Butternut Squash and Chickpea Wellington

When I spoke to you guys, a lot of you wanted a vegetarian main option for Christmas dinner. So here is a delicious and simple sweet potato and chickpea wellington. Last year I actually had a shop bought butternut squash wellington and it was beautiful, I didn't miss meat at all. To be honest though, as long as I have vegetables, potatoes and gravy I'm good. I think a lot of us stress about the overwhelm that comes with Christmas dinner. But it's just another roast with a few more people. Prep is the key to feeling level headed in the kitchen. You can easily make this sweet potato mixture one to two days before, cover it and pop it in the fridge until you are ready.

My main tip here is to allow all the steam to escape from the sweet potato before you pop it into the pastry. This will stop your pastry from getting soggy and too moist. The chickpeas help this to become a more filling addition to your meal and with added protein, replace the proteins you usually find in meat. If you didn't want to roast the sweet potatoes, you could steam them instead. It all gets mashed the same way. I just adore the way roasting adds to the flavour.

Butternut Squash and Chickpea Wellington

Serves: 4Prep time: 10 minsCook time: 1 hour, 25 minsTotal time: 1 Hour, 35 mins

Ingredients

• 3 large sweet potatoes, roasted
• 1 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rubbed dry
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp spicy paprika
• 1 tsp mild curry powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp fresh thyme
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• Pre-made shortcrust pastry, room temperature
• 1 egg, beaten

Prep ahead: You can easily make this sweet potato mixture one to two days before, cover it and pop it in the fridge until you are ready.

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 220c/gas mark 8-9/400-450f.
2. Pop sweet potatoes onto a baking tray and roast for 50 mins or until soft. Scoop out flesh into a bowl and leave to cool and all steam to escape.
3. Mix sweet potato with chickpeas, cornflour and spices, mash and combine.
4. Roll out pastry onto a floured tray (this means not having to move it which is difficult).
5. Scoop sweet potato mixture onto one side of the rolled out pastry, leaving a 2 inch gap at the edge. Brush on some egg mixture to both edges of the pastry. With the two inch gap to the side, fold that inwards on the sweet potato mixture. Then roll over the remaining pastry over the mixture and tuck under to seal. Pressing firmly so the pastry doesn't burst.
6. Seal the top and bottom edges by pressing a fork into them. Score a pattern very gently into the top of the pastry with a blunt knife, making two small incision holes to allow air to escape.
7. Seal and coat the wellington with egg mixture. Cook in the oven at temperature set out on the pastry packet instructions, on the middle shelf for 35 minutes.