Spiced Lentil Root Vegetable Strudel

Heat the oven to 190°C.

Firstly, cook the lentils: wash them, add them to the saucepan and cover with plenty of cold water so that the water comes up 5cm higher than the lentils.Add a stock cube to the pan, bring the water up to the boil and cook according to the packet instructions.

Drain the lentils in the sieve and run cold water over them, then set aside.

To prepare the root vegetables, peel the sweet potatoes and parsnip and cut into 1cm cubes. Add to the baking tray and add the spice mix. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Roast the vegetables in the oven for 20 minutes until the vegetables are cooked and soft.

Once the vegetables are cooked, add to a large mixing bowl and mash with a potato masher. Then add the cooked lentils to the bowl too.

Heat a frying pan and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Add the diced onion and cook for 5-8 minutes until soft.

Whilst the onion is cooking, peel and crush the garlic cloves. Wash the rosemary sprig and sage leaves in cold water and pat dry. Pick the rosemary and sage leaves and roughly chop them.

Once the onion is soft, add the garlic, chopped fresh herbs and tomato puree and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the cooked onion mixture to the large mixing bowl. Combine the ground almonds with the lentils, mashed root vegetables and onion. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

On a clean work surface lay out one sheet of filo pastry so the longer side is directly facing you. Cover the rest of the filo pastry sheets with a clean tea towel so they don’t dry out as you are assembling the strudel.

Brush the whole filo pastry sheet with melted butter and add the second sheet of filo pastry. Repeat this process until you have layered up 7 sheets of filo pastry.

Add the strudel mix to the bottom half of the filo pastry, leaving a 2 cm gap around the edge. Brush the exposed filo pastry with the melted butter. Fold the shorter sides of the filo pastry in, on top of the strudel mix.Brush the folded sides with melted butter. Bring the long top end of the layered filo pastry sheets in to meet the folded bottom long end of the filo strudel.

Brush the shaped strudel with melted butter and sprinkle with poppy seeds. (If you are making this ahead, wrap the strudel and freeze it at this stage and bake from frozen for 25-30 minutes on Christmas Day.)

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until it is golden brown and the pastry sheets are crisp and cooked.