Recipe: Vegetarian Sausage Rolls

After this, you'll never look at those bakery spinach and feta rolls again. My dad's vegetarian rolls are so flavoursome and moist that you don't even need sauce.

Dad recommends using 5 root vegetables. All you do is mash them up, cook them over the stove, then roll them up in pastry and bung 'em in the oven for 20 minutes.

You can vary the vegetables and flavours, but the one I made today was perfectly balanced, so I'll show you what I did:

It didn't matter that the parsnips were getting a bit soft; it's all the same in the end. 

Veggies:

• 3 carrots
• 2 parsnips
• 1 beetroot (it's better fresh)
• 4 potatoes
• 1 large sweet potato

Flavouring:

• Worcester sauce
• Stock powder
• 2 tsp of shredded ginger
• 1 clove chopped garlic
• A pinch or two of chilli flakes
• 1 tbspn oregano
• 1 tbspn basil

For the pastry:

• 3 sheets puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten

Steps:

1. Wash and peel your veggies.
2. The best thing to do next is put them all in a food processor. If you don't have one, have fun grating and mincing!
3. Drizzle vegetable oil into a wok or a big saucepan over moderate/high heat. Add in all the flavours stir them around for 30 seconds. This helps to bring out the flavours.
4. Chuck in your shredded veggies and stir. Get comfortable because you'll have to stand there stirring it for about twenty minutes. By now you should notice the beetroot juice doing its work:



The beetroot colours the whole dish 

5. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (fan forced). Stir the veggie mixture for five minutes.
6. Get out your frozen puff pastry sheets. The pastry thaws quickly; too long, and it gets floppy and too hard to use.
7. After another five minutes or so, the veggies should be cooked. Taste it as you go. When it's cooked, set aside to cool.
8. Line one baking tray with baking paper.
9. Spoon a line of veggie mix along the pastry lengthwise, then roll it up and brush with the beaten egg (if you don't have a cooking brush, just use paper towel. It works fine). It should now look like this:



You can seal the edges by pushing down with a fork. 

10. Add air vents by slicing around the middle. This prevents "air bubbles" inside. Pastries need to breathe, too!
11. Serve alone or with salad. Share with friends and family.

It's fine cold the next day, or is easily reheated in the oven or on the grill, if you have one.