Vegetable Puffs Recipe

Warm, flaky and crispy on the outside, buttery and delicious from within, these Vegetables Puffs are great as a tea-time snack, or, as a lunch surprise for kids!  Making these is ever so simple.  A healthy assortment of vegetables is tossed in an aromatic Indian masala and stuffed inside a golden-brown baked puff pastry shell.  These puffs can be easily customized with your choice of filling- sweet or savory.  Using store-bought pastry dough makes this a weeknight treat for me.

I make this recipe with store-bought puff pastry shells. These ‘pre-shaped’ shells are pretty versatile and can be used for both, sweet and savory dishes. It is really easy to put these puffs together. Simply bake the shells in the oven as per package directions. Prepare your filling and then stuff the filling in the shells- that’s it!

Tip for a flaky Puff pastry: Keep the pastry dough cold. Remove from refrigerator just before baking. This ensured a flaky pastry. Softer or room temperature dough, doesn’t puff up and tends to becomes too dense.

For this recipe, I make a mixed vegetable filling in a Fry-pan or Skillet on the stove -top, or my electric pressure cooker, Instant Pot. I combine assorted vegetables like bell pepper, frozen peas, frozen corn, gold potatoes and cook them with aromatics and Indian spices.  I like to add paneer to this mix. It not only adds protein to the dish, but the creamy paneer goes really well with the flaky puff pastry. I use this filling to make Vegetable Panini too.

Serving suggestion: I make these puffs as appetizers, or as tea-time snacks, and, they make for great school lunches for kids too. I keep switching the filling though. I serve them as-is, or with tomato ketchup, Sriracha or cilantro chutney. There are endless possibilities for the filling. Some of the common ones in my home are:

1. Pizza puffs: I saute sausage, onions and peppers with Italian seasoning. Add a couple of teaspoons of marinara sauce to the baked shells, add sausage mix, top it with mozzarella cheese and garnish with basil.
2. Parmesan Mushroom & Peas Puffs: Saute crimini mushrooms in olive oil, salt and pepper. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and cook till mushrooms are nice and brown. Add thawed peas to this mix. Turn off the flame and mix in some grated parmesan cheese. Stuff the baked shells. The remaining heat from the mushrooms melts the parmesan cheese and binds the mix really well. Garnish with chopped parsley.
3. Keema Puffs: I make keema (ground meat) using this recipe: Keema Mutter. Bake the shells and fill them with the keema mix. Garnish with chopped cilantro!
4. Berries & Cream: Sprinkle some sugar and zest of a lemon on mixed berries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and blueberries.  Toss well. Sprinkle some sugar on the pastry before baking. Bake shells and cool them for 10 minutes. Stuff the berries in the shells, and top with sweetened whipped cream.

Here’s how easy it is to make these Vegetable Puffs:

Place cold pastry shell on baking sheet	Bake as per package directions
Remove the center caps	Stuff with filling

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