The Best Smokey Vegan Sausage Rolls

Doing photo shoots with food is a funny thing. It’s not something I know or pretend to know much about, I just have a go and see what happens. I haven’t quite found my own style yet, I am quite haphazard and while I like warm rich tones, natural light and shadows that would indicate inside shots suit me best, I am often rushing to snap something before the sun goes down and as a result often photograph outside to catch the last remaining light.

I had to laugh at myself when I found myself frustrated that I didn’t know how to make sausage rolls look good. Does one stack sausage rolls, or line them up in a neat little line?

Who cares how they look? They taste great!

I find myself doing strange things to try and get a photo that I’m happy with. Grabbing random props, whatever is within arm’s reach. This time some fresh lettuce from the garden for some colour. I don’t know why you would serve a whole stack of sausage rolls with two leaves of lettuce, but I was not pondering the realistic nature of the arrangement at this time.

As I said – I am no photographer, though I have come a long way since the first posts on this blog, where we were living and traveling in our van, cooking on a little gas stove and snapping photos with a phone on the grass outside our van door. Those were the days! Hopefully one day I will be able to bring round two of van life cooking to you, but for now you’ll have to settle for these awkwardly captured sausage rolls.

The Best Smokey Vegan Sausage Rolls

3 sheets prepared puff pastry
450g tempeh
1 small onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/2 cup walnuts
1 carrot, grated
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp smoked paprkia
1/4 cup parsley, roughly chopped
Salt and Pepper
2 Tbsp soy milk
Sesame seeds for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 200C and grease or line a couple of baking trays.

Crumble tempeh with your hands into a large bowl. Mix in onion and garlic.

Put walnuts in a processor and pulse a few times or roughly chop so that they are smallish. Add to the bowl. Do the same with the oats – pulse a few times. You could use quick oats or leave them whole, but this is how I roll.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and stir well to combine. Taste for seasoning.

Cut each piece of puff pastry in half. Place filling down the centre of each half and roll up. Cut to the desired size. Lay out on baking trays (give them a little space to puff). Slash the top of each sausage roll a few times with a sharp knife, then brush with soy milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Cook for 25-30 mins, until puffy and golden brown.