by Sabrina Ghayour from Bazaar: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes (Mitchell Beazley www.octopusbooks.co.uk)
Photography: Kris Kirkham
Bastilla is traditionally a celebratory Moroccan dish made with pigeon, but I've made this with leftover roasted vegetables – which is how this version was born. You can pretty much throw anything together with Moroccan spices, dried fruits and nuts and turn it into something beautiful, so this makes an impressive centrepiece – yet ridiculously easy to make.
Nigel’s Notes;. This would make a great dish for your Christmas Vegetarian/Vegan guests. I made this using a pack of Just Rol Filo Pastry 270g. You could also add other fruits such as dates or cranberries and pistachios for a more jewelled Christmassy appearance. Or how about adding chestnuts instead of or as well as the pistachios or almonds.
Freeze ahead; Make up until step using a 24- 26 cm quiche tin. Wrap and freeze at the end of step 9. Defrost or cook from frozen. Cook in the oven for 40- 50min. Invert half way cooking onto a baking sheet. As it is taking longer to cook in the oven, be careful not to over cook the pastry. Cover with foil if it starts to over brown.
Nigel’s Zero Waste Tip:
Save the peelings and make them into a veggie stock.
Serves 6–8
Ingredients
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp garlic granules
750g celeriac, peeled and cut into 2.5cm cubes
750g butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 2.5cm cubes
500g carrots, peeled and cut into 2.5cm chunks
500g parsnips, peeled and cut into 2.5cm chunks
olive oil
50g flaked almonds
50g pine nuts
100g ready-to-eat dried apricots, roughly chopped
50g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
4 tbsps clear honey
finely grated zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
6 sheets of filo pastry (each about 48 x 25cm) Nigel used a Just Rol pack 270g
75g butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC (200ºC fan), Gas Mark 7. Line your 2 largest baking trays with baking paper.
2. Mix all the spices and garlic granules together in a bowl. Put the vegetables into a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle over the spice blend, drizzle liberally with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper, then use your hands to mix until the vegetables are well coated.
3. Divide the mixture between the 2 prepared trays and roast for about 45 minutes, opening the oven door halfway through the cooking time to allow the steam to escape.
4. Once the edges of the vegetables start to brown, remove the trays from the oven and allow the vegetables to cool. At this point you can refrigerate the vegetables to use later.
5. Roughly chop the cooled root vegetables and put them into a large mixing bowl along with the nuts, dried apricots, parsley, honey and lemon zest and juice.
6. Add a generous extra seasoning of salt and mix well using a large spoon, ensuring you don’t mash the vegetables too much (but mashing them a little is actually quite nice!)
7. Preheat the oven to 220ºC (200ºC fan), Gas Mark 7. Line the largest baking tray you have with baking paper.
8. Select a large frying pan, about 26cm in diameter. (See Nigel’s Notes) Line the pan with a pastry sheet, leaving the end overhanging (you need plenty of overhang to be able to fold this over the top of the filling), then lay the remaining pastry sheets on top in a clockwise direction.
9. Tip the filling mixture into the centre and flatten it out to make a firm disc. Fold the overhanging pastry over the filling and brush the pastry with the melted butter to seal the pastry together.
10, Place the prepared baking tray upside-down over the pan and invert the bastilla on to the tray.
Brush the top of the pastry with the beaten egg. Bake for 25–30 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve immediately.
