Welcome to No Meat May! I'm super excited to share some of our family's favourite meat-free dishes with you this month! I'm pretty good at swapping out ingredients in recipes to make them healthier and vegan/vegetarian, but creating meat alternatives is definitely not my forte lol That's why I'm always keen to try other people's recipes. I marvel at the creations they come up with.

This month I invite you to try swapping out a meat recipe/dish for a meat-free alternative. I feel that the advantages of increasing vegetable consumption and decreasing meat consumption has been pretty well documented. So here is just a quick rundown:

- Lowers blood pressure

- Decreases cholesterol

- Decreases overall risk of Cardiovascular Disease (1 Australian suffers a heart attack or stroke every 4 minutes!)

- Decreases risk of bowel cancel (Australia's second greatest killer)

- Increases antioxidant and nutrient intake (hello more youthful skin and cells) 

- Increases overall life expectancy (yay to more of that!)

This recipe comes from a Vitamix recipe book (I'm not sure which one), but I thank them VERY much! It is seriously the BEST vegetarian sausage roll recipe that (honestly) even hard-sworn meat eaters will love! We always double the recipe as every wants to take leftovers for lunch.

Vegetarian Sausage Rolls

Ingredients

1 Brown onion

1 Tbs dried oregano

100g walnuts

90g rolled oats

3 eggs

15g feta cheese (vegan if you can find)

1 Tbs soy sauce

50g breadcrumbs

3 sheets puff pastry (Coles, Homebrand and Pamapas are all vegan options)

Milk for brushing

Sesame or poppy seeds for sprinkling (optional)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside

2. Layout the sheets of puff pastry to thaw while making mixture

3. Either chop brown onion by hand or use a chopping attachment on your food processor

4. Add dried oregano, walnuts and rolled oats to food processor. Pulse for 3 seconds. Scrape down sides with a spatula

5. Add eggs, feta, soy sauce and breadcrumbs. Process for 20 seconds

6. Cut puff pastry sheets in half

7. Place 1/6 of the mixture onto the long edge of 1 pastry sheet half and roll. Place on a baking tray. Repeat with remaining filling and pastry

8. Cut rolls into desired size (ex - normal sausage roll size or party roll size). the brush with plant-based milk (soy, almond or oat is a good option), then sprinkle with seeds if using

9. Bake for 20 minutes until crisp and golden. Try to allow them to cool a little before serving

Leftovers (if there are any!) can be stored in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days, or they can also be frozen.

If you're interested in incorporating more plant-based foods into your diet but aren't a fan of cooking, then check out our soups and salads :)