The New Sausage Roll

It’s hard to go past a freshly baked sausage roll, with its luscious layers of buttery crisp puff pastry. But here’s a much healthier version you can indulge in more often — and even I was surprised at how tasty these are! A commercially made sausage roll typically has more than six times the saturated fat, double the calories, and more than double the carbohydrates as these ones... so tuck in.

INGREDIENTS Serves 4

  • 1 red onion, finely grated

  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped

  • 400 g (14 oz) tin butterbeans or borlotti beans, drained well 

  • 2 small or 1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely grated

  • 2 small or 1 large zucchini (courgette), coarsely grated

  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped sage

  • 11⁄2 teaspoons ground fennel or toasted fennel seeds

  • 1 cup (105 g) instant oats 

  • 300 g (101⁄2 oz) minced pork 

  • 1 egg, beaten, plus 1 egg yolk 

  • 11⁄2 teaspoons fine sea salt 

  • 15 sheets filo pastry (from a 375 g/13 oz packet)

  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing poppy seeds or sesame seeds

Chunky tomato ketchup, to serve

METHOD

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Place the onion, garlic and butterbeans in a large bowl. Using a stick blender or masher, work the mixture into a coarse paste.

  2. Using your hands, squeeze out and discard as much excess liquid as possible

  3. from the grated carrot and zucchini, then add them to the butterbean mixture with the sage, fennel, oats, pork, beaten egg and salt. Season with freshly ground black pepper and mix with your hands for about 1 minute, working the mixture until very well combined.

  4. Remove the filo pastry from the packet and keep covered with a damp tea towel. Stack five sheets of pastry on top of each other on a clean work surface, spraying well or lightly brushing with oil in between each layer. Divide the filling mixture into thirds. Starting at the longest side closest to you, shape one portion of the filling along all the way out to the two shorter edges. Roll up to enclose the filling, then carefully cut into four sausage rolls. Repeat with the remaining pastry and filling.

  5. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk with the 2 tablespoons oil. Lightly and evenly brush the mixture all over the sausage rolls. Lightly sprinkle poppy seeds or sesame salt along the centre of each.

  6. Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden and cooked through. Enjoy warm, with ketchup.

top tips

You can shape the filling into a meatloaf and bake it in a 4 cup (1 litre) loaf tin at 180°C (350°F), for about 40 minutes, until cooked through;

I like to serve the meatloaf with a potato and parsnip mash.

Instead of pork and sage in the filling or meatloaf, try beef and oregano, or lamb and rosemary.

make ahead

Filo pastry doesn’t freeze well once cooked, but you can refrigerate the cooked rolls in an airtight container for 3 days; gently reheat in the oven. A raw batch of filling can be frozen for up to 3 months, well wrapped and protected from freezer burn


almost 1 SERVE VEG per serve