Meatless Monday

Vegetable Strudel

I love food that has a crunch. The flaky and crispy Phyllo pastry with various textures of vegetables and spices makes this a fun and exiciting vegetarian entree.

Phyllo is a paper thin sheets of unleavened flour dough. You can find it in the freezer section of most super markets. A few stores carry whole wheat phyllo like Whole Foods.
There are two packs of 8 sheets in each box and for this recipe we used one package. The dough takes about one hour to thaw at room temperature in its plastic package.

The dough can dry out quickly once it is removed from the plactic.  So have all your ingredients ready before removing it from its plackaging. 
 

Vegetable Strudel

Yields 4-6 servings

Ingredients

• 3 Portobello caps, cleaned and cut into strips
•  8 pieces Butternut Squash sliced into 2 inch x ¼ inch long strips
• 1 Red onion sliced
• 2 Japanese eggplant cut lengthwise into 4 slices each
• 1 zucchini, cut into 2-inch long strips
• 1 yellow squash, cut into 2-inch long strips
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper                                                
• 2 garlic minced
• 2 cups baby spinach
• ¼ teaspoon thyme
• Pinch nutmeg
• 8 sheets Phyllo dough
• Nonstick cooking spray ( Can use grape seed, Olive or canola oil)
• Tomato Vodka  Sauce

Directions

Prep vegetables and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, toss all the cut vegetables with olive oil, garlic thyme and nutmeg until each piece is coated and then sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Transfer the vegetables to a baking sheet and roast until tender about 15 minutes. Allow the vegetables to cool and then place them in a large bowl. Toss in baby spinach. Turn the oven temperature to 425 degrees F.

Lay one sheet of Phyllo lengthwise on cutting board and spray with cooking oil. Top the oil sheet with another and spray the sheet with cooking spray and then stack with another sheets so that there are 4 layers. Repeat with the remaining four sheets so that you have two sets of 4 layers of Phyllo dough.

Turn the Phyllo lengthwise vertically and place about 1/2 of vegetable mixture in the center of each stack. Roll up and tuck in the sides to make a strudel. Make several slits on top of each strudel. Spray the outsides of strudel with cooking spray, place on a parchment paper line baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 20- 25 minutes.
Let the Vegetable Strudel rest a few minutes before slicing and serving.
Warm Tomato Vodka sauce in a saupe pot over medium flame and spoon sauce on plate then place a slice of Strudel on top and garniah with fresh basil or parsely.