What better way to clean out your fridge than to turn it’s straggling components
Into a delicious savoury vegan sausage puff pastry?
It’s been so gross outside lately even though it’s supposed to be spring, so I find myself reaching again for comfort foods instead of the bright and vibrant spring produce that would be popping up otherwise. Root vegetables, hearty greens, members of the brassica family and crisp, buttery things. My body is ready for sunshine and warm weather and my skin has had enough of this dry, gross flip-flopping of temperature.
I have been experimenting with more vegan and cruelty-free makeup, which is new and exciting. Growing up, I loathed makeup. I was traumatized by my first experience with my mom, who on my 7th birthday, nearly pinned me down to apply eyeliner for birthday photos. I particularly remember being teary eyed and upset when my friends showed up for my birthday party.
But I did get some Spice Girls pens and a signed (albiet printed) poster of all the Spice Girls which I think I had up until I helped my parents clean out my old room, in which the frame broke and tore the poster. SO MUCH SORROW.
I started wearing eyeliner on my own in high school when I went through a sort of punk-rock phase and I was self-conscious that my eyes were tiny, but I had no idea what I was doing, even though one of my best friends was basically a beauty guru by the time she was 14. Now she’s an aesthetician so it all makes sense. I remember her eyebrow game was always so good, even when we were kids. Every time I see her, I get a little bit better and better at makeup. But for the most part, I could only do one thing: a cat-eye with eye-liner to compensate for one of my eyes being bigger than the other, thanks to having one monolid and one double-lid.
I started playing around with makeup a little bit more starting about two years ago—meaning it’s taken me TWO years to finally muster the patience to master my eyebrows. The game changer was when I figured out I could wet the eyebrow brush to apply my powder once my pencil had run out. Now I just use the powder and the brush, no need for the expensive pencil. But now I’ve figured out foundation, bronzer, blush, and I’ve even experimented a tiny bit with smokey eye, although it sometimes is a little bit intense for me, so there are days where I just stick to my classic cat-eye and some filled-in brows.
I’m by no means a beauty guru, but I think I might start doing videos where I talk about make-up. I’ll still keep my channel mostly about food, but I know it can be hard to find cruelty-free and vegan products to fit Asian features, because Asia gives nearly zero cares about animal welfare, and most cosmetics here are geared towards Caucasian complexions.
In the meantime, check out the video version of this recipe! It seems less intimidating of a recipe on video than it does in words, I promise! And be sure to like, comment, and subscribe to my channel because it’s a wee baby channel that needs your TLC <3
Vegan Sausage Puffs
Ingredients
- 2 flax eggs 2 tbsp flax meal + 6 tbsp warm water
- 2 tsp oil I used grapeseed
- 1 medium onion finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 stalks celery finely diced
- 1 medium carrot finely diced
- 1-2 tbsp water
- 1/4 cup + 2-3 tbsp white wine with sweet notes depending on the look of your mixture, you could also just use water
- 1 banana pepper seeded and finely diced
- 1 1/2 cups purple cabbage finely diced (about 1/4 of a medium purple cabbage)
- 2 Apple Sage Field Roast sausages finely diced
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 2 cups chopped kale
- 1 cup chopped spinach
- 2 tbsp aquafaba canned chickpea water
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 vegan puff pastry thawed
Instructions
To make the filling:
- In a small bowl, combine flax meal and warm water. Stir and let sit to thicken while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- Preheat your pan over medium heat. Add oil and onion and cook until the onions are translucent.
- Add garlic and stir to cook for about a minute or two (until fragrant).
- To the pan, add celery and carrot. Use a tbsp or two of water to get things going. Cook until carrot is heated through with just a tiny bit of crunch to it, about 4-5 minutes.
- Deglaze the pan with a hearty glug of white wine (I probably used about 1/4 cup) and stir to cook it off. Add banana pepper and purple cabbage and cook until those are heated through, about 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in diced vegan sausage, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin and chili powder for about 2-3 minutes until everything is heated through.
- Add chopped kale and another few tbsps of white wine (or water) to steam up the kale. Once barely wilted, finally add in the spinach. Turn off the heat and stir to combine everything (the remaining heat should wilt the spinach).
- Transfer to a separate mixing bowl (to stop the mixture from cooking) and stir in the prepared flax egg. Set aside.
To prepare the puffs:
- Preheat your oven to 400ºF (200ºC)
- Pull out your thawed puff pastry and roll it out about 1/8 inch thick on a well-floured surface. Cut into 6 pieces. Fill each piece with about 1/3-1/2 cup of filling and pinch the edges closed. I crimped mine but that pretty much did absolutely nothing as you saw in the video, so you can take a knife and gently run it along the edges of the filling (maybe about 1/2 inch from the edge) to separate a "crust" for the pastry.
- Use a baster to paint some aquafaba over the top and over the edges well to ensure a golden browning and prevent it from burning.
- Garnish each pastry with a couple turns of freshly ground black pepper, then bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating halfway through.
- Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve immediately!
- Leftovers can be stored in the fridge once cooled completely, then reheated either in a toaster oven or in the microwave, but it'll be crispier in the toaster oven.
- I had leftover filling, which is great over rice or quinoa, and good as a side dish (or main, actually).
Emma {Emma's Little Kitchen} says
These look like the ultimate comfort food treat! Yum!!
Lisa Le says
Thanks! They are super tasty, you can make them for dinner any time! It doesn’t have to be a need for comfort food =)
Johanna Woodbury says
Thanks, you’re wonderful!
Lisa Le says
^_^
Caroline says
Lisa (and anyone else),
Please tell me what brand of vegan puff pastry you use, and do you order it online or pick it up at your local store?
Thanks!
Lisa Le says
I’ve used Pepperidge farm, and whatever the non-branded stuff at whole foods is! There are like 5 ingredients and they’re all vegan! If I remember to take a picture I’ll share it on FB =)
Brenda says
Oh makeup… To this day, the thing I’m by far best at with it is stage makeup. Which, if you’ve ever seen stage makeup up close, is not for daily wear. I might attempt a little more than that more often if I could find a set of decent really short brushes so I can get super close to the mirror and thus actually see WTF I’m doing if I don’t want to wear contacts. I will be eternally grateful, though, to have been blessed with eyebrows that are perfect enough that I’ve had people refuse to believe I don’t do any shaping whatsoever (Is that a humblebrag? Sorry.), because that’s at least one big eye framing thing that I’ve just never had to worry about. I guess throwing on a pair of dark chunky glasses helps with that too, depending on the look one is going for…
Also, I second the request for more info about where to find vegan puff pastry.
Lisa Le says
Oh yes! My back kills if I am trying to put on makeup in the mirror over the sink because I’m so blind. Humblebrag to your hearts content, you should be PROUD of amazingly shaped brows haha. I found vegan puff pastry at whole foods! Frozen section, near the phyllo pastry. Pepperidge farms is also vegan-friendly, but that’s not available in Canada, just US =/
genevieve @ gratitude and greens says
Hahahaha when Eddie tries to get a cookie!!! I’m loving the videos. And yes, I always forget where I’m going and for what… it happens more often than I’d like to admit. These vegan sausage puffs sound delish!! <3