Sausage rolls. Surely the staple of any football grand final party, or basically any party of substance, as far as I’m concerned. Aside from fairy bread, sausage rolls are my ‘beeline item’ at any gathering. Or, should I say, were. When I went vegetarian, I still had commercial options. Namely, spinach feta pastries, which I still have dreams about. When I went gluten free, however, those options rapidly diminished. THEN I WENT FODMAP. Thus, today’s recipe is for FODMAP friendly vegetarian sausage rolls. If you need an egg free, nut free or vegan version, see the recipe in Intolerance Friendly Kitchen.

I care not for football or watching any sort of sport on tv, but I care deeply about party food. More importantly, party food that is accessible to all. With that in mind, I created these vegetarian, FODMAP friendly and gluten free sausage rolls. They’re super easy to make and ready to go in less than an hour. About the same amount of time as it takes to dig up a packet of the regular variety from the depths of your freezer. Their perfect accompaniment? My easy FODMAP friendly tomato sauce.

FODMAP friendly vegetarian sausage rolls that are gluten free

Regular vegetarian sausage rolls seem to contain faux gluten based meat, legumes, onion or garlic. These FODMAP friendly vegetarian sausage rolls use a combination of walnuts, tofu, cottage cheese and an egg. This mimics the taste and texture of traditional sausage rolls. As as a bonus, they are also very filling.

The sausage rolls use a gluten free pastry, so they are low FODMAP and gluten free. Of course, if you don’t need to eliminate gluten, you can use regular puff pastry.

FODMAP notes

• Walnuts are considered low FODMAP in servings of 30g. Their moderate FODMAP threshold is 135g per person, which seems to suggest there is a little wiggle room. Either way, 100g of walnuts in the recipe needs only to be divided by 3.3 servings. Meaning, you’d need to eat just over a third of a batch of these rolls in one sitting.
• Regular cottage cheese is FODMAP friendly in 30g or 2 tablespoon serves per person. This recipe uses 1/2 cup (around 180g) which is approximately 6.25 tablespoons. These days, there are lactose free cottage cheeses readily available at the supermarket. If it isn’t available where you live, I also have a recipe for homemade lactose free cottage cheese.
• Balsamic vinegar is FODMAP friendly in 1 tablespoon (20ml) serve, and this recipe uses 3 tablespoons (60ml).

Notes on the gluten free pastry

Since I published this recipe, I have developed a number of different gluten free pastry recipes. You can choose what works for your dietary requirements.

• The gluten free puff pastry recipe from Intolerance Friendly Kitchen
• This gluten free rough puff pastry from Intolerance Friendly Kitchen
• My grain free, nut free rough puff pastry recipe
• This enriched gluten free pastry

Laminating your gluten free pastry

If you are using homemade pastry, I highly recommend lamination. Store bought pastry is generally already laminated, particularly puff pastry.

Laminating pastry involves rolling and folding a butter based dough. This, in turn, rolls the chunks of butter into fine layers within the pastry. When the butter hits the cold oven and the liquid content of the butter evaporates, it pushes the dough upwards to create light and flaky pastry.

To laminate gluten free pastry, place the chilled dough on a sheet of baking paper floured with tapioca flour. This will aid in picking the dough up and transferring it to the fridge if it gets too soft. It also helps identify any small sticking spots, because you can lift the dough up to check.

Roll the pastry out into a rectangle, about 30cm long and 15cm wide. The measurements don’t need to be precise, but the rectangle needs to be long enough to fold in three.

Dust the pastry of excess flour, then fold the top third of the pastry down onto the middle of the pastry. Next, fold the bottom third up over the middle. This is called a business letter fold.

Turn the pastry so that the short side faces you, then repeat this process 2 more times, for a total of 3 folds. The amount of folds might differ a little depending on the pastry you use, but all to the same end.

Keep in mind that in hotter weather, you will probably need to chill the dough between folds. We want the butter to be firm at all times, so if yours starts to melt, quickly pop it in the fridge.

Tips for your FODMAP friendly vegetarian sausage rolls

How thick the sausage filling is will depend on how well you drain the tofu. If you feel that it’s too runny, add a teaspoon of psyllium husk and pop it in the fridge. You should be able to pick it up with your hands.

