This is a great dish for a meal or can stand alone as an appetizer on a bed of Arugula or as a side with some fish or meat. I call it a Vegetarian Strudel as it uses pre seasoned/cooked in-season vegetables baked in a golden sheet of puff pastry. The best part of this recipe is the filling can be varied to include your favourite vegetables or what ever is in season at the time. Just make your filling tasty, the rest will fall into place. I made a large roll here, but you can make it smaller, like turnovers. Limitless possibilities.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup red pepper, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon ginger, chopped
2 cups thinly sliced leeks, white part only
1 cup zucchini, thinly sliced
1 cup fennel, thinly sliced
10 shiitake mushroom caps, sliced
1 Jalapeno Chili
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons mint, chopped
1½ cups smoked mozzarella, grated
1/2 package PC Puff Pastry, defrosted
1 egg, beaten
Method
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Heat olive oil in skillet on medium-high heat. Add red pepper and sauté for 2 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, leeks, zucchini, fennel and mushrooms. Sauté until tender-crisp, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and remove from heat. Let cool 5 minutes. Stir in mint and cheese. Let cool completely. If it is not completely cooled, the bottom of your puff pastry will remain soft and soggy – I think the technical term for this is – yucky!
Un-roll the pastry. Pile the vegetables (do not add any liquid that may have seeped out of the cooking/cooling process – only add the thick gooey – another technical term, stuff) onto the bottom third of the pastry leaving a 1-inch wide border along the edges. Brush all sides with the beaten egg. Using the wax paper on the puff pastry, roll into a log. Place seam side down on parchment-lined cookie sheet. Brush with egg. Use a sharp knife to cut four slashes along top of strudel. Sprinkle some coarse salt and pepper or grated parmesan cheese on top before baking. Don’t use too much cheese on the top as it will burn, just a light sprinkling to give it some additional colour and texture when you bite into it.
Bake for 17 to 20 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.
Cool to room temperature before slicing. As always – enjoy!
Vegetable Strudel