Vegetable Strudel in Puff Pastry

Vegetable Strudel in Puff Pastry

A crisper drawer full of veggies crying to be used, puff pastry, and dinner guests, one of whom has gone vegetarian (no judgment here). What to do? I settled on making a vegetable strudel with goat cheese in puff pastry. I used this recipe from Two Kooks in the Kitchen (thanks Kooks), as a base. I left the apples out because that combo didn’t appeal to me. I also opted not to bother with the red onion and went with red pepper for colour instead. The result was delicious. I served it with a dollop of Marcella Hazan’s “internet famous tomato sauce” which added a bit of acidity to balance the sweetness of the veggies.

Note: If you are using frozen puff pasty, make sure you take it out of the freezer and defrost according to the instructions so it’s ready to use.

Ingredients

  • 1 package of puff pastry (I’m lazy and my kitchen is small, but mostly I’m lazy)
  • 1 Tbsp (aka healthy glug) of olive oil
  • 1 Japanese sweet potato, unpeeled and diced (half the good stuff is in the peel so I left it on, plus see note about lazy)
  • 1 red pepper, large dice
  • 1 yellow pepper, large dice
  • 1 sweet onion, medium dice
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 bunch spinach
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • fresh ground pepper to taste
  • 1 package goat cheese
  • 1 egg beaten with a little water for egg wash

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
  2. Prep the veggies.
  3. Add the olive oil to a large frying pan.
  4. Add the onion, sweet potato, and peppers and turn the heat to medium-high.
  5. Saute for 15 minutes or until the potato starts to soften.
  6. Add the garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper and give it a good stir,
  7. Add the spinach and saute until the spinach wilts (a couple minutes).
  8. Turn off the heat and let the veggies cool for 10 minutes.
  9. Crumble in the goat cheese and stir well to incorporate.
  10. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if necessary.
  11. Set the veggie mixture aside and prep the puff pastry (if it needs to be rolled out, roll it out to a 12″ x 14″ rectangle). I used a frozen version which was just fine.
  12. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  13. Place your puff pastry on top of the paper and add a good heaping log of filling down the centre. Leave enough room on the ends to fold over the filling by about 2 inches.
  14. Use the parchment paper to fold the pastry over the filling on the short sides.
  15. Again using the parchment paper, fold over one half. Fold the other half over top and make sure you’ve got at least 1″ of overlap.
  16. Seal the dough and use the parchment paper to roll the pastry over so that the seam is face down. Centre it on the baking sheet.
  17. Beat the egg with water to make an egg wash and use a pastry brush to coat the top and sides.
  18. Cut 8 slashes into the top to allow the steam to escape.
  19. Bake in the oven 35 minutes or until the pastry is a golden brown.
  20. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 5 minutes before slicing.

This can be baked ahead and then just reheated for 20 minutes in a 400 F oven.

Serves 4 as a main dish.



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