All posts tagged: pumpkin

Spaghetti squash with pearl couscous and tempeh and chicory salad

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Have you tried spaghetti squash? It’s such a funny vegetable. It looks like a pumpkin, but when prepared, you don’t have ‘chunks’ of pumpkin, but spaghetti like strings. I haven’t seen spaghetti squash much in regular stores in Belgium (they were available at Horeca Totaal when we last visited), but if you have a vegetable garden, you can of course grow them yourself! So we did, and we had a plentifull pumpkin harvest last Summer. The spaghetti pumpkins are the long shaped yellow ones in the middle. We had 8 or 9 spaghetti pumpkins in total! preparing spaghetti squash Preheat oven to 220°. Remove stalk from spaghetti squash. Cut squash in half (either way is ok). Remove the seeds and the middle soft part. Put 2cm water (small 1 inch) in an oven tray. Place the halves in the oven dish, with the open side down. With a fork, pinch some holes in the spaghetti squash. Cover with alu foil. Put in oven for 30 to 40 minutes (the older the pumpkin, the longer it requires. For a pumpkin that was several …

Tofu croquettes with pearl couscous, beans and kuri pumpkin

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These tofu croquettes are from Abinda, a company making organic vegetarian products, located no so far from Bruges in Oostkamp. I visited their factory in 2011, you can see a review from that visit on my Dutch blog here. Many of Abinda’s products are vegan. Their products are commonly sold in organic shops across Belgium. You can see the ingredients of the tofu croquettes here. Preparation of the tofucroquetes is very easy, just fry them for a couple of minutes and they are ready. These tofu croquettes are nice and crunchy, but I would like them to be a bit more creamy on the inside to make them even better. This time I served them with pearl couscous, azuki beans and uchiki kuri pumpkin from my garden topped with Mediterranean spices! Abinda tofu croquettes, 1 pack with 9 croquettes (=225g), fridge bought at Biovita Bruges, March 2015 5,54€

#30 Di Coylde, Beernem ***

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Restaurant review #30 – Di Coylde is a more upstyle restaurant in Beernem, with a traditional cuisine (meat and fish menus). Beernem is about 13km from Bruges. In 2013, we asked whether a vegan menu is possible for two persons, but got a negative reply. Hence, restaurant Di Coylde is not included in our list of restos outside Bruges where vegans are welcome. A couple of weeks ago, we had a brainstorm day at work, with lunch for all of us planned at restaurant Di Coylde. The organisers listed everyone’s preferences for lunch (fish, meat, vegetarian or vegan – that’s for me, since I’m the only vegan at work 😉 ) and forwarded this list to the restaurant. This is the vegan menu that I got at Di Coylde: tomato and courgette crisp green herb soup (unspecified) butternut soup with fennel and mushrooms couscous with grilled vegetables lemon sorbet with mandarines, nuts, raisins and apricots     The food was nice, but it was no gastronomical masterpiece. It started promising, with the appetizer and the soup, although these were very small portions. The waitress …

Stuffed pumpkin with quinoa and beans

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As you can see in one of our previous posts, we have plenty of pumpkins from our garden. One of the varieties is “sweet dumpling“, and as the name suggest, it’s much sweeter than other pumpkins (like hokaidos or butternuts). The sweet dumpling pumpkins are also much smaller than the others (about the size of a very large orange) and ideal for stuffing. Fresh from the garden, you can also eat the peel of this squash. But these were already a bit older, so we didn’t eat the peel. This recipe was inspiration of the moment. Homemade in The Bruges Vegan’s kitchen! Stuffed sweet dumpling squash with quinoa and beans, served with baked mushrooms and sweet potato (vegan) Ingredients serves 2 persons 2 to 3 tablespoons peanut oil about 125g mushrooms (half of a small tray) 3 medium sized sweet potatoes (bataat) 2 sweet dumplings 1 can (400g) beans – eg red beans, borlotti, … 1 cup red quinoa 1 clove garlic, grated 1/4 teaspoon cumin 1/4 teaspoon coriander 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped …

