Green bean Greek casserole and kickass sausage rolls.

Green bean Greek Casserole:

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. green beans, cleaned and trimmed
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-3 medium potatoes, cut in large wedges
• A large handful of baby carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• 4-5 ripe tomatoes, skinned and crushed (substitute 1 cup canned crushed tomatoes)
• 1½ cups warm water
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. chopped fresh dill
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a large Dutch oven or pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about one minute.

Add the green beans, potatoes, and carrots to the pot. Dissolve the tomato paste in the water and add, along with the crushed tomatoes, parsley, and sugar. Lower the heat to medium low and simmer covered for about an hour or until the green beans are tender but not mushy.

In the last ten minutes of cooking, add the chopped fresh dill and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Note: Be sure to monitor your liquid levels while the beans are cooking. You can add a little bit of water if needed.

Vegan sausage rolls (from Where's the Beef?)

125g pecans
stale bread to make ~1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 onion
300g silken tofu
1 cup rolled oats
1 Massel beef-style stock cube
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons soy sauce (you can use less - the end result will be less salty and brown, and therefore less resemble a 'real' sausage roll)
ground pepper, to taste
3-4 frozen puff pastry sheets (~25cm square, Borg's is vegan)
water or vegan milk for brushing pastry
sesame seeds

My preferred way of prepping this filling makes maximum use of my food processor. If you don't have one, chopping and mashing will do the job just fine. Start by processing the pecans until they're thoroughly chopped, but not all gone to powder. Tip them into a large mixing bowl, then toss the bread into the food processor and whizz it until it's crumbs. Toss the crumbs in with the pecans and move onto the onion. Chop it into 8 chunks and process them briefly until they've a 'finely chopped' kinda texture. Add them to the mixing bowl, and finally whizz up the tofu until it's a smooth mush. Add it to the mixing bowl, as well as the rest of the filling ingredients: rolled oats, a crumbled-up stock cube, garlic powder, soy sauce and pepper. Stir everything together well.

Now preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and lightly grease a baking tray. Thaw out your puff pastry, and slice each sheet in half so that it makes two rectangles. Spoon the filling down the centre third of each pastry rectangle; lightly brush another third with water or milk and then roll the pastry, starting from the empty third and tucking it into the brushed third. Slice the roll into halves, thirds or quarters as you wish and place them on the baking tray. Make a couple more diagonal cuts in the top of the roll, brush the top with more water/milk and sprinkle over some sesame seeds. Repeat with the remaining filling and pastry. Bake the rolls for about 20 minutes, until they're golden brown and flaky. Serve with lots of sauce