Forget those indifferent vegan “sausage rolls” that were sold by a certain UK high street chain bakery; these rolls are packed with flavour.
Good food is good food, and whether I am making something that contains meat/animal products or not, my primary goal is that it should taste good.
I made these rolls for a live Zoom cookery lesson, after a request for a decent vegan alternative to sausage rolls and one that would stand tall for even the most ardent carnivore. Judging from the feedback of those who cooked along with me, I think these hit the brief!
From the store-cupboard
As I have been doing of late, I used up what I had in the cupboards and freezer: butternut squash, chickpeas, tahini…
The flavour combination of the spices and the butternut squash works very well. I went down the harissa route here – as I so often do – but I frequently go for butternut squash with onions and fresh sage.
Variations
If you want a meat-free but not vegan version, you can add a dollop of cream cheese or soured cream: not too much, as you don’t want a sloppy filling. And use an all-butter puff pastry if possible high has the best flavour. But the oil-based puff pastry is fine as an alternative.
If you have any nuts – and toasted nuts are particularly wonderful – then you can add those as well: pistachios are particularly great here.
Recipe: vegan (sausage) rolls – makes about 20
- 300-400g puff pastry*
- about 250g cooked butternut squash
- about 100g cooked chickpeas
- 1 large onion, peeled
- 8-10 dried apricots
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1-2 teaspoons toasted cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon tahini paste
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 tablespoon chutney of choice (eg: caramelised onion chutney or a spiced chutney)
- 3 teaspoons harissa powder or 1 heaped teaspoon harissa paste
*use the oil-based puff pastry ie) the non-butter variety if going for fully vegan rolls
To finish:
- poppy seeds
- splash of soya milk mixed with a little harissa
you will also need a large flat baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper. Pre-heat the oven to 180C (fan)
(1) Blitz the onions, garlic, apricots and chickpeas in a food processor lightly until they just come together to a coarse paste. You can chop them all finely, but blitzing is quicker.
(2) Mix the rest of the filling ingredients: I tend to use a fork, lightly crushing it together – but don’t go too mad as you want to have textures in there rather than baby food paste!
(3) Roll out the pastry thinly and cut into two strips about the length of the baking tray. Take spoonfuls of the mixture and dollop it down the centre of each strip of pastry.
(4) Bring the pastry over the filling to form two cylinders and pinch where the pastry joins to form a seal. Turn the cylinders over so the seal is underneath.
(5) Brush the tops with the soya milk and sprinkle with some poppy seeds or sesame seeds if you like. Cut into pieces as small or as large as you want – at least an inch wide is good.
(6) Place on the baking tray and put in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and cooked.
Related links:
My meat version of sausage rolls is here
Phil's Home Kitchen 