If you’re making your own pastry, I would recommend having 2 batches on hand. Depending on how much you fill them and what size you make them, you should only need 1 – 1 1/2 batches. Famous last words though – it’s just so much easier to have more than you need on hand.

If you wanted, you could definitely pad these out with some finely grated vegetables. I’d probably say carrot would be the easiest option. You could use zucchini too, but I recommend thoroughly draining the grated produce first.

The oven temperature depends on the type of pastry you are using. If you are using gluten free puff pastry, it is recommended to put the rolls into the oven at 200C/400F degrees. This gives the puff pastry a good push to puff up. After ten minutes, you can turn the temperature back down to 180C/350F, to continue cooking the rolls through. Have a read of the packet you’re using and see what they advise. If you’re using shortcrust pastry, keep the oven temperature at 180C/350F.

More FODMAP friendly vegetarian recipes

• These gluten free, low FODMAP feta and spinach rolls
• This vegan mince lasagne
• Some low FODMAP spaghetti aglio e olio
• Low FODMAP vegetarian Pad Thai that is easily made vegan
• This vegetarian, low FODMAP curry
• These gluten free, vegan sausages

FODMAP friendly vegetarian sausage rolls (gluten free)

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Food Intolerance Friendly

Servings 16 sausage rolls

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

For the cooked mixture:

• 1 tablespoon (20ml) oil I used olive but vegetable would also work
• 1 small-medium fennel bulb or 1-2 carrots finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons (40ml)balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons (40ml) maple syrup or brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon (20ml) Tamari or gluten free dark soy sauce
• 2+ tablespoons (40+ml) water use it as you see fit
• 1 teaspoon oregano tarragon, allspice and ground clove
• 2 teaspoons dried sage powder
• 1/2 tablespoon miso paste I used a sweet brown rice miso paste, but any gluten free one will work
• 1/2 tablespoon tomato sauce

For the blender:

• 200 g firm tofu
• 1/2 cup plain cottage cheese
• 1 cup (100g) walnuts 100g
• 1 extra large egg

To finish:

• 1 – 2 sheets gluten free puff pastry read intro
• 1 egg whisked
• 2 + tablespoons sesame seeds I used a combination of black and white to top the rolls

Instructions

 

• Defrost the pastry, if you haven't already. Once you have, preheat the oven to 180C or 356F (see notes)
• Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat, and add the fennel. Allow it to cook down for a few minutes. Once it has become translucent, add the balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, tamari and water, and continue to cook down until the fennel is completely soft and the liquid has become syrupy.
• Once it has cooked down thoroughly, add the spices, generous salt and pepper, miso and tomato paste. Add water at any time you deem it necessary – the mixture should resemble a thick syrup. Once combined and cooked, remove from the heat.
• In your food processor, combine the tofu, cottage cheese, walnuts and egg and blitz until smooth-ish. Some lumps are fine. Once combined, add the cooled fennel mixture, miso paste and seasoning to taste. Continue to blitz until the mixture is uniform in a light-medium brown colour.
• Lay out the defrosted pastry on a floured counter. I used tapioca flour for mine. Decide on the size rolls you’d like, and cut the pastry accordingly. I wanted small rolls, so I cut the pastry sheet into three equal sized rectangles. Imagine slicing a horizontal A4 piece of paper into three.
• Use a spoon to evenly portion out the sausage mixture between the pastry rectangles. Create a long, reasonably thick line of sausage mixture to one side of the pastry in each case. Leave enough room that you can seal the rolls at the end. Roll the pastry over the sausage mixture. The edges of the pastry should be bench side down. Apply a bit of pressure to seal the pastry on the bottom of the sausage roll.
• Use a sharp knife to slice the logs into equal sized sausage rolls. Gently place them on a large lined baking tray.
• Use a pastry brush to brush the whisked egg lightly over each sausage roll. Sprinkle the sesame eggs on the wet egg, so they stick to the rolls.
• See the notes above on pastry before you start cooking the rolls. If you're using puff, cook the rolls at 200C or 400F for the first 10 minutes, and then continue cooking for 15-20 minutes on 180C or 356F. If you're using shortcrust, keep the oven on 180c/356F the entire time.
• Once the sausage rolls are browned and crispy, remove from the oven and serve.

Keyword low fodmap, Vegetarian

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!