A great way to eat those left-over vegetables from Christmas day and of turkey that nobody wants to each in cold sandwiches in the days following. The creamy texture and umami flavour Dodoni feta cream helps keep the dish moist and adds tons of flavours bringing the meat and the vegetables together.

You can make the recipe from scratch using raw turkey or chicken. Follow the instructions in the notes to make this dish any time.

Instructions are given here to cook the sprouts, bacon and chestnuts from scratch but it would of course make sense for any left-over vegetables to be used here. You can still inject flavour to them by adding the lardons and stock.

Ingredients

  • 1 packet of ready rolled puff pastry, 320g300-350g cooked turkey meat, cut in small bitesize chunks
  • 150g smoked lardons or bacon roughly chopped
  • 300g Brussels sprouts
  • 180g cooked chestnuts
  • ½ onion, finely chopped
  • 100ml chicken stock
  • ½ tsp dried oregano
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tsp of sesame seeds
  • 1 tsp nigella seeds
  • 50g grated mature cheddar cheese
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
  • A pinch of chilli flakes

For the feta cream

  • 100g Dodoni feta
  • 100g cream cheese
  • 6tbsp milk
  • 3 sundried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped

Process

  1. Preheat the oven to 1900C.
  2. Place the pastry on a baking tin lined with baking paper.
  3. Use a knife to score gently an inner rectangle, creating a 1.5cm wide border all round and use a fork to prick all over the inner rectangle.
  4. Beat the egg yolk with a tbsp of cold water and use it to brush the border of the tart.
  5. Sprinkle the border with the sesame and nigella seeds and bake the pastry for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven to 1800C.
  6. While the pastry is baking, bring a pan with salted water to the boil. Trim and wash the Brussels sprouts and cook in the water for 7 minutes. Drain and drop into icy water to stop them cooking further.
  7. Next bring a large sauteing pan to a medium heat and add the olive oil and lardons or bacon. Cook stirring all the time for 3-4 minutes until the fat of the bacon has been released. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the lardons to a dish.
  8. Add the chopped onion to the oil and cook for a few minutes till translucent stirring continuously. Drain that too and put into the bowl of the bacon. Next add the sprouts, chestnuts, stock and oregano and cook at a low heat with a lid on for 10-15 minutes till the sprouts are tender. Return the lardons and onions to the pan and add the chopped cooked turkey. Taking care not to use too much as the feta is already salty, season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper and stir everything.
  9. To make the feta cream, put all the ingredients into a small blender and blitz.
  10. When you take the pastry out of the oven, spoon the turkey mix within the border with the feta cream intermittently.
  11. Sprinkle with the grated cheddar and return to the oven. Cook for a further 15 minutes till the pastry is golden.
  12. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley, chilli flakes and serve.
    Note: If using raw turkey or chicken, pat the meat dry, season and brown all over in the pan after you have cooked the lardons.
  13. Transfer the meat with a slotted spoon into a bowl and continue with the rest.
  14. Return the brown turkey into the pan when you add the sprouts and chestnuts and cook together as above.