Stranger Foods

Roast vegetable bastilla

Serves 6 1 hr 45 mins

1 hr 45 mins	Total
30 mins	Prep
1 hr 15 mins	Cook

Vegetarian Moroccan Recipe image

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.

Ingredients

x0.5

Metric

Imperial

1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp garlic granules
750 g celeriac, peeled and cut into 2.5 cm cubes
750 g butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 2.5 cm cubes
500 g carrots, peeled and cut into 2.5 cm chunks
500 g parsnips, peeled and cut into 2.5 cm chunks
olive oil
50 g flaked almonds
50 g pine nuts
100 g ready-to-eat dried apricots, roughly chopped
50 g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
4 tbsp clear honey
1 unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest and juice
6 sheets filo pastry (each about 48 x 25 cm)
75 g butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
Maldon sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

°C

°F

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line your 2 largest baking trays with baking paper.
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. Divide the mixture between the 2 prepared trays and roast for about , opening the oven door halfway through the cooking time to allow the steam to escape. 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.
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. 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!)
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Line the largest baking tray you have with baking paper.
Select a large frying pan, about 26 cm in diameter. 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. 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.
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 , or until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Roast vegetable bastilla

Ingredients

Instructions

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