I saw this on the plant based pixie blog and just couldn’t resist making my own version. Such a fun idea for Christmas and although a little fiddly, totally worth it for the awe and wonder from your guests when they see their plate.
I decided to adapt this recipe to make it an all round lighter dish, as I was serving 12 dishes for Christmas (as a play on the 12 days). The original recipe has a puy lentil filling and also sounds delicious but I used a quinoa filling. I also made a cashew nut mushroom sauce to go underneath to ensure a variety of tastes and textures on the plate.
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa (cooked with organic vegetable broth)
- 1 clove of garlic (minced)
- 1 thumb (5cm x 5cm) ginger, grated
- 1 bunch spring onions (thinly sliced, white parts only)
- 1 tbsp. coconut oil
- Salt and pepper to season
- 10 filo sheets (usually 1 pack – leaves one for practice in case something goes wrong)
- A little more coconut oil or olive oil for brushing pastry
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180c/350f
- Heat the coconut oil and add spring onions, ginger and garlic, fry for 30 seconds and then add the quinoa.
- Mix thoroughly for a few minutes, season and leave to cool
- Take one of the pastry sheets, fold it in half so it forms a square, and place some of the filling in the middle but closer to the bottom rather than the top. Leave a gap of a few cm on the left and right.
- Brush the top and bottom edges with a little olive oil.
- Roll it up from bottom to top then tie the ends with string like. Be careful not to pull too hard (they are not shoe laces) as you may break the filo pastry
- See below pictures for process steps
- Use olive oil to seal the edge
- Place on a lined baking tray and repeat for each of the subsequent Christmas crackers
- Brush with olive oil/egg wash all over
- Bake in the oven for 10 minutes on each side
