dark Belgian beer

1 tbsp vegetable stock extract or to taste

1 large bay leaf

Couple of grinds of black pepper

1 tsp dried thyme

½ cup dried broad bean crunch

Method

Chop the onions into half moons and caramelise them in the vegetable oil with the pinch of salt. Let them caramelise under the lid until they are very soft and brown. Stir every 5-10 minutes.

Chop the potatoes into chunks. I leave the peels on, but you can peel if you prefer.

Chop the carrot into fine slices and the garlic finely.

Add the carrots and the garlic and fry for a minute or two, and then add the beer.

Stir and cook off the alcohol for a couple of minutes, then add the potatoes.

Cover the potatoes with water or vegetable stock. I added water and then the vegetable stock extract.

Add the bay leaf, black pepper and thyme.

Let it lightly boil under the lid until the potatoes cooked and melting in the mouth. Stir occasionally while it's cooking.

Add the broad bean crunch to the stew and let it cook until done. Alternatively soy mince or beans can be used.

Once all the flavours have blended nicely after the slow cooking, serve the dish.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Rice and soya pasties

Here is a quick veggie pasty post before I start preparing tonight's dinner. I love slow cooking on a Sunday and spend quite a few hours in the kitchen. I stream either a TV programme or listen to music while I'm at it. I often also have a few sips of refreshing cider and try not to think of the approaching Monday. So today I'm going to make the same dish again that I posted a few weeks back, Braised cauliflower, roast potatoes and beurre blanc. I liked it so much, it's rich and comforting, which makes it perfect for a winter Sunday dinner.

But now to the pasties. Veggie pasties are very tasty and perfect snacks for any occasion. This time I chose a rice, soya mince and carrot mix as the filling. I used a purple carrot, an orange carrot and red camargue rice, which made the filling quite vibrant and interesting looking. These pasties were tasty too and I will soon make some more. 

4 large rice and soya pasties

Ingredients

1/3 cup red camargue rice

1/3 cup dried soya mince

1 onion

2 carrots

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp liquid smoke

320 g puff pastry

Method

Cook the rice and soya mince separately in water.

Chop the onion, carrot and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil.

Season the mix after the rice and soya mince have also been mixed in.

Wrap the filling in puff pastry pockets and bake at 200 C for about 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Mexican dirty potatoes

Are you also seeing dirty fries on so many menus? I have only a few times seen a vegetarian version of these loaded fries and find them quite tasty and a nice change from the usual. I guess vegetarian dirty fries can be loaded with cheese, chilli, different vegetables and dips, anything basically that would go in that combo.

I was somewhat inspired by the “dirtiness” of the fries for this vegan roast potato dish. I stole the name from the fries, even though these weren't fries, but potatoes anyway. So I made roast potatoes with a Mexican twist by adding some pepper, black beans, sweetcorn and the typical Mexican spices. 

Mexican dirty potatoes

Ingredients

400 g potatoes

Olive oil for roasting

1 large red romano pepper

1 large onion

3 garlic cloves

1 small chilli

1 can black beans

1 small can sweetcorn

2 tsp smoked chilli paste

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

1 tsp smoked paprika

Sprinkle of salt

Fresh coriander (optional)

Method

Cut the potatoes into quarters or smaller pieces and cook them in water for about 15 minutes. Then place them into a baking tray with olive oil. Roast at 200 C for about 40 minutes.

Prep the rest of the ingredients in the meanwhile: chop the pepper, onion, garlic and chilli. Add the pepper first to the potatoes and roast for about 10 minutes. After that time also add the beans, sweetcorn, chilli, garlic and onion.

Roast for about 40 minutes more. I covered the dish for the first 20 minutes with foil, but that's optional. I just thought that without a foil the dish may dry out too much.

Mix the smoked chilli paste, ground cumin, ground coriander, smoked paprika and salt with a dash of olive oil and water to make a liquid paste. Season the contents of the oven dish with the seasoning paste and return to the oven for a few minutes until the flavours have blended in nicely.

You can serve this with some nice fragrant fresh coriander, or even a bit of grated cheese, if you want to have a non-vegan version.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Vegan Valentine

Will you be my vegan Valentine? Haha, I'm just having a bit of fun, I'm not really one for Valentine's Day. In Finland it's known as friends' day, Ystävänpäivä, which I find somewhat better. So I want to wish all my readers a very happy friends' day!

Somehow the season gripped me anyway, and I made some “romantic” lunchboxes for my partner and me containing beetroot coloured onigiri hearts made from sushi rice and some fresh vegetables and a spicy chilli-soy-sesameoil-dip. It was all presented in the style of a bento box. I cooked the sushi rice with a few beetroot bits in the pot in order to colour it red. I also added a umeboshi paste centre to the hearts, just a little bit, in order to have a spicy zing inside.

