‘Rissóis’ were probably one of my favourite foods when I was little. Who doesn’t love a little pastry? And my mum is a cook so I ate a lot of these made by her. Is really not difficult to make them vegan, it just depends on what you use as a filling. I like mine with a ‘sea’ taste, because that’s what I always had, but you can go to town with different flavours, mexican, pizza, pesto, curry… I’ll leave my recipe here, but I do vary on the ingredients I use quite a lot too. And ho, mum has made vegan ‘Rissóis’ and totally approves!
Difficulty: 3 pans
Time: about 1.5 to 2h
Type: snack or a main with other side dishes
Serves: about 15 to 20 units
What you need:
Pastry: 1 mug water; 1 mug flour; 1 piece of lemon skin; 1 tbsp vegetable spread; more flour to spread pastry.
Filling: 1/2 leek finely sliced; 3 white mushrooms chopped; 1/4 white onion chopped; 1/2 tsp garlic granules; 1 or 2 tbsp capers; 1 nori sheet shredded; 2 tbsp soya cream; a little oil or water; salt and pepper to taste.
Final pastry lining: bread crumbs (at least 100g); flour and water to moisten the ‘rissol’.
vegetable oil to fry
Utensils
Small pan
2 small frying pans (1 to make filling, one to fry pastries)
Mixing spoons
Rolling pin
A cup to shape the pastry
2 small bowls, one for bread crumbs, one for flour and water mix
Directions:
Pastry step 1: in a small pan, bring a mug of water, a tbsp of vegetable spread and a piece of lemon skin to a boil; remove from heat, take out the lemon, add the flour and mix well, vigorously. Bring the pan to low heat again and keep mixing until the pastry starts to come out uniformly in one round piece- remove from heat and set aside to cool down.
Filling: heat a little water or oil in a frying pan over low heat and add all the chopped vegetables and garlic granules; let it cook for a few minutes, mixing occasionally until all vegetables are tender. Add capers, shredded nori sheet and soya cream, mix and let it cook for a few more minutes; add salt and pepper to taste- set aside.
Pastry step 2: once pastry is cool enough, flour a working surface and start rolling and stretching pastry into a thin sheet (not all of it, just enough to make one or two rissoles). Once that’s done, place a spoon of filling near the edge, fold pastry to cover it and cut the pastry using a cup into a half moon. Set rissole aside and repeat process until all pastry and filling is used (I managed about 20 rissoles).
Final step: Prepare 2 bowls: first with a little water and flour; second bowl with bread crumbs and dip pastries in the water and then cover with bread crumbs. Let the pastries set for an hour or so in the fridge before frying in very hot vegetable oil, until golden on both sides. These are also suitable to freeze before frying.
Below is a little picture with the main steps to make these amazing little pastries, hope it helps!
Plant Based Portuguese 