Pastry, oh how I love pastry, but it can be so disastrous to a weight loss plan, luckily there are low fat versions out there, but as always it doesn't mean you can have a pastry party and down them with reckless abandon. Control, it's all about control, well, that's what I keep telling myself. If you want to lower the fat content you can use filo pastry (just remember to triple up on the sheets or kiss your filling goodbye), or use wholegrain bread.
Ingredients makes approximately 36 regular muffin tin size or 72 mini muffin size
4 sheets of low fat flakey puff pastry, defrosted 500g lean beef mince (ground beef) 1 medium red onion, chopped finely 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced 1 400g can of Italian diced tomatoes with basil and oregano 2 teaspoons low salt dark soy sauce 2 tablespoons tomato paste 1 tablespoon olive oil
Chopped parsley, cubes of tomato and grated edam cheese to garnish
POTATO TOPPING 5 potatoes, peeled, cubed 1/4 cup low fat aioli 1/4 cup low fat milk Knob of low fat spread
Into a medium saucepan place the beef mince and fill with water until just covered. Bring to the boil and cook until the meat is no longer red, in fact, it's a grey colour, looks terrible but believe me, it does get better! Drain the water and add the onion and garlic cook until tender.
Turn down the heat and add the Italian tomatoes and soy sauce, simmer for 10 minutes covered on low heat. Keep an eye on it and stir every few minutes.
PREPARATION example
Grab your muffin tray and place the pastry over the top of the muffin holes making sure they are covered, Score along the pastry in the gaps between the muffin holes so that you end up with squares of pastry. Press each square into a hole and fill with the meat mixture.
Bake the savouries for 10-15 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Remove from the tray and repeat the process until you have used all of the pastry.
POTATO TOPPING Put the potatoes into a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook under tender, make sure you don't over cook them otherwise they'll be water logged and the mash will be runny.
Drain the water and season with salt and pepper, add the aioli, low fat spread and milk and mash well until all lumps are removed.
Spoon a heaped teaspoon of potato onto each savoury and top sparingly with grated cheese, a cube of tomato and lastly some parsley.
HELPFUL TIP: - If you are going to use bread, make sure it's sandwich slice not toast slice.
- Edam cheese has 1/3 less fat than other standard hard cheeses which is why I use it sparingly!
- For extra kick you can add 1-2 teaspoons of crushed chilli paste to the beef mince mixture.
- For added flavour, spoon a small amount of tomato, onion or chutney onto the savouries before you put the mashed potato on top.