Mushroom and Pumpkin Wellington

This vegetarian wellington is a great alternative to a meat free roast. Flakey puff pastry covering a delicious savoury filling full of flavour. Perfect for holiday gatherings or Sunday roast.

Ingredients (This recipe makes 2 small wellingtons)

• 2 sheets of puff pastry

• 400 grams of mixed mushrooms roughy chopped into small peanut size pieces(I used a mixture portobello, oyster, cremini, maitake and white buttons. You can also just use white or portobello only)

• 1/2 a small butternut pumpkin diced into 2 cm cubes

• 250 grams of spinach

• 2 medium brown onions

• 6 cloves garlic minced

• 6 sprigs fresh thyme

• 1 tsp dried oregano or Italian herbs

• 1 tsp chilli powder

• 1 tbsp salt

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tsp Dijon mustard

• 1 tbsp lemon

• 1/4 cup of bread crumbs

• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

• 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

• pepper to taste

• 2 tbsp honey

• 1/4 cup of olive oil

• 2 tbsp olive oil for roasting pumpkin

• 1 egg

Methods

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees celsius

2. In a large bowl add pumpkin, 2 tbsp olive oil, honey 2 cloves of minced garlic, 2 sprigs of thyme, salt and pepper and mix until pumpkin is coated.

3. Roast pumping for 15-20 minutes. Pumpkin should not be golden or too overly cooked.

4. In a large pan add in 1/4 cup of olive oil bring to heat before adding onions and rest of garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes.

5. Add in mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes until mushrooms are tender. Add in balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, chilli powder, thyme, italian herbs, salt and pepper to mushrooms and sauté for another minute.

6. Add in pumpkin and spinach and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

7. Add in lemon juice, bread crumbs and cheese and stir through on heat for an additional 2 minutes.

8. Mixture should not be too wet and not too dry. If too wet add more bread crumbs if too dry add more soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. This recipe is a lot about balancing flavours so constantly taste mixture and add to mixture what it needs.

9. Line baking tray with baking paper. Lay puff pastry and place mixture on one side of puff pastry leaving about 1-2 cm to seal. Fold over the pastry and seal edges by using a fork or pressing hard on edges. Use a fork to puncture small holes into puff pastry to stop pastry from overly rising in oven.

10. Whisk egg and with a brush cover pastry with egg.

11. Bake for 20-25 minutes until pastry becomes golden and flakey.