Blood orange and radish salad with coriander

Finally weekend although the weather is pretty gloomy, but maybe this colourful salad can cheer up a bit. I was again reading in The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit and this is another flavour combination recommendation for coriander leaves: oranges, radishes and onion. Instantly when I read about the combination, I wanted to make such a salad. And as it happens I still have blood oranges left, so it was perfect. Is the blood orange season maybe a bit longer this year? I'm not sure, but I was able to get quite a few of them this year, possibly also due to my hoarding. This salad was very vibrant, punchy and healthy and the flavours really did compliment each other very well.

Here's how I made the salad as a light lunch:

3 blood oranges

Handful of radish

¼ sweet onion

Handful of fresh coriander leaves

Slice the blood oranges and radishes.

Chop the onion finely.

Mix everything together and scatter coriander leaves on the top.

Enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with this month's No Croutons Required cooking challenge hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes and co-hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen. I will probably be making more and more salads now when the fresh spring produce properly hits the shops.

Enjoy your weekend!

Your VegHog

Udon noodles in peanut sauce with tofu and broccoli

I made a comforting bowl of thick udon noodles in peanut sauce served with firmly fried tofu and steamed broccoli. I got the idea for this dish from The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit, as there was a description of the flavour combination of coriander leaf and peanut. I have to say that coriander really did add something nice to this dish and broccoli was a nice addition too.

This was a surprisingly fast and uncomplicated weekday dish and I will surely be refining this recipe further. Next time I'll probably try smaller tofu pieces and smaller broccoli florets mixed straight into the noodles. I will also try to this with other veggies.

So here's my vegan recipe of today:

Ingredients

300 g tofu

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3 garlic cloves

3 cm ginger

Handful of peanuts

Sprinkle of chilli flakes

Splash of soy sauce

Splash of toasted sesame oil

3 tbsp peanut butter

Fresh coriander

200 g udon noodles

1 broccoli

Method

Chop the garlic and ginger finely and peel the peanuts.

Cut the tofu into large pieces and fry them in vegetable oil until firm and golden brown.

Cut the broccoli into florets and steam them.

Cook the noodles in water.

Start frying the garlic and ginger in a pan and after a while add the peanuts.

Add the chilli flakes, a splash of soy sauce, a splash of toasted sesame oil and peanut butter.

Once these have made a nice sauce, also add the udon noodles to the pan and season with fresh coriander.

Serve all components together and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Salad plate with hummus

How has your week started? Do you have any healthy eating plans for this week? Nice variable salad plates have been much of my favourites recently and therefore here is just a quick salad plate post for Monday with the cheerful colours. This sort of plates can be easily put together after a long day at work and they are tasty and filling. I was very happy that I found kohlrabi again, that's always a highlight for me. Otherwise I went with my standard favourites here.

The components on today's plate are:

• hummus
• carrot sticks
• kohlrabi sticks
• olives
• aged Havarti cheese
• baguette
• pea shoots
• tomatoes
• lettuce

What are your favourites for such veggie plates?

Your VegHog

Thai red curry with tofu and coquina squash

Are you all having a nice and relaxing Sunday? I certainly hope so. I've been a bit stressed at times today, trying to plant things on the balcony, cooking, dreading tomorrow's working day etc, but it's not that bad. Now I've sat down with a can of craft cider and am planning to chill for the rest of the evening. I also wanted to share a vegan recipe still with you tonight.

Thai red curry with tofu, what a wonderful wonderful thing! I just love it and now made one myself.

I used red bell peppers, carrots and a coquina squash as vegetables in this curry and it was a very nice combination with the fragrant Thai red curry paste. Then the chewy tofu, coconut cream and fresh coriander, ah just beautiful. Here's my recipe.

Thai red curry paste:

2 onions

4 cloves garlic

2 large red chillies

1 cm fresh ginger

3 kaffir lime leaves

1 lemongrass stalk

Juice of ½ lime

Pinch of smoked paprika

Pinch of ground turmeric

Handful of Thai basil

Handful of fresh coriander

Other curry ingredients:

250 g tofu

1+1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 red bell pepper

1 small coquina squash or ½ of a large one

2 purple carrots

1 tsp palm sugar

160 ml coconut cream

2 tsp vegetable stock powder

Thai basil to taste

Fresh coriander to taste

Soy sauce to taste

1 cup jasmine rice

Method:

Make the Thai red curry paste first by puréeing the paste ingredients together.

Cut the tofu into chunky cubes and fry them in hot vegetable oil until firm.

