Zucchini, tomato and pepper spelt risotto

When I was writing about my balcony gardening yesterday, I started thinking the lovely veg I'm trying to grow and got an instant inspiration for this recipe. I'm currently growing all the main vegetables that are in this dish (peppers, tomatoes and zucchini), and with some luck can cook this same dish from own produce later in the summer. This is again just an easy pearled spelt risotto, but the making of it is such fun – I'd really want you to try it! I love the texture of pearled spelt and the taste is great as well.

2 yellow romano peppers

100g cherry vine tomatoes

1 zucchini

1 shallot

3 garlic cloves

1tbsp olive oil

25g butter

1-1,5 cups pearled spelt

150ml white wine

1l vegetable stock

50g Sussex Charmer cheese

A few fresh basil leaves

1tsp salt

1tsp ground black pepper

Warm the vegetable stock up at moderate heat.

Chop the peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, shallot and garlic finely.

Cook the shallot and garlic in olive oil until soft and then add the peppers, and soon after the zucchini and tomatoes. Cook for a while longer so that the juices start flowing.

Add butter to the pan and stir in the pearled spelt. Let the spelt absorb the liquid for a moment and then pour in the white wine. Let the wine evaporate and add some of the warm vegetable stock to the pan and let it simmer at low heat under lid. Make sure that the pan doesn't get dry at any time, so keep stirring and adding vegetable stock.

When the spelt in cooked, add the seasoning and grated cheese. Add any seasoning or butter or white wine more, if you prefer.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Urban gardening in May

I have the feeling that my plants are growing slower this year, but I guess it has been a quite chilly spring here in England. I just hope that there would be a little more warmth and sun for the plants, as I would love to have a tasty crops again this year. The small space available on the balcony will be a challenge once again. I've been trying to be creative when accommodating all the plants there, but some of the outdoor plants are still dwelling inside due to the limited space.

Here's an update of what's mainly going on at the moment on my balcony.

An overground radish is growing also an underground radish... and leaves for radish pesto.

The tomato plants are growing nicely, and I have a few of these this year.

Will there be a small crops of purple carrots, will there, will there..?

How are your urban gardens doing? It would be lovely to hear about your experiences.

Your VegHog

Sea-buckthorn bread

Sea-buckthorn is the healthiest berry I know, a real super berry, and it's taste is very interesting. I've been looking for a sea-buckthorn bread recipe since I bought some ground dried sea-buckthorn powder in Finland, and finally I've found an idea here that I wanted to try out. The sea-buckthorn berry powder adds a really nice flavour to this bread, and I must say that this is one of my absolute favourites. I changed the recipe a little bit, so here is my version of it.

Recipe for 2 loaves

500 ml water

50 ml melted butter

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp dry yeast (about 1 small bag)

8-9 dl bread flour

3 dl stoneground oatmeal

0,5 dl sea-buckthorn powder

Mix the dry ingredients, melt the butter and heat the water lukewarm. Add the butter, water and syrup into the dry ingredients and knead into and even bread dough. Add more flour or liquid, if the texture isn't satisfactory.

Let the dough raise for about 15 minutes under a tea towel. Then shape it into 2 loaves of bread or into smaller rolls. Let them rest under a tea towel and double the size.

Sprinkle a little water on the top and bake the breads at 220C for about 20-25 minutes (depending on the size).

Let them cool a little and then enjoy with butter and cheese, or save some for later.

Your VegHog

Homemade vegetarian sausages

I'm quite fond of veggie sausages, and for a while now I've been planning to make a homemade vegetarian sausage variation. Now I finally got into experimenting with my own sausage mix and method. I wanted to make very savoury sausages and serve them with a hearty meal, potato mash was a must, and I think that the result was rather good. I made a similar mix to a nut roast, which means that you can also bake these ingredients as a nut loaf, if you prefer.

Here is my first ever own veggie sausage recipe, which makes about six veggie sausages.

Ingredients

2 large carrots

2 parsnips

25g dried porcini mushrooms

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

240g cooked and peeled chestnuts

50g grated cheddar

1tsp salt

½tsp ground black pepper

1tsp thyme

1tsp vegetable stock powder

1tbsp soy sauce

Breadcrumbs for binding the mix

Method

Peel and chop coarsely the carrots and parsnips, and then boil them in water until soft and mash. Soak the crushed porcini mushrooms in water for about 10 minutes. Cook the finely chopped shallots and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add the drained porcini and the seasoning to the pan.

