My boys really seem to adore anything that is wrapped in pastry! Before we made the plant-based move, my eldest would have had homemade sausage rolls that were preservative and MSG free. I doubt either of them have ever had a bought one, and they certainly haven’t even had a homemade one in a long time.
So I was interested to stumble across this recipe. It actually does work! I discarded it at first because who would want a tofu-nut roll with oats? But the more I thought about it, the more potential I could see. This is a great option for kids’ parties I think where children are ‘used’ to eating sausage rolls and you can provide them with a much healthier, plant based option and they probably won’t know the difference. I am totally blown away by how good these little rolls (we’re calling them “little rolls”) taste! Despite the fact that we are not into faux-meats, these seriously pass for meat…with the added bonus of the fact that you actually know what you’re eating :). Bring on a kiddy party! Or just make them as a move to healthier eating for quick lunches etc. Whatever your goal, these are seriously delicious and they don’t taste like tofu, nuts OR oats. I promise!
I got this recipe straight from Where’s the Beef? No changes, I know, it’s amazing! I thought I better learn how to do it before changing the recipe at all. Already though I am thinking next time I would like to add in some more nutritional value: brown lentils or chickpeas and grated carrot and nutritional yeast flakes too. You’ll hear about it when I do!
For those who are gluten free, this recipe is not. But I’ll write the substitutes there to help along your way if you’re going to give it a go! Enjoy!
125g pecans
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (or for gluten free, use crispy corn crumbs, I think Orgrans produce them.)
1 onion
300g pkt silken tofu (try where possible to get non GMO)
1 cup rolled oats (for gluten free, sub 1 cup cooked quinoa)
1 stock cube (I forgot this, and they are still delicious)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons soy sauce (you can use less – the end result will be less salty and brown, and therefore less resemble a ‘real’ sausage roll)
ground pepper, to taste
3-4 frozen puff pastry sheets
water or non dairy milk for brushing pastry
sesame seeds
My preferred way of prepping this filling makes maximum use of my food processor. If you don’t have one, chopping and mashing will do the job just fine. Start by processing the pecans until they’re thoroughly chopped, but not all gone to powder. Tip them into a large mixing bowl, then toss in the bread crumbs. Chop the onion into 8 chunks and process them briefly until they’ve a ‘finely chopped’ kinda texture. Add them to the mixing bowl, and finally whizz up the tofu until it’s a smooth mush. Add it to the mixing bowl, as well as the rest of the filling ingredients: rolled oats, a crumbled-up stock cube, garlic powder, soy sauce and pepper. Stir everything together well.
Now preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and lightly grease a baking tray. Thaw out your puff pastry, and slice each sheet in half so that it makes two rectangles. Spoon the filling down the centre third of each pastry rectangle; lightly brush another third with water or milk and then roll the pastry, starting from the empty third and tucking it into the brushed third. Slice the roll into halves, thirds or quarters as you wish and place them on the baking tray. Make a couple more diagonal cuts in the top of the roll, brush the top with more water/milk and sprinkle over some sesame seeds. Repeat with the remaining filling and pastry. Bake the rolls for about 20 minutes, until they’re golden brown and flaky.
Plant based Munchies 