Vegan Christmas Dinner: Filo Vegetable Parcel

 

When I had my school friends over for a pre-Christmas dinner I made this turkey wellington; one of my friends is vegan so I made an alternative (I knew there were people present who wouldn't like any kind of vegan dish so there was no one-dish-suits-all option!). Of course, this is something that could be - and was - enjoyed by meat eaters as well. It's a filo pastry parcel containing roasted vegetables and would be a good option for a vegan or vegetarian Christmas dinner, or any regular dinner time really!

 

I based it on this recipe from the Food Network for a roasted vegetable strudel with red pepper coulis, but I didn't make the coulis due to lack of time and too many other things to cook at the same time, so instead served this with an orange sauce which was a lot quicker to make - some orange juice, cornflour and a little sweetener. I also forgot to add the tomatoes that were supposed to into the pastry parcel, as you roast the other veg first and add the tomatoes at the end - again I blame too much going on!

 

First roast a selection of vegetables - wintery ones are particularly good, though I included asparagus as that was in the recipe and I felt it added a little luxury, even though it isn't strictly asparagus season. First I roasted some sliced butternut squash, as I knew this would take longest, then added some carrot batons to the pan. In a second small pan I roasted sliced courgette, mushroom and asparagus spears. I roasted the veg in a little oil so the filling of the pastry wouldn't be dry.

 Don't forget to season the veg.

 

After roasting the veg, allow to cool. It's at this point you are supposed to add the tomatoes but I forgot! Place some sheets of filo pastry (I used the ready-made kind) on top of each other and spoon on a selection of the vegetables, then roll up the pastry like a strudel. I made two of these as you can see below.

Preheat the oven if necessary (if you roasted the veg in advance for instance). Bake the pastry parcels in the oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

Here you can see where I have cut the pastry in half. Each one of these parcels would serve two if there are side dishes to accompany, otherwise you could serve a whole one per person.

Here's a close-up of the filling. Have you made anything like this before, and how did it turn out?

I'm sending this to the Vegetable Palette challenge, hosted by Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen, as the theme this month is festive veg.

Shaheen is also running the Eat Your Greens challenge, asking for entries featuring any green veg, so I am sending this to her for that challenge as well.