Combine the carrot and parsnip mash with the shallots, and add the grated cheese and the mashed chestnuts. Mix everything and add breadcrumbs depending on the moistness of the sausage mix. I added about one cup of breadcrumbs in order to get a firm sausage mix. Then let the mix cool down fully in case some ingredients are still warm after cooking.

Cut small sheets (about 20x20cm) from baking paper and aluminium foil. Wrap parts of the mix in sausage shape first in baking paper and then foil, close the wrapping around the ends. Place them on a baking tray and bake at 180C for about 45 minutes. The sausages will be fairly soft when cooked in this fashion, so if you wish to have a crunchier sausage surface, open the foil and baking paper parcels after about 30 minutes of baking.

Serve the sausages with a side salad, potato mash and onion gravy. I also served some mini leeks fried in butter on the side. Enjoy the filling meal!

Your VegHog

Lentil and watercress salad

I'm still keeping the French theme up, as I again got some inspiration from The French Market Cookbook by Clotilde Dusoulier, and today's recipe will be the tasty Crunchy lentil and watercress salad – Salade croquante de lentilles et cresson (Please also have a look here at my take on Clotilde's other salad recipe). 

I cut a couple of corners here, impatient as I am, but the salad ended up being a nice fresh, crunchy and spicy spring salad. This recipe makes enough salad for four people, as the ingredients are quite filling.

Ingredients

Salad:

1 cup green dried lentils

1 shallot

1 bay leaf

200g radishes

200g watercress

8 fresh mint leaves

20g fresh chives

Dressing:

2tbsp olive oil

1tbsp cider vinegar

1tsp honey

1tsp ground mustard seeds

Ground black pepper

Sea salt

Method

Rinse and cook the lentils in water with the bay leaf and finely chopped shallot for about 20 minutes until tender. Remove the water and let the lentils cool.

Chop the radishes into small cubes, and also chop the mint and chives finely.

Mix the dressing ingredients together and add it to the salad just before serving.

Combine all the components and serve the salad cool.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Le Grenier de Notre-Dame in Paris

Le Grenier de Notre-Dame is a pretty little vegetarian restaurant in Paris. It's located in a very convenient place, just on the opposite riverbank of the Seine to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. 

We were quite lucky to get a table when we arrived there at lunch time. They had to send some customers away that came after us as the restaurant was full. The restaurant is very cosy and nicely decorated with plants, just what you would expect from a Parisian veggie restaurant. 

There were many tempting dishes on the menu, but I decided to have Les spaghettis a l'ail et au fromage – organic brun pasta fried with fresh garlic and emmental cheese. My friend had a polenta dish with seasonal vegetables. There was crusty bread and a small salad also served on the side. The portion size was huge, which made a hungry traveller very happy indeed, and it wasn't expensive. Adding a little bit wine with that, I was very delighted about this meal.

We even managed to handle the whole ordering in French (easier in a veggie place as you can't order anything meaty by accident), but I'm sure that the staff speak English as well.

Go and visit them, if you ever happen to be near by!

Votre hérisson des légumes

Tomato and herb tartelettes

I went to a serene Saturday stroll in New Forest yesterday, and I baked these easy tartelettes in the morning to be taken with as a snack. They really tasted extra special among ponies in a beautiful weather. I want to share a few photos I took there with you.

Now to my recipe that makes about 24 tartelettes. I used my colourful silicone muffin cases that my mum has bought me for the baking.

Ingredients

600g puff pastry sheets

About 24 small tomatoes (1 per case)

100g cheddar

100g mozzarella

3 shallots

2 garlic cloves

A handful of fresh basil leaves

1tsp oregano

1tsp sea salt

½tsp ground black pepper

1tbsp olive oil

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Chop the shallots and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil briefly until soft. Add the oregano, salt and pepper to the pan. Grate the cheese and roll out the puff pastry thinly, unless you're using already rolled out pastry.

Cut small circles from the pastry with a round cookie cutter, so that when pressed to the muffin case, it rises up and fills out the bottom and the sides; each pastry circle therefore needs to be a little larger than the bottom of the muffin case. First put some of the shallot mix onto the bottom of each case. Then place a single tomato in the middle and fill the cup with the grated cheeses and basil. I chopped the basil leaves coarsely and mixed them with the grated cheese before filling the cases.

Bake at 180C for about 15 minutes. These tartelettes can be enjoyed straight away or even as a cold canapé later on.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog