If you’re already thinking about your Christmas starter, then you could do a lot worse than these vegan leek and cheese parcels. Pan-fried leeks with garlic and cheese, wrapped in a crunchy filo pastry parcel and dipped in a luxurious forest fruit dipping sauce. If you’re having family over, then this is guaranteed to impress. Even if you’re not considering it for Christmas, it’ll still make a great canapé for any parties you’re planning.
If you enjoy the recipes here, please show your support for this blog by clicking on the ads to help keep the free content coming!
You can make these a day in advance, just make sure they are tightly covered so that the pastry doesn’t dry out. They take fifteen minutes to cook in the oven, but you do need to keep an eye on them as the ends start to burn very quickly. These parcels might seem complicated to look at, but they’re really not that difficult to make. I would advise being careful when pulling the parcel together, as this can sometimes split the pastry and cause the filling to leak out of the bottom a little. Some of them split while I was making mine, but I carried on regardless and there was no major disaster.
Leek and cheese are just one of endless options to fill these parcels. Replacing the leeks with mushrooms would be a great alternative. You could also switch to more east Asian ingredients and dip them in some tamari with lime juice. Indian style cooking would also suit them quite well, which would be great dipped in homemade mango chutney (you can find a recipe for that in my book Going Vegan). Try this recipe first. Once you’ve got that sorted, you can begin to experiment.
ORDER YOUR COPY OF MY COOKBOOK
GOING VEGAN FROM AMAZON
AVAILABLE IN BOTH PAPERBACK AND KINDLE FORMAT
Vegan Leek and Cheese Parcels
Ingredients
- For the Dipping Sauce:
- 200 g frozen forest fruits
- 75 ml orange juice
- 1 clove garlic bashed with the flat of a knife to crush it
- 100 g sugar
- Pinch salt
- ½ tsp harissa paste
- 2 tbsp redcurrant jelly
- For the Filling:
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 3 small or 1 ½ -2 large leeks, thinly sliced
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 150 ml plant-based milk
- 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
- 220 g vegan cheese cut into small cubes
- Salt and pepper to taste
- For the Pastry:
- 1 pack ready-made filo pastry make sure it’s vegan
- Plant milk for brushing
- Oil for brushing
Instructions
- First make the dipping sauce by putting all the ingredients into a saucepan and bringing to the boil. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until the sauce easily coats the back of a spoon. Allow to cool a little and then pass it through a fine strainer to get a smooth sauce. Set aside until ready to serve.
- To make the parcel filling, heat the oil in a frying pan and then sauté the leeks for 8-10 minutes, until they are soft. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two more, then add the milk, mustard and cheese. Stir in and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste and simmer for 2-3 minutes, until you have a thick sauce. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat the oven to gas 6/200C/400F and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
- Lay out a single sheet of filo pastry, cut it in half and then half again. This will still be too large, so now fold this piece in half, so that you have a double square sheet of pastry. Brush with a little pant milk and then put about 1 ½ tsp of the filling onto the middle of the pastry (see picture). Bring all the edges of the pastry up around the filling so that they all come together at the top. Do this gently to avoid splitting the pastry at the bottom as best you can. When all the ends are together, give them a slight twist to form a sort of flour shape, then squeeze gently with your fingers in the middle to press it together. The milk should hold it in shape.
- Place it on your lined baking sheet and then repeat the process until you have used up either all the pastry or all the filling. The parcels don’t have to be far apart on the tray, but you don’t want them touching. You should get about 25, so you may need to cook them in batches. Gently brush all the parcels with oil.
- Place the sheet of parcels in the middle of the oven and cook for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them towards the end so that the tips of the pastry don’t burn too much. A little colour is good though.
- Serve hot or cold with the dipping sauce.
WANT TO LEARN TO COOK AMAZING VEGAN FOOD?
SIGN UP TO MY MEMBERSHIP SITE RICHARD CHURCH’S VEGAN COOK SCHOOL
AND GET UNLIMITED ACCESS TO ONLINE VEGAN COOKING CLASSES
Check out my latest recipes
Roasted Asparagus, Basil and Walnut Pesto Served with Baby Potatoes and Broad Beans
You can get asparagus imported all year round in most supermarkets, but British asparagus has its growth season between May and July, with early appearance often at the end of April. Now is the perfect time to make use to these green spears in your everyday cooking. My choice for this recipe was to roast…
Asparagus, Mushroom and Leek Pastries
April 23rd marks the start of asparagus season and we are now starting to see British asparagus appear on the shelves. Young asparagus is a thin and tender vegetable that is perfect for cooking a variety of dishes. It cooks quickly, so you must keep an eye on it. The more mature plant is thicker…
Vegan Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
What is it about a plate of plump vegan meatballs in a rich tomato sauce, nestled comfortably on a soft pillow of spaghetti that is so satisfying even before a single mouthful is taken? It is a dish where even the sight and smell of it has its own umami. It creates thrilling anticipation from…
Vegan Enchiladas
To veganise something like Enchiladas now is incredibly easy with the variety of ingredients available in most supermarkets. For this one I have used fresh vegan mince, along with mushrooms and onions for the chilli base. Don’t worry if you don’t like eating vegan mince, you can always substitute this chilli for my Sweet Potato,…
Spanish Lentils with Vegan Chorizo and Black Pudding
I first tried this dish about 25 years ago, when my Spanish girlfriend made it for me in a bedsit we shared in North London back in the mid-nineties. It was cooked on one of those old Baby Belling stoves that you would often see in bedsits back in those days (they might still have…
Vegan Fudge Cookies
We’ve been enjoying packets of vegan fudge in our house for quite a while now and a recent conversation with my wife got me thinking about how great it would be to have the fudge in a cookie, just like it was chocolate chip. This recipe is the product of that discussion: a very simple…
Potato, Courgette and Leek Gratin
With the products available now, a traditional gratin is very easy to turn into a vegan meal. Having good quality alternatives to butter, milk, cream and cheese are essential to giving the gratin its uniquely rich flavour. Thankfully, all of these are now easily obtainable in most supermarkets, giving us the option of having a…
Aubergine Parmigiana
The first thing you will notice when you look at this recipe for vegan Aubergine Parmigiana is that I haven’t used any vegan parmesan cheese. This was a personal choice because I thought the cheese I was using (vegan Cathedral City) had an intense enough flavour that I didn’t need it. That doesn’t mean that…
20
20
20
20