vegetable & mushroom phyllo strudel’s

I was inspired to make this recipe for a few reasons. The first being when I cleaned out my chest freezer I found an oldish roll of phyllo pastry which needed to be used. The second was seeing a recipe on Pinterest for a vegetable strudel which looked stunning and sparked the idea of a savoury strudel. And the third was needing to clear a few leftover veggies lying around my fridge because I hate wasting food.

My original intention was to add feta to the veggies, but I forgot to put it in, but this would make it even nicer and more of a complete vegetarian meal.

I’m not going to include a concise recipe here because this is so easy to work out using whatever filling you enjoy. Just keep it fairly firm and not too sloppy with too much sauce.

The most important thing is not to feel intimidated by phyllo, its actually really easy to work with and very forgiving if you make mistakes and tear it. In this particular instance, my phyllo had gone a bit dry, so I landed up making 3 smaller strudels vs one long one like I had done with my chocolate Christmas pudding strudel last year. It was simply easier to work with smaller sheets.

To find out a little more about how to handle phyllo you can check out my recipes for: zesty spinach and phyllo pies, or my leek, mushroom and Parmesan pies. The most important thing is to not let the phyllo dry out, and when putting it back in the freezer of fridge for future use, to seal it tightly in its plastic bag.

To make the roasted vegetable strudel, simply roast  whatever vegetables you like or have on hand –  like zucchini, peppers, butternut and aubergine – in a splash of olive oil in a 200 C oven for about 20 minutes until just cooked through and starting to caramelise. You can add herbs (like thyme), or a few roughly sliced garlic cloves. Season with salt and pepper when it comes out the oven and allow to cool slightly before making the strudel. Crumble feta into the filling if you like. Chilli could spice it up nicely too.

To make the mushroom filling, I sauteed a selection of sliced mushrooms in a little butter, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper and I added a splash of creme fraiche at the end to give it richness. You can do whatever you like. Crumbled feta or grated Parmesan cheese would work really well with this too.

Prepare the phyllo sheets, I think 3 or 4 is perfect for this, by brushing melted butter over the entire surface of each sheet before placing the next sheet directly on top and repeating this. If you are making a large strudel using a full sheet of pastry, spread the filling across the surface area like I did with the Christmas chocolate pudding, allowing a few centimeters at the ends to tuck it in and roll it up. If you are making small ones, using half a sheet of phyllo like I did here, simply make a sausage shape with the filling on one end and then roll it up, tucking the ends in as you go.

Place them on a baking tray and don’t forget to brush the tops with melted butter. Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 180 C for about 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown.

This is a perfect and complete vegetarian supper, but can also be served as bit of a showy side dish for any meat, chicken or fish.

I look forward to connecting with you again