Mushroom, lentil & Nut Wellington

A rich mushroom,lentil and nut wellington in golden short crust pastry. The most luxurious pie to serve up as a vegetarian and vegan main course with roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy for Sunday roast or Christmas dinner!

This vegan mushroom wellington is a crisp, golden short crust pastry pie stacked full of flavour and texture

Layers of hummus, wilted spinach, mushroom pate and a mixture of thyme scented mushrooms, lentils and nuts

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced finely
• 1 kg chestnut mushrooms, chopped
• 1 tsp thyme
• 4 tbsp red wine
• ½ vegetable stock cube
• 100g salted cashew nuts or peanuts
• 2 tbsp porridge oats
• 200g tinned green lentils, rinsed and drained well
• 1 ready roll shortcrust pastry
• 100g spinach
• 6 tbsp hummus

Method:

Preheat oven to 200ºC/180ºC for fan assist oven. Take the pastry out from the fridge. Place the roll pastry on a plate and let it come to room temperature so it doesn't crack when unrolled.

In a large frying pan, saute the onion and garlic in 1 tbsp olive oil until it is soft, then add the mushrooms and cook them gently until they are soft as well. Season with salt and pepper then add thyme, red wine and crumble in the half a stock of cube. Gently cook until all the juices are gone, then turn off the heat.

In a blender or food processor, whizz up a third of the mushrooms with the oats and nuts until you have a pate texture. Set aside.

Add the lentils to the rest of the mushroom mixture in the frying pan and mix well.

Rinse the spinach and then wilt the spinach  by pouring boiling water over it. Refresh it with cold water, squeeze out as much water as you can then pat dry on kitchen paper or kitchen towel.

Carefully unroll the pastry and place it on a large baking tray, still on the baking paper it was rolled in.

Spread the hummus along the long side of the pastry leaving a boarder. Top with layer of wilted spinach and the mushroom pate. Next top with the mushroom and lentil mixture.

Brush a little water around the edges of the pastry. Pull the pastry over the filling and seal to make a large sausage roll shape. I decided to make mine in a square meant for one feeding ( and freeze the rest) Crimp the edges with a fork and use a knife to cut diagonal slits on the top to let out steam. Brush wit the rest of the olive oil.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden crisp. Serve slices ( mine is individual parcel) with roasted potatoes, vegetables and gravy.