Green Lasagna ‒ Vihreä lasagne

This is already the third lasagna recipe in this so-called Finnish-style food blog. None of my lasagnas have been exactly traditional though, and my personal twist is using more Finnish ingredients in the place of those typical to Italian kitchen. So before, I've replaced your average white wheat noodles with something as imaginary as finncrisps and zucchini. In the version at hand I used what I had at hand and ended up doing a green sauce instead of the tomato-based red one. Next time I thought to try making the white sauce too a bit differently, from nuts. That was even better but ended up too dry, especially on the surface, so this final recipe I'm posting now is the third incarnation in the development process. Feel free to substitute the dark green veggies according to availability and season.

- 12 spinach lasagna noodles (or regular full corn noodles)
- 3 dl lupin seeds or lentils
- 200 g cashew nuts
- 150 g frozen spinach
-1.5 dl dry and crunched nettle
- 1 broccoli or 150 g kale
- 1 onion
- 100 g pesto (or a bunch of fresh basil if you're growing a window garden, plus some extra oil and salt)
- 100 g melting soy cheese
-  3 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp canola oil
- nutmeg
- black pepper
- white pepper
- salt

If possible, put the cashews in water during the previous night so they'll soften up. Soaked nuts are easier to blend with your average kitchen equipment. Use the water as well, so the consistency is on the runny side. Spice with garlic, white pepper, nutmeg and salt.

Chop the onion and sauté it lightly in oil. Add the broccoli and then the frozen spinach too. When the spinach has melted, add the lupins and half a litre of water. Crumble in the nettle, spoon in the pesto and sprinkle with black pepper. When the lupins are done, check the consistency of the sauce. You probably need to add water, but don't make it so runny it doesn't stick on the noodles.

Cover the bottom of an oven casserole with the lupin sauce. Layer with noodles. Cover the noodles with the cashew sauce. Repeat the process three to four times. See that the white layer is the top one. Sprinkle with soy cheese. Bake in the lowest shelve of a a 175°C oven for about 45 minutes. Let the lasagna rest for a moment before cutting so the layers hold together nicer.

Nutritional values / 1556 g:
energy 3263 kcal
fat 201 g
protein 151 g
carbohydrates 219 g
fiber 47 g

Kale and Fava Bean Dip ‒ Lehtikaali-härkäpapudippi

I've had this wonderful sounding spinach dip in my bookmarks, waiting for me to do it with fresh nettle. There are some new shoots growing now, but since I have a lot of kale and green fava beans waiting I thought I'd try something similar with them instead. I did add some dry nettle from last year though.

The amounts in the original recipe are in those archaic measures that are a pain to convert into SI-system (I know, you doing the conversions the other way around end up with just as cumbersome fractions). Since this type of dish doesn't really call for specific amounts like, say, cookies would, I just added things with a freehand style. This base I developed would call for more liquid, but I have absolutely no complaints about the taste. It goes best together with rye crisps, corn snacks, veggie sticks or other such stuff with a more flavour and toughness than your average potato chip does.

- 200 g kale
- 200 g soy cheese
- 3 dl cooked fava beans
- 2 dl cashew nuts
- 0.5 dl lemon juice
- 0.5 dl dried nettle
- 0.5 dl  nutritional yeast
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp rape oil
- 1 tbsp pesto
- salt and pepper

Soak the nuts overnight or boil for about 20 minutes (this "quick-soaking" must be among the best kitchen tips I've heard for a while) to soften them up. Blend all the ingredients together, but save some of the cheese to sprinkle on top.

Bake for 15 minutes in a temperature of 175°C. Serve as a hot dip sauce or use between sandwiches.

Nutritional values / 969 g:
energy 2105 kcal
fat 139 g
protein 94 g
carbohydrates 119 g
fiber 32 g

Countryside Bean Salad with Herb Oil ‒ Talonpojan papusalaatti ja yttiöljy

One more part to the salad trilogy. This one is something I've been planning for a long time. I wanted to make a very filling salad with a rustic feel to it. Something I'd like to have sitting by our allotment garden after some physical work. And since this is the time for green beans, they're really the main star of the plate.