How are you spending Valentine's Day? Do you have any food traditions for it?

Your VegHog

The VegHog's Cheap Eats Week 2017 Round Up

This week was The VegHog's Cheap Eats Week 2017, which has now finally come to its end. I've been following my money spending more closely and trying to cook in a more economical way. I've been trying to utilise many things from my dry cupboard and using seasonal vegetables for cooking. I think that planning is key when you want to save money. I made a weekly cooking plan and stuck to it, used what I already had, used left-overs whenever possible etc. It wasn't difficult to do, so I'm wondering why I'm sometimes so lazy to plan properly, which often leads to food waste. I will try to be better now in any case, as I have a big project to save for, but I still don't want to blog less or let the quality slip. We will see how it goes, thankfully vegetarian cooking isn't too expensive in any case.

This week I also called for my fellow food bloggers to take part and share their money saving recipes, and here are the lovely entries I received.

Laura posted a recipe for Chickpeas & veggies soup with rainbow salad. She also told how her taste buds have changed with the time, as as a child she couldn't stand a vinegar addition to her soup, which her parents used to do, but now she really likes it. This soup contains a lot of veggies, carrots, parsnip, broccoli with chickpeas and pasta. Sounds like a really wholesome veggie soup and I wouldn't mind trying that vinegar addition either. The salad is also wonderfully colourful and healthy. Those root vegetables and cabbage are really economical and so versatile.

Shaheen shared a Cinnamon Spice Butternut Squash and Chickpea Curry. This dish is great for cheap eats, as you can make a bigger bowl and heat it up on several days and stretch by adding some rice on the side. That's always a very clever money and time saving way of cooking. Also the ingredients are on the economical side. I like to cook a lot with chickpeas and seasonal squashes, as that tends to be quite cheap. This is a mild curry with lots of warming spices, and I really like the look of that cinnamon quill in the bowl. A chickpea curry of some sort is already on my planner for next week.

Thank you so much for these entries Laura and Shaheen, I'm so happy about both of them. I currently have so many bags of dried chickpeas in the cupboard and needed a bit of inspiration for them, so these dishes are just perfect to try.

I hope you have enjoyed the Cheap Eats Week, which will probably return next year. Have a pleasant Sunday!

Your VegHog

Tomato alphabet soup

The VegHog's Cheap Eats Week 2017 ends today and I will be posting a round up later today. I just wanted to quickly squeeze this tomato alphabet soup recipe in, as it's cheap to make and very filling. I always like the look of the alphabet pasta and should be using it more. It's kind of a gloomy Sunday over here, as this weekend has been quite chilly. It's just the right weather for soups and stews, so that's very suitable for cheap eats. You can make this soup by adding alphabet pasta to any tomato soup, but I wrote the recipe down below, how I made my tomato soup this time. I used a bit more tomato purée than usual in order to be saving on the fresh tomatoes.

Tomato alphabet soup

Ingredients

1 cup alphabet pasta

300 g vine tomatoes

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

100 ml tomato purée

2 tbsp vegetable stock powder

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Fresh basil leaves

Method

Cook the alphabet pasta separately in water until done.

Chop the tomatoes coarsely and the garlic finely. Cook the garlic in olive oil for a couple of minutes and add the tomatoes. Then also add the tomato purée, vegetable stock powder, the seasoning and some water and let the soup simmer under lid for at least 30 minutes.

Add the pasta to the soup and cook for a few minutes more. Mix the fresh basil in just before serving.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Rice and bean tacos

Here is a Mexican inspired recipe for The VegHog's Cheap Eats Week 2017. Mexican style veggie dishes don't have to be expensive, as long as you keep a certain staple of spices in your kitchen. Then it's easy to get creative with the vegetables that you have available and create tasty and affordable dishes.

This frugal recipe is easy to customise depending what canned beans and fresh vegetables you have available to use. I combined here some black beans, sweetcorn, onions, cheese and rice. It was an excellent filling for soft tacos and so nutritious. These also make a great work lunch, you'll really look forward to your break even more, if these are waiting for you.

Rice and bean tacos

Ingredients

1 cup brown and red camargue rice mix

2 onions

4 garlic cloves

1 small chilli

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large can black beans

1 small can sweetcorn

Ground cumin to taste

Ground coriander to taste

Smoked paprika to taste

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

1 tsp smoked chilli paste

150 g grated Cheddar

8 soft tortillas

Fresh cherry tomatoes (optional)

Lime (optional)

Method

Cook the rice separately until done.

Chop the onions, garlic and chilli finely and first start cooking the onion in the oil until soft and slightly browned. Then add the garlic and chilli.

After a while also add the beans and sweetcorn followed by the seasoning. Mix in also the cooked rice.

Let simmer and mix in the cheese just before filling the tortillas with the rice and bean mix.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog