Cashew & Tomato Savoury Strudel

Cashew & Tomato Savoury Strudel

We’ve just finished watching all of the TV series ‘Hannibal’ and it really makes you want to cook (In almost every episode there is a dinner scene of a very fine dining nature - admittedly very non vegetarian but it's the idea of fine dining nonetheless). So we decided with all these urges to cook to go all out on a fancy meal. This is the main in our dinner (Courgette Nests with Sun-dried Tomato & Sesame starter, Lemon Macaroon Cream Pie dessert)

Ingredients:

1 packet puff pastry (defrosted to instructions)

1 packet shortcrust pastry (optional) (defrosted to instructions)

1 red pepper (we used one in a jar for flavour)

3-4 sun-dried tomatoes

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

3-4 florets broccoli

1 packet cashews

1 handful spinach

1-2 tbsp tomato puree

1/2 cup tomato passata

Spices/herbs: thyme, black pepper, paprika, mint (to taste)

Preheat oven to 180°

1. Soak the cashews and then blend to a chunky consistency in a blender. Finely chop the red pepper, broccoli, spinach and sundried tomatoes. Mix in a bowl with the cashews and spices/herbs. 

2. If using both the shortcrust and puff pastry (The Jus roll brand puff pastry comes in squares we discovered, so this little mistake resulted in a good idea)- roll out the shortcrust pastry and place the squares of the puff pastry on it. Alternatively, just use a roll of puff pastry.

3. Spread the tomato puree and passata over the pastry. Then add the vegetable mix. Roll up starting from one edge into a log. With a brush or likewise, coat the log with soya milk to create that sheen. Put in oven for ~30mins.

We enjoyed it with some fragrant rice, and with some Chianti (but no fava beans admittedly) of course.