The salad
- 250 g green beans
- 230 g giant beans
- 4 slices of rye bread
- 200 g cherry tomatoes
- 125 g radish
- 100 g fresh spinach
- 3 summer potatoes
- 1 red onion
- 0.5 dl sunflower seeds
- 2 garlic cloves
- oil for frying
- salt

The herb oil
- 1 dl flax seed oil
- 1 punch of fresh parsley
- 10 basil leaves
- 2 tbsp black currant juice (unsweetened, without added water)
- black pepper

Cook the potatoes and the green beans in salted water. Roast the sunflower seeds a bit on a dry pan. Move away the seeds, add some oil and minced garlic and place the bread there, cut down into mouth-fitting chunks. Fish out the green beans and place them on the pan as well.

Cut the onion in semi-circles and slice the radishes. When the potatoes are done, slice them as well. Mix everything and serve while still warm.

For the oil, just blend everything together. Serve alongside the salad or mix right into it.

Nutritional values / 1652 g:
energy 1852 kcal
fat 109 g
protein 49 g
carbohydrates 159 g
fiber 55 g

Beggar's Nettle Purses ‒ Kerjäläisen nokkosnyytit

My spouse loves making crepes although I need to watch his back since he can get quite picky on which ones looks absolutely perfect and which ones he tries to dump into bio waste bucket. It usually falls into my responsibility to decide how to top them. This time the fresh nettle leaves I had just been picking  were the oblivious choice.

I do fully admit using nettle inside crepes is really just another variation of making classic nettle pancakes. But it's a nice one, no way around it. And wrapping the crepe around the filling into a surprise package does give it a whole new touch. Somehow wrapping thing inside each other always feels more exciting than just placing them next to each other on the plate. The original beggar's purses are mini-size appetizers filled with caviar so for these more filling versions, I came up with the idea of using beluga lenses which are sometimes called "vegetarian's caviar".

The crepes:
- 1 litre oat milk
- 3 dl barley flour
- 3 dl wheat flour
- 1.5 dl melted margarine
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- oil or margarine for frying

The filling:
- 1 l fresh nettle leaves (or 150 g blanched and frozen)
- 2 dl beluga lenses
- 2 dl oat cream
- 2 tbsp tar liqueur (or 1 tbsp dark syrup and 1 tsp liquid smoke)
- salt

For decoration:
- Spring onion stalks

Whisk the flours into the cold milk little by little. Add the rest of the crepe batter. You can also sprinkle a little bit of turmeric Leave alone for an hour or so. Heat up the frying pan and make sure you're using enough oil to keep the crepes from sticking. Pour a ladleful of batter evenly on the pan. Tilt the pan to make sure it spreads evenly but thinly. When the edges start look golden and the center also holds together. Loosen with a spatula and turn around. When the other side is done as well, move aside and add more oil before continuing with the next crepe.


Rinse the lenses. Wash the nettles, cut out bad parts or stalks and chop the rest into smaller pieces. Put all the filling ingredients into the same pot and add enough water to almost cover them. Cook until the liquid has absorbed and the lenses are done. About 30‒40 minutes should do.

For the serving, place a spoonful of the filling on the crepe. Collect the edges into a perfect looking package.and tie carefully together with a string or a spring onion stalk.

Nutritional values / 2337 g (without the frying oil):
energy 3671 kcal
fat 149 g
protein 114 g
carbohydrates 452 g
fiber 68 g

Tofu and Nettle Pie ‒ Tofu-nokkospiiras

Your average stinging nettle is very likely the most versatile and nutritious Finnish plant. It grows just about everywhere and is at its best while still young and tender, so if you're planning to fill your freezer with just one foraged plant, this is a great choice. Nettle and spinach are fully replaceable in recipes but nettle doesn't contain oxalate so the taste is milder. This also makes it a great source for iron and calcium. It likes to collect nitrate in itself though, so please don't pick it near nitrogen-rich places such as composts or barns. The stinginess kind of prevents you to use it in salads, but it goes away by blanching, drying or just blending smooth.