Chop also the vegetables into cubes and start cooking them in vegetable oil.

Add the palm sugar and the red curry paste and keep cooking for a few minutes more.

Add the coconut cream, lemongrass stalks, vegetable stock powder and let simmer until the vegetables are cooked nicely.

Season the curry with soy sauce, Thai basil and coriander to taste. Also sprinkle some more lime juice on the top, if needed.

Cook the jasmine rice and serve it together with the curry.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Copenhagen Street Food

Copenhagen Street Food was a new place for me to visit and I'm so glad we went there. We ended up going a second time during our visit as the atmosphere and the food were so great and unique. Copenhagen Street Food is a collection of street food trucks and stands in a large hall on the Papirøen island between beautiful canals. The setting is amazing first of all and there are seats and tables outside as well to take all the scenery in and to relax. You can even sit by an open fire and spend time with your friends.

The hall is very quirky inside as well with all the different stands offering international food and drink. There were also a fair bit of really good vegetarian and vegan options: soups, pizza, pasta, Colombian veggie food, falafel, rice paper rolls, juices etc. It's a shame that we couldn't taste all of them. There also were a few bars serving beers and cocktails. All in all the selection was very proud and there was a real buzz around the place.

I was tempted by many vegetarian options, but first of all chose to go to Il Mattarello, who make organic fresh pasta portions. The first dish, pasta pomodoro with organic tomato sauce, oregano garlic and bread crumbs, was so tasty that I had to go back the next day. Then I had a similar tomato spaghetti dish with the addition of stracciatella cheese, a variety of soft stretched-curd Italian buffalo cheese. It was truly exquisite and the two entrepreneurs are so nice that it's a joy to eat their food and have a little chat. I was trying to convince my partner that we'd still be a little hungry and could get seconds, but he was right that it would've been too much. This only means that we'll have to return to them!

As a conclusion I can only say, do go there, if you're in Copenhagen, this place should be on every foodie's agenda.

Your VegHog

Easter in Finland

I got home from work unexpectedly a little bit earlier today and it makes all the difference so that I already can post about the first part of my holiday, which was Easter in Finland. I didn't want to drag this post out too long either so I'm glad that I got to write it now. I haven't spent Easter at home in Finland for many many years, not since 1997, if my memory doesn't fail me. Therefore it was nice to go there this time of the year and I really do like Easter as a holiday. We spent Easter with my family relaxing and eating a lot vegetarian food and desserts.

The most exciting thing was that the ice started leaving the river while we were there and this is sometimes a real spectacle in the parts where I come from. The moving ice can take bridges with it on its way out. This time it wasn't quite that dramatic, but it was nice to look at nevertheless. The weather changed fully while we were there going from snowy to muddy within a few days. It was white Easter (there was more snow than at Christmas...). All in all the weather was quite warm throughout, probably more so than in the UK, which is always nice when there's still snow around.

Luckily for us the distillery bar of the Kyrö Distillery Company was open and we got to taste some new drinks again. They were all amazing, featuring ingredients like sea buckthorn and marsh Labrador tea mixed with the excellent whisky and gin by the distillery. It's always a pleasure to visit.

Here are some photos from the trip, I hope you'll like them. The first ones were taken just when leaving Gatwick airport and England was looking quite pretty and green. I always enjoy when there are clear views through the plane window. One of the photos is a new Finnish bread sort featuring vegetables. The one in the photo is a beetroot-carrot one and they also had a parsnip-carrot variation. Both were very good, especially toasted. I will soon post some Copenhagen posts as well.

Lebanese rice, tahini cauliflower and roasted carrots

Finally it has been a bit warmer and sunny, but I've been quite busy this week, as usual after returning from holiday and therefore unable to really enjoy the weather. I will probably only be able to take a closer look at my holiday photos on the weekend, some of which I'm keen to share with you. So don't worry, there will be something more about the holiday sooner or later. Today's post is just a quick meal recommendation for nice vegan feasts.

This dish and similar ones have been great favourites of mine this past winter and I'm probably going to continue to cook them in the spring as well: Lebanese rice with vermicelli served with a tahini cauliflower bake. This time I also added some roasted carrots to the dish and also a roasted garlic head. It was really very very nice.

I have already posted similar recipes previously, so have a look here for the Roasted cauliflower in tahini sauce and here for the Lebanese rice with vermicelli. What do you think, is this something you would like to eat? Believe me, it's very tasty and yet simple to make!

Have further a nice week!

Your VegHog