Pumpkin waffles

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It’s that time of the year! Pumpkins! As you could see in one of our previous posts, we have dozens of pumpkins from our garden. Luckily pumpkins are very versatile and can be used in anything from soups to desserts to baking. I like these pumpkin waffles a lot: light and crispy! Feel free to replace the sugar with another sweetener (or you could also try leaving it out altogether). I either use freshly made pumpkin puree, or a portion that I prepared previously and stored in the freezer, on those occasions that I don’t have the time to cut and clean the pumkin.   Ingredients vegan pumpkin waffles Makes 6 double waffles (like the one in the photo) 1 + 3/4 cup (275g) all purpose flour 2 1/2 ts baking powder 1/2 ts baking soda 1/2 ts salt 2 ts ground cinnamon 1 ts grated or ground ginger 1/2 ts ground or grated nutmeg 1/4 ts ground cloves +++++++++++++ 2 cups (475 ml) soy milk 2 cups (425g) pumpkin puree (= a small hokkaido pumpkin, see photo) 5 …

Pumpkins, too many pumpkins!

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I wanted some more variety of pumpkins in my vegetable garden! I grew all of the pumpkin plants myself, mostly from organic seeds bough through the organic gardening association VELT. And they all delivered! Plenty! I store the pumpkins in our cool cellar, and they will keep good for months to come. I also prepare some pumpkin puree (mash) and put it in handy portions (1 cup, two cups) in the freezer. Ready to use for those occasions when I don’t have the time to cut and clean a pumpkin. This is our collection of all the pumpkins that we harvested this year (yes, I think I overdid it a bit ;-). Different varieties: Potiron Bleu, Uchi Kuri, Red Kuri, Spaghetti Squash, Sweet Dumpling and Butternut. And some undetermined that just grew on the compostheap. I just harvested the butternuts today (the bottle shaped pumpkins). These are the most difficult to ripen I find. But I’m taking them inside anyway now, as it’s getting close to freezing point some nights.

Pumpkin and apricot tajine

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We have several pumpkinplants in our veg allotment and harvested the first pumpkin (squash)! And there are plenty to follow, in different shapes and sizes. We also have zucchinis, carrots, green beans (haricots), potatoes, parsley and cilantro in our garden. Perfect match for a North African stew or tajine! Ingredients pumpkin and apricot tajine – vegan A tajine, or large (wok)pan with lid (see below) one small zucchini, chopped coursely 4 tbs olive oil 1 onion, chopped finely 2 cloves minced garlic 2,5cm (1inch) grated ginger 1/2 ts cumin 1/2 ts turmeric 1 ts powdered paprika 1/2 ts cayenne pepper 1 ts cinnamon 1 medium sized squash, chopped in pieces 2 potatoes, chopped in pieces 2 to 4 carrots 125g haricots 175g dried apricots, chopped 3,5dl veg bouillon 2 ts tomato purée 1 can (400g) chick peas, drained 2 ts grated lemon zest 2 tbs chopped parsley 2 tbs chopped cilantro salt & pepper fresh cilantro, for garnish Preparation Boil the zucchini 10 min. Drain, let cool and mash. Set aside Heat the olive oil, bake the onions for 5-7 …

#9 Restaurant Réliva (2), Bruges ****

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Restaurant review #9 – Restaurant Réliva is – so far as we know – the only restaurant in Bruges which has a vegan 3-course menu standardly available. It is not a vegan restaurant, but vegan is always on offer, and besides the 3-course vegan menu, there is sometimes also another vegan suggestion. We already visited Réliva in the Summer of 2013 (see our previous review here). And we liked it! (see edit below) We recently went again for lunch (February 2014). We were there first, but the place soon filled up and was nearly full for lunch. So we suggest you definitely make a reservation (we overheard the waitress telling some other people it was already fully booked for dinner that night). Both of the main courses of the ‘veggie’ menu were vegan so we could each have something different. We got a little appetizer of mushroom creme and basil with our drinks. And some bread and olive oil. This was our 3-course menu (35€): Pumpkin chestnut soup (organic) with some brandy and liquorice * Lasagne …