This recipe combines a simple quiche-type of crust with Jael's way of making a filling that I've found excellent before and which I should've used back when I made this.

The Filling:
- 2 litres fresh nettle (or 150 g blanched and frozen)
- 2 onions
- 2 tomatoes
- 300 g silken tofu (if you're using regular soft tofu, blend it with a little bit of oil)
- 2 dl oat milk
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- oil for frying
- marjoram
- salt
- black pepper

The crust:
- 3.5 dl spelt or wheat flour
- 160 g margarine
- 3 tbsp cold water
- salt

On the previous day, wash the fresh nettles and put them in a water bowl to soak overnight. This way they won't sting when you pick their stalks off and you get to use the water to treat you hair or houseplants. Optionally, you can just use gloves and scissors and bleach them right away by cooking in water for a short period.

Make the crust by combining the ingredients by your hand. Butter you pie plate and spread the dough evenly. It's recommended that you cool down the dough in a refrigerator before using it and then precook the crust for ten minutes without the filling but I don't usually bother.

Chop and sauté the onion. When starting to acquire some colour, add the nettle and cook for a moment more. Blend the tofu, the milk, the  nutritional yeast, the cornstarch and the spices together, then mix with the onion and the nettle. Slice the tomatoes and place them on the crust. Then pour the rest of the filling on it and spread.

Cook for about 40 minutes in a 200°C oven. Enjoy warm or cold, as a main course or as  a salty snack.

Nutritional values / 1504 g:
energy 2352 kcal
fat 142 g
protein 61 g
carbohydrates 203 g
fiber 31 g

Cabbage and Horse Bean Soup ‒ Kaali-härkäpapukeitto

Recently we moved into a bit bigger appartement. The migration itself felt like a complete chaos and we had to sleep the first night on friends' couch since we simply couln't fit in with all the junk, but there were some positive things in the day too. For one, the soup a friend of my flatmate's prepared for all our wonderful helpers. That version contained several types of beans and chili sauce, but I thought I'd stick more with the version she wrote down here. The twist is in combining two separetely prepared food items, which of course, you can use individually too. I couldn't find kale so I just replaced it with more red cabbage and nettle.

Cabbage Soup
- 1/4 red cabbage
- 1 1/2 onions
- 0.5 dl kale
- 2 tbsp thyme
- 2 tsp dill
- salt
- black pepper
- olive oil
- 1 tl dry nettle
- 3 l  water

Marinated horse beans
- 3 dl dry horse beans
- cayenne
- tomato paste (3 tbsp)
- olive oil (2 tbsp)
- salt
- (apple) wine vinegar
- (smoked) paprika
- black pepper
- dry basil
(sugar or in my case, a tablespoon of dark syrup)

Let the beans soke in water overnight. Rinse and cook until soft. (Remember to peel off the foam.) Rinse again. Mix the marinade ingredients with the beans. Try to make strong enough to actually give taste to the beans. Leave in the fridge for the next day.

Chop most of the onion as well as the kale and cabbage, leaving bot big and small parts. Sauté separetaly. Let the water come to a boil. Add thyme, dill, nettle, salt and pepper. Let it all simme for 10‒20 minutes. Combine the soup ingredients except kale and simmer for another 30‒60 minutes. Check the taste and add the kale about 5 minutes before the soup is ready.

Serve the soup with marinated beans and uncooked onion circles.

Nutritional values / 3852 g
energy 1217 kcal
fat 44 g
protein 66 g
carbohydrates 129 g
fiber 65 g

Nettle Pesto ‒ Nokkoslevite

They say young nettles won't sting. "They" couldn't be more wrong. It's starting to be the best time to pick those delicious and nutritious shoots and leaves but don't do it like I do. Wear gloves. Can't believe I forget it each and every year.

Another thing you might want to learn from my mistakes is to check what you're foraging exactly. Once again I fished out some grass, a few brown leaves and two dead larvae (that probably weren't dead to begin with) from my nettle pot. Nettles can be eaten raw as well but you do understand why I prefer to leach them.

