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A home cooked sausage roll made with good quality ingredients and flaky, golden puff pastry is a thing of beauty, and these vegetarian sausage rolls are no exception.
Meat is often the star of the show when it comes to sausage rolls but I want to show you a delicious and filling vegetarian alternative which isn’t as greasy and heavy as most meat versions.
Last week I had a leftover batch from the photo shoot for this recipe, so they came with us to a party. Between half a dozen adults and our various fussy kids, all forty sausage rolls had disappeared less than five minutes after they hit the table. It’s safe to say they’re a crowd-pleaser among vegetarians and meat eaters alike.
Want to make your own vegetarian sausage rolls? Let’s get into it.
What’s in a vegetarian sausage roll?
Most vegetarian sausage rolls I’ve tried are filled with either some variation on spinach and ricotta, or a lentil or bean-based filling. I love all those ingredients and they do make a great roll. These are a little different, though, filled with an unusual combination of pecan nuts, oats, cottage cheese and onion.
I know it sounds weird, but trust me (and my kids, who actually prefer these to any other sausage rolls I’ve ever made). They are delicious, and once the filling is blended together and cooked in the pastry, I challenge you to find someone who doesn’t think they’re great.
How to make vegetarian sausage rolls
I don’t know about you, but I love a recipe where the prep is done in minutes by throwing most of the ingredients into a blender or food processor. That’s what we’re doing today.
The filling for these sausage rolls is a dump-and-blend affair, and all you have to do is spread it over sheets of ready-rolled puff pastry (make your own if you’re feeling more industrious than I was), roll up and cutting into whatever sized portions you like.
I use a food processor for my filling, but if you have a good blender that’ll work just fine too. The mixture does need to be pureed fairly finely, so you won’t achieve the same result by hand chopping and mixing here.
Immediately after blending, the filling mixture is quite wet. It thickens up very quickly thanks to the oats in the recipe, though, so if you leave it for 5-10 minutes before spreading over your pastry sheets it’ll be easier to work with.
I buy packs of frozen, ready-rolled puff pastry at the supermarket. It’s incredibly versatile and means I can whip up a batch of these sausage rolls, a quick tart or some yummy cheesecake pastries whenever the urge strikes.
When you’ve rolled up your pastry and filling, brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds, then cut into little ‘party sized’ rolls like I’ve done here, or make larger sizes to serve as a meal alongside a salad or roasted vegetables.
Then it’s just a matter of baking in a hot oven! If you have a combi steam oven, you can bake your sausage rolls using a combi or convection steam setting (I’ve given conventional and combi steam oven methods in the recipe below). If you’ve never tried baking puff pastry in a steam oven it might seem strange, but the added steam in the oven really helps the pastry become puffy, flaky and ultra crispy.
Extra tips to make your sausage rolls even better
The recipe below is my basic mixture, but you can change things up in lots of different ways to make your sausage rolls fancier. Here are some of my favourite tips for more exciting sausage rolls:
Add a teaspoon or two of your favourite spice or spice blend to the mixture for extra flavour. We love Moroccan spices, or if you’re not worried about too much heat, a spoonful or two of harissa is fantastic.
Coarsely shredded cheese adds a different texture and flavour to the rolls – choose something with plenty of flavour and a good melting consistency, like cheddar or Monterey Jack, and stir it in after blending so it doesn’t get pureed with the rest of the ingredients.
Shredded apple, carrot or zucchini stirred through the mix after blending will boost your fruit and veg intake without much effort, and is a great way to get more nutrients into fussy kids.
Supermarket puff pastry will never beat the real, handmade stuff from a pâtissier, so if you have a French bakery nearby, ask to purchase a block of their pastry to take your sausage rolls to the next level.
I can’t wait for you to try these vegetarian sausage rolls and hope your family loves them as much as mine does!
Happy cooking, see you here again soon.
Vegetarian Sausage Rolls
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup pecan nuts
- 1 onion small, roughly chopped
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 1 tsp salt reduce to ½ tsp if using other spices or flavourings
- ½ cup dry breadcrumbs
- 1 cup quick-cook oats if you don’t have quick-cook/instant, do what I do and blend regular oats for a few seconds to chop them into instant ones
- 3 sheets puff pastry 30cm square sheets, ready-rolled, frozen, thawed but cold
- 1 egg yolk extra, for glazing the sausage rolls, optional
- 1 tbs poppy seeds or sesame seeds for sprinkling on top of the rolls, optional
Instructions
Conventional Oven Method
- Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F. Lightly grease a baking tray or line with parchment paper, then set aside while you make the sausage rolls.
- Place the eggs, pecans, onion, soy sauce and cottage cheese into a food processor and process until smooth.
- Scrape the processed mixture into a large bowl and add the breadcrumbs and oats. Mix well and leave to sit for 5-10 minutes until it’s the consistency of peanut butter before dividing the mixture into 6 portions.
- Cut each of the pastry sheets in half crosswise to form 6 long rectangles. Place a portion of the filling mixture onto each piece and spread it all the way down one of the long sides of the pastry. Brush the other long edges with a little water and roll each piece of pastry up tightly from the mixture side to enclose the filling, with the seam at the bottom.
- Cut each roll into 6 pieces for mini sausage rolls or 2 pieces for meal-sized rolls.
- Glaze the sausage rolls by brushing a little beaten egg yolk onto each one, and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. Place them onto your prepared tray and bake until the pastry is puffed and the sausage rolls are golden brown, around 23 minutes. Serve hot.
Combi Steam Oven Method
- Set oven to 200°C/400°F, combination steam setting (if you have variable steam settings, use 50% – if you can’t vary your steam, just set to combination steam and let the oven take care of the humidity). Lightly grease a baking tray or line with parchment paper, then set aside while you make the sausage rolls.
- Place the eggs, pecans, onion, soy sauce and cottage cheese into a food processor and process until smooth.
- Scrape the processed mixture into a large bowl and add the breadcrumbs and oats. Mix well and leave to sit for 5-10 minutes until it’s the consistency of peanut butter before dividing the mixture into 6 portions.
- Cut each of the pastry sheets in half crosswise to form 6 long rectangles. Place a portion of the filling mixture onto each piece and spread it all the way down one of the long sides of the pastry. Brush the other long edges with a little water and roll each piece of pastry up tightly from the mixture side to enclose the filling, with the seam at the bottom.
- Cut each roll into 6 pieces for mini sausage rolls or 2 pieces for meal-sized rolls.
- Glaze the sausage rolls by brushing a little beaten egg yolk onto each one, and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. Place them onto your prepared tray and bake until the pastry is puffed and the sausage rolls are golden brown, around 18 minutes. Serve hot.
Nutrition
Over to you – if you try this recipe I’d love to know about it! Share your comments below or on Facebook, tag @steamandbake on Instagram, or pin all your favourite Steam and Bake recipes over on Pinterest!
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I haven’t tried it, but another reader said she uses sunflower seeds as a sub for the pecans, also for school lunches! That’s what I’ll be doing next time I make a batch so I can send them to school with my kiddo.
These look great! I’d like to try them in school lunchboxes, could I leave out the pecans for a nut-free version or can you suggest a substitute?