These marvelous sausage rolls made with spinach, chickpeas and sweet potato are a great healthy take on a classic. You honestly won’t miss the meat due to the fact that these tasty pastry rolls are so filled with flavour. Plus they’re a fantastic method to sneak a truckload of veggies plus protein and fibre loaded chickpeas into the kids!
I’m a sucker for almost anything wrapped in pastry. And sausage rolls are my biggest weakness. I understand how naughty they are however I simply can’t stop myself. Lately Mum and I have been working our way through some intriguing sausage roll flavours she has actually found at a bakeshop near where she works. We’ve had pork and apple, Thai red curry, lamb and mint … All have been actually helpful for something a little bit different.
This bakeshop also does a spinach and chickpea sausage roll, but we have not yet had a chance to sample it because it keeps selling out. I had no option however to make it myself.
When I began considering how to make these rolls, I couldn’t get past the thought that just spinach and chickpea may be a bit bland and dry. Since it cooks down to be so charming and soft, Orange sweet potato seemed like a great addition. Sweet potato has a tasty nutty sweetness that goes perfectly with chickpeas. And I was right– it makes a terrific base for the spinach and chickpeas in these scrumptious sausage rolls. Include a few of my favourite spices, some herbs for excellent measure and some cubed feta cheese and we were on to a winner!
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While I whole-heartedly think in making your own food as much as possible, puff pastry is one of those things that I just never seem to make. I simply can’t go past it for flake-ability, convenience and taste.
Being all vegetable goodness, the mix for these sausage rolls is extremely soft. I’ll admit that in the last 10 minutes of baking they did collapse the filling and a bit was poking out either side of the pastry in a most unappealing fashion. To correct this, while they were still hot from the oven I took a dessert spoon in either hand and gently pushed them back into shape. It worked a reward. They held their shape and once they were cool remained looking as a sausage roll should. Invitingly full and plump of deliciousness.
These vegetarian sausage rolls were terrific still hot from the oven. And best of all, because of all the good things in these sausage rolls you can indulge without the guilt!
- 20g butter.
- 1/2 red onion.
- 2 cloves garlic.
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger.
- 200g orange sweet potato.
- 1 tsp ground cumin.
- 1/2 tsp tumeric.
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg.
- 2 tablespoon water.
- 100g baby spinach leaves.
- 400g can chickpeas.
- salt.
- newly ground black pepper.
- 80g feta cheese.
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander.
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley.
- 2 sheets pre-rolled puff pastry.
- 1 egg.
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds.
- Carefully dice the onion. Melt the butter in a large frypan over a medium heat and prepare the onion for 4-5 minutes up until very soft and translucent.
- Finely grate or squash the garlic and carefully grate the ginger. Add these to the onion and cook for a more minute.
- Grate the sweet potato and include to the frypan. Prepare for 8-10 minutes up until softened.
- Sprinkle over the cumin, tumeric, nutmeg and water and cook for an even more 2 minutes.
- Approximately slice the spinach leaves and stir these through. Continue to cook the mixture, stirring frequently, up until the vegetables are cooked well.
- Drain the can of chickpeas, booking the liquid. Include the chickpeas plus 2 tablespoon of the liquid from the can to a food mill and pulse to a rough puree.
- Stir the chickpeas through the vegetable mix till well integrated and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Set the mix aside to cool for 15-20 minutes.
- While the mixture is cooling, thaw 2 sheets of frozen flaky puff pastry.
- Once the vegetable mix has cooled, finely cube the feta cheese and slice the coriander and parsley. Stir these through the veggie mix.
- Gently beat the egg and brush everything over the pastry sheets. Place half the veggie mixture onto each pastry sheet about 1/3 of the way up the sheet. Utilizing your hands form it into a sausage shape the length of the pastry sheet. Roll the pastry around the filling, as strongly as possible without stretching the pastry, till you have a roll shape with around 1 inch overlap of pastry. Cut the excess pastry if necessary.
- Transfer the rolls to the freezer for thirty minutes to set a little which will make them much easier to cut.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C Fan Bake. Line a baking sheet with parchment or greaseproof paper.
- After thirty minutes, remove the rolls from the freezer. Brush more beaten egg over the top of each roll and spray with sesame seeds.
- Utilizing a very sharp knife, cut them to your desired length. Location the cut rolls onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes till the pastry is golden.
This recipe makes 2 big rolls, which can then be cut into 6-8 pieces. If you prefer for finger food or little hands you can make 4 smaller rolls by cutting each pastry sheet in half lengthways and dividing the mixture into quarters.
If the rolls collapse a bit throughout baking and the filling spills out, as soon as the pastry is golden and they run out the oven, use 2 dessert spoons – among either side of the sausage roll – to gently push the filling back into the pastry into a roll shape.
Article source: http://www.thefaresage.com/spinach-chickpea-sweet-potato-sausage-rolls/