Vegan Sausage Rolls
These are so scrumptious – hot or cold – very easy to make, economical and very, very good for the planet! The key ingredient here is the meat replacement: soya mince. I find the dried variety rehydrates beautifully and a little seems to go a very long way. Do check that the puff pastry you are using really is vegan. Our supermarket 'own' variety is vegan, so it won't be hard to find. The classic sausage roll pattern in the pastry is made with the Tala lattice pastry roller – roll gently, the intention here is to indent a pattern in the surface of the pastry, rather than cut right through.
Ingredients:
25g dried soya mince
½ tsp vegetable stock powder
1 shallot, finely chopped
½ tsp dried mixed herbs
2 heaped dsp fresh breadcrumbs
¼ tsp cornflour
125ml boiling water
1 sheet ready-rolled vegan puff pastry
several generous scrunches of black pepper
almond milk
seeds: chia, sesame or nigella... (optional)
Makes: 10-13 mini vegan sausage rolls
Equipment:
lattice pastry roller
teaspoons
Method:
1. Set the oven to 180C (356F).
2. Leaving the water to one side for a moment, add all of the rest of the ingredients to the mixing bowl and stir thoroughly
3.Then add the water, mix thoroughly and leave to stand while you prepare the pastry. The mixture needs to be moist but clump together slightly. If it feels too dry add a touch more hot water.
4. Unroll the pastry sheet (or roll it out into a rectangle roughly 25cm x 40cm) and cut cross-ways into 4cm wide strips. Cut each strip into three pieces (also cross-ways).
5.Using the lattice roller, roll along the length of each strip, try not to cut all the way through to avoid making holes.
6. Place a couple of teaspoons of soya mix into the middle of the rectangle, brush one of the short edges with almond milk and roll up into a classic sausage roll, pinching the join to seal.
7. Flip the sausage roll over so that the pastry join is underneath, brush the top with milk and scatter with seeds if you are using them.
8. Bake for 15 minutes and remove from the oven when they are beautifully puffed up and golden brown (they may need another minute or two if they still look a little pale).