- 2 dl young stinging nettle leaves
- 1 dl pine nuts (or sunflower seeds)
- 0.5 dl rape oil
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 2 garlic cloves
- fresh coriander (or herb of your choice)
- black pepper

See that all your nettle leaves look healthy and free from insects. Leach them for ten minutes or so. Puré with all the other ingredients. Use as a pasta sauce or spread on your bread.

Nutritional values / 205 g:
energy 852 kcal
fat 87 g
protein 18 g
carbohydrates 13 g
fiber 8 g

Pine Nut and Root Vegetable Mash ‒ Männynsiemen-juuressose

Potato mash is one of the standard sidekicks in Finnish cuisine. I often like to tune it with beet or spinach but seeing this I knew I have a sidekick to offer even when Tarja Halonen shows up for a dinner.

The original recipe didn't give any amounts so I tried to document what I used. The oat cream however, wasn't such a good idea since the mash turned a bit too runny. Oh well, the taste is what matters and I already have a long experience of claiming my beet mash is meant to be a puré soup. Next time I'll just replace the cream with some margarine and perhaps roast the pine kernels a bit before marinating them.

EDIT: Yeap, as you can see from the new photo, this turned out just perfect without the cream. Didn't even replace it with anything. Roasting the kernels was also a good idea.

- 2 large carrots
- 4 potatoes
- 1 small rutabaga
- 1 dose of stock
- 1 dl pine nuts
- gin (about 1 dl)
- spruce syrup
- salt
- white pepper
- 0.5 dl oat cream

Put the pine nuts in a mug and pour enough gin on them to cover them. Peel the root vegetables and cook them in water with the stock. Pour the water away and mash them. (If you're really clever you can save the water to make a sauce for example.) Spice with spruce syrup, salt and white pepper. Add the cream, the soaked nuts and as much of the gin as you wish. Let the mash marinate at least for an hour before serving.

Nutritional values / 1080 g:
energy 1197 kcal
fat 61 g
protein 21 g
carbohydrates 99 g
fiber 19 g

Nettle Pancakes ‒ Nokkoslätyt

Stinging nettle is often said to be the healthiest plant in Finland due to its richness in vitamins and minerals. There's for example seven times as much iron in it than in its cultivated comrade you can use the same way, spinach. My plan is to collect and precook many bags of it in the freezer for winter. Besides food you can use it for fiber, cosmetics (especially hair), herbal medicine, dyeing and as a fertilizer.

Remember, nettle leaves are at their best when young. Use plants that haven't flowered yet, after a sunny period when the nitrate concentration is at its lowest. Cooking or drying completely destroys the stinging toxic. And of course, you should never eat anything that grows close to a road or such. The taste flavours many kinds of soups, sauces, fillings, beverages and breads. And of course nettle pancakes, a comfort food that even every health food hater loves:

- 1 l young nettle leaves (or 150 g frozen spinach)
- 3 dl wheat or spelt flour
- 1 dl potato flour
- 1.5 dl oat milk or water
- 1.5 dl cider (made from real apples, not those disgusting fake ciders)
- salt
- rape oil for frying

Lingonberry cram is a must have with these. I also made a quick sidekick from fava beans, soy yoghurt, mustard and black pepper.

Nutritional values / 742 g:
energy 1322 kcal
fat 34 g
protein 36 g
carbohydrates 205 g
fiber 16 g

Spinach Stuffed Tofu ‒ Pinaattitäytetty tofu

I used to eat fish for about ten years after I had given up red meat. (Which was probably better since the small country town I grew up in hadn't even heard of soy or proper nutrition recommendations back then. Luckily kids today have the Internet.) I've never been a fan of fish meat itself, but I liked certain factory-made fish steaks or more precisely their filling. Ironically, that spinach filling is the thing I've missed after becoming a vegetarian.

Seeing Lelly's delicious sounding recipe from beautiful Scotland, I knew immediately how I'd tweak it. So this isn't exactly a tradditional Finnish , but it could (and hopefully will) be. Especially if it was springtime and I could use fresh nettle instead of spinach. Besides, I have to post this just to show that photo that alone makes me drool.

