Lentil Sausage Rolls
With the (hopefully) last few days of winter coming to pass, I figured a meal based on hearty ingredients, flaky pastry and woody herbs would be a perfect farewell. A goodbye to cold evenings in front of a crackling fire, and even colder mornings with frozen grass crunching underfoot, before the spring’s energy and vibrancy comes bounding back.
This recipe is truly versatile, both in what ingredients you incorporate into it, and how you serve and consume it. As slices from a larger roll, they could act as a vegetarian centrepiece to the last of winter’s Sunday roasts, and is how I typically consume them thanks to the higher filling to pastry ratio. But they can of course be designed into the more traditional, fully enclosed morsels of flavour, perfect for those quickly snatched lunches on cold hikes, or for rejuvenating you after a morning in the garden, these vegetarian sausages rolls are something special. They can also be made vegan by using vegan pastry, missing out the egg wash, and replacing the Gruyere with a vegan equivalent. Without a doubt a meal for every and any occasion!
Olive oil
6 good sized onions
3-4 shallots
1 1/2 tbsps of Herbes de Provence
3 cloves of garlic
400g green lentils, cooked
50g brown rice, cooked
Red wine vinegar, a good splash
2 tbsp of Dijon mustard
5 sprigs of fresh thyme
200g of Gruyere cheese
1 tsp of organic honey
50g grams of breadcrumbs
1 pack of puff pastry
1 egg
Begin by caramelising the onions. Place a pan over a low heat, and hit with a splash of olive oil. Half-moon slice your onions and add to the pan, along with a pinch of salt. Cook for a minimum of an hour, but the longer the better - the closer you can get to a sweet onion jam, the better!
Next we want to saute the shallots. Heat a tbsp of olive oil over a medium heat and thinly slice the shallots. Add to the pan and cook for roughly 5 minutes until translucent. Add the crushed garlic and Herbes de Provence and cook for a further couple of minutes until fragrant.
Now for the simple bit, adding all of the ingredients apart from the pastry and caramelised onion to a large mixing bowl. Cube the Gruyere cheese into roughly 1cm die, and strip and finely chop the fresh thyme. Allow for it all to sit in the bowl for 20 minutes, to give the flavours a chance to meld and infuse.
Preheat the oven to 200°C, and warm up a large, thick-based oven tray or even a pizza stone if you have one.
Once the onions have become sufficiently caramelised and sticky, and the ingredients have sat together in the bowl for a while, roll out the pastry on a floured surface into a roughly 40x30cm rectangle. Spoon a thick layer of caramelised onion in a roughly 8cm wide strip closer to the near edge of the pastry. Now add the filling, ensuring it's evenly dispersed along the onion base.
Very carefully, roll the pastry up from the near edge away from you, ensuring it's firmly wrapped up. Apply the beaten egg all over, then slice the top to prevent ruptures!
Place on the baking parchment-covered oven tray or pizza stone, and cook in the oven for roughly 25 minutes until the pastry is crispy and golden. If serving at the table, accompany with some fresh winter green and a good dollop of mustard.