Beet Wellington

Preparation

1. In a food processor, pulse the nuts/ seeds into a course rubble and set aside.
2. In a bowl, combine dry couscous with 2 cups boiling water, cover and set aside to re-hydrate. (you can use millet, amaranth, quinoa, anything, but if you wanted to use leftover large grain starch, pulse in the food processor.)
3. Finely chop red onions and mince garlic.
4. Grate (if your fingers will let you... mine refuse.) or rough chop peeled carrots and beetroot, transfer to a food processor and pulse into a small dice, set aside.
5. Rough chop / dice mushrooms, set aside.
6. Loosely chop Sage leaves, and remove leaves from sprigs of thyme, measure out Soy Sauce/ Tamari and set aside.
7. Add oil to a reasonably large skillet or saucepan and warm to medium heat.

Cooking

1. Add onions and garlic to the oil in the pan, cook to fragrant and translucent.
2. Add carrots an beetroot, fry down for at least 2 minutes until they compress, so as not to overfill the pan.
3. Add mushrooms, soy sauce and a good pinch of salt and pepper (be warned that the soy sauce adds a lot of sodium already, so if unsure omit salt the first time you cook this dish).
4. Add herbs and seed/ nut rubble, stir through really well.
5. Once well combined, remove from heat and stir in the couscous or alternative thoroughly. Set aside to cook before storing or adding to pastry.

Assembly

1. Using two sheets of puff pastry (with canola not butter) dispense half of the filling to the center of each sheet, mold/ compress and assemble two large parcels. There may be excess filling depending on your wrapping skills... Alternatively you can make your own pastry an make one long parcel.
2. If cooking straight away, Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Very shallowly score the pastry shell with a sharp knife careful not to puncture the outer layer and arrange the parcel/s on a baking sheet. Brush or spray with your choice of neutral oil or plant milk.
3. Bake at 200 degrees celsius, for 15 - 20 minutes depending on your oven.
4. If not using straight away, wrap in cling film or a reusable airtight bag to reduce freezer burn and freeze.
5. When cooking a frozen wellington, (ideally defrost overnight, or at least four hours) increase time to 40 minutes unless certain it is completely defrosted. The filling will discolour to brown from red around the outer edge but it will be fantastic regardless.