Crispy Butternut and Date Vegan Swirl

By: The Culinary Cartel

Cooking Technique

Keywords

4 servings, air fry, as needed, chickpeas drained, chopped, christmas, cook 40 min, cucumber, cut into bite-sized cubes, filo, finely sliced, fresh parsley, g vegan butter, garlic clove, lime, melted, mint leaves, pastry, peeled, pepper as needed, prep 20 min, red onion, vegan, vegetarian, yoghurt

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

40 min

Servings

4 Servings

Ingredients

300 g butternut squash peeled, cut into bite-sized cubes
400 g tinned chickpeas drained
3 onion finely sliced
70 g almonds chopped
12 g mint leaves
4 g fresh parsley
80 g dates chopped
1 garlic clove
6 filo
50 g vegan butter, melted
½ cucumber
60 ml coconut yoghurt
½ red onion
1 lime
Olive oil as needed
Salt as needed
Black pepper as needed

Instructions

Place your butternut chunks and chickpeas into the appliance basket. Drizzle over a little oil, and salt, then close the air frying drawer.
Select Air Fry, set the temperature to 190°C /375°F, and the time to 15 Minutes and press Start.
While the butternut squash & chickpeas cooks, caramelise your onions but sautéing them on a medium low heat, stirring occasionally until golden brown and sticky.
When the butternut squash and chickpeas are cooked, and the onions caramelized, combine them in a bowl with the almonds, mint, parsley, dates and garlic. Mix everything together until well combined, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
On a clean work surface, place a piece of filo pastry with the long edge facing away from you. Brush the filo lightly with melted butter.
Place another sheet of filo down overlapping the first by about 5cm (2 inch) to create a longer wide rectangle. Layer the remaining sheets of filo, on top of the first two, brushing melted vegan butter between the layers as you go.
Spoon the butternut filling along the long edge of the rectangle, forming a long sausage shape about 4cm (1.5 inch) thick. Squish the filling together with your hands to make it compact, and remove any large air pockets.
Roll the filo around the filling into a large long snake shape, then work quickly to roll the snake of pastry into a snail shape, then brush it with vegan butter.
Place the spiral pastry into a pie dish that can fit into your air fryer. (It is possible to cook the spiral without the pie dish, however the dish helps maintain the spiral shape.)
Select Air Fry on the air fryer and set the temperature to 170°C / 340°F and time to 25 Minutes and press Start.
Add the pie dish to the air fryer basket when prompted and ignore when prompted to turn food.
Cook the swirl until the pastry is a deep golden brown. (The spiral can be made in advance, and cooked, and reheated in the vortex on the reheat function until warmed through.)
While the spiral cooks, make your salad and tzatziki. Cut a 5cm (2 inch) chunk off your cucumber, reserving the larger half for the salad. Grate the 5cm (2 inch) cucumber piece and drain any excess water.
Mix the grated cucumber with the coconut yogurt and finely chopped mint.
Halve the lime, squeezing a little lime juice into the tzatziki (about ½ tsp) and reserving the rest for the salad. Taste the tzatziki adding salt as needed. Set aside.
Thinly slice the red onion and add it to a bowl with a sprinkle of salt and squeeze the remaining lime juice. Toss everything together then set the onions aside to soften and pickle.
Once the Crispy Butternut and Date Vegan Swirl is cooked dice your remaining cucumber into chunks and toss it with the pickled red onion and lime juice, and remaining mint leaves.
Season the salad with salt and pepper, then serve with the vegan swirl.