- 2 nice blocks of extra firm tofu (I used 270 g pieces of smoked type)
- 150 g frozen spinach (or better, 1 l fresh nettle leaves)
- 3 tbsp margarine
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp mustard powder
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 chili

For crusting:
- 3/4 dl flour
- 3/4 dl nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp mustard

Defrost the spinach or cook the nettle so it's soft. Mix together with all the other filling ingredients. Dry the tofu blocks and hollow them with a knife. (This is tricky. I managed to make several holes in them with a too sharp headed knife. My advice is to make a clean, square cut with a knife and continue scooping with a nicely shaped tea spoon.) Fill them, but not too full so they won't explode in the oven. Cover the opening with the scooped out tofu bits. Wrap in folio with the remaining filling so that the outsides get some taste too. Let them marinate for at least an hour. (They don't mind spending the whole night like that either.)

Put the tofus in a 200°C oven for half an hour. (Heads up so the filling won't pour out.) Let them cool down a bit. Mix the flour and the yeast on a plate. Heat up your frying pan. Cover the tofus with mustard using your fingers, roll in the flour mix and place on the hot frying pan. Fry from both sides.

Nutritional values / 1 piece / 400 g
energy 583 kcal
fat 39 g
protein 51 g
carbohydrates 9 g
fiber 9 g

Spinach Soup ‒ Pinaattisoppa

I was forced to eat spinach soup in school. I couln't. I felt throwing up as I tried to swallow just a spoonful. It felt like glue and tasted plain disgusting. Nowadays it's one of my favourite foods.

For some reason, I can't seem to find any normal spinach soup recipe in English. Didn't consider it to be an especially Finnish treat, but maybe I was wrong. As a kid I though I felt I was going to throw up when I was forced to eat it in school but today it's one of my favourite soups. This is as simple as it gets:

- 300 g frozen spinach (or 1,5 litres of fresh nettle leaves)
- 1 liter oat milk or soy milk
- 3 tbsp wheat flour (or potato flour)
- salt

Pour about 2 dl milk into a cup and dissolve the flour in it. Put the rest of the milk in a pot and let it come to a boil. Remember to stir or it will pour all over the stove. Mix in the flour milk and let it come to a boil again. Now throw in the spinach and some salt. Keep stirring. When the soup starts to look even, add some more salt. (Did I ever claim this was some health blog?) Spoon it into a bowl and add a fresh dose of salt. Taste if it's salty enough. If not, sprinkle salt.

It's possible to add some other spices as well, but only rather mild ones. Be careful, otherwise you'll just ruin the delicate taste.

Of course, like any spinach food this would be even better with young nettles. We'll get back to that in springtime.

Nutritional values / 1330 g
Energy 447 kcal
Fat 14 g
Protein 31 g
Carbohydrates 46 g
Fiber 28 g

Shepard's Pie ‒ Paimenpiiras

For dinner, I tried to make a Shepard's Pie according to this recipe. (Still don't understand why every other vegan recipe name has to refer to carcasses in one way or another. This week I even saw vegetarian roe being sold.) It's not really a pie but almost like one of the many Finnish casseroles, except that the layers aren't mixed together.

Didn't stick to that recipe too obediently, and didn't get anything like the things in those pictures either. More than a pie, it reminded me of a casserole. First of all, I replaced most of the vegetables with one cup of textured soy protein crumbles (after all, the original versions contain leftover meat, not vegetables), frozen spinach and sun dried tomatoes. Instead of cornstarch (which I've never heard anyone using in Finland) I used some potato starch as thickener, apparently not enough though. Oh, and I was out of nutritional yeast (oluthiiva), but that shouldn't make much difference. I didn't have enough mashed potatoes to cover the whole thing. Also, the thing was in the oven (200°C) over half an hour before it even started to brown.

Nevertheless, it's the taste that counts and in this case it was excellent. Next time I'll just try it with more solid vegetables, more potato starch and more potatoes. I'll post the recipe after I've made it work myself.