Vegetable Strudel

May6

Even though I am not partial to sweets, I love anything baked with apples: apple pie, apple crisp, apple jacks (perhaps these are a Winnipeg thing), apple platz (definitely a Winnipeg thing) and apple strudel. After years of being timid about working with phyllo pastry, I had to step up to the plate when a food styling gig that I was contracted for, demanded that I make my first fruit strudel. What did I discover? Working phyllo is a piece of cake.

I had some phyllo dough in the freezer and decided that a vegetable strudel would make not only a perfect dinner that evening but that left overs would be handy for lunch. I love spanakopita (a Greek pastry filled with spinach and feta), so I worked up a recipe that would spring off of it.

Vegetable Strudel

Author: Food Musings

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Mediteranean

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 75 mins

Total time: 1 hour 45 mins

Serves: 10

Next time I was serve it with a light tomato sauce to moisten up a bit more.

Ingredients

2 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 tomato, diced
1 big handful of mushrooms, quartered
1 t canola oil
1 t salt
½ t pepper
1 T fresh rosemary, needles pulled from stem
2 c cooked barley
1 c feta cheese, crumbled
1 pkg. phyllo sheets
3 T canola oil
½ c breadcrumbs

Instructions

Roast all veggies in a preheated oven 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, turning once during roasting.
Place veggies in a large bowl and add cooked barley and crumbled feta.
Add salt & pepper, taste and adjust if necessary.
Keep phyllo wrapped in the plastic while working with it or cover with a damp tea towel.
Count out sheets and use half the number for half of the veggie mixture.
Place a sheet of phyllo on a clean counter, brush with oil and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Repeat using half the total number of sheets.
Place half the filling along the edge of the stack.
Roll up lengthwise, transfer to a baking sheet that has been sprayed with canola oil.
Repeat with second strudel.
Slash top layers of phyllo on a diagonal in serving sized pieces and brush with any remaining oil.
Bake in a preheated oven of 400 degrees for 45 minutes until well browned and crisp.

Kath’s quote: “You may feel that you have eaten too much…But this pastry is like feathers – it is like snow. It is in fact good for you, a digestive!”
-M.F.K. Fisher