Sausage Christmas tree

Sausage Christmas tree
  • Low potassium
  • Snack
  • Special occasion
  • British
  • 1 hour or less
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This low potassium snack makes a nice festive treat.

Chef

Chef Paul Ripley
Paul Ripley

Kidney Kitchen Chef

This twist on a sausage roll makes for a fun and festive savoury showstopper in the shape of a Christmas tree.

Ingredients

2 x 320g packs of ready rolled puff pastry
340g of sausage meat
3-4 tablespoons of a chutney
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon of poppy seeds (optional)

Method

  1. Step 1

    Preheat the oven to 180Β°C/gas mark 4 and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper or a silicon mat if you have one. Lay one sheet of the puff pastry on the lined baking tray and lightly score a long triangle (this will be the β€˜tree’) with the top of the tree sitting in the middle of the top of the pastry and the bottom corners sitting approximately three quarters of the way down towards the bottom.

  2. Step 2

    Then lightly score a small square (this will be the trunk) underneath the middle of the bottom of the triangle. In a bowl mash up the sausage meat with a fork. Once it is well mixed, spoon it onto the pastry until it is all evenly spread in one thick layer, leaving about 1cm edge all the way round the Christmas tree shape.

  3. Step 3

    Spread the chutney in a thin layer over the sausage meat, avoiding any chunks being too close to the edges. Brush outer edges of Christmas tree shape with a little water.

  4. Step 4

    Place the second sheet of pastry on top of the first and using the side of your hand shape the Christmas tree shape. Once you are happy it is all sealed, cut away the excess pastry. If you have a star cutter you can always cut out a star for the top of your tree from the excess pastry.

  5. Step 5

    Score down centre of tree. Use scissors to cut diagonal slits 2 cm apart to make branches. To make it more decorative you can twist these branches 2-3 times each.

  6. Step 6

    Brush the pastry with the egg yolk wash. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and fully cooked then cool. It is delicious served warm from the oven.

Food facts

The pastry is the main source of carbohydrate in this snack, and the value has been provided for those who have been trained in insulin adjustment.

Although this savoury nibble is low in potassium, it is important to avoid eating too much and to enjoy it as a treat.

This snack is not low in phosphate, therefore if you are following a low phosphate diet you may want to avoid or limit the amount you have. If you have been prescribed a phosphate binder, ensure you take them with this dish.

The source of protein in this snack is the sausage meat.

Use gluten-free pastry and sausages.

This snack is high in fat and salt, which is mainly due to the fat and salt content of the sausages and pastry. Try to opt for reduced fat and low salt sausages where possible. Alternatively opt to have a smaller portion.

To reduce the total cost, you could omit the chutney and/or poppy seeds.

Once prepared and cooled, this can be stored in an air-tight container and kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

You can use your preferred flavoured chutney for this recipe but it works nicely with caramelised onion chutney.

There will be excess pastry (approximately 200g) after you have cut out the tree, this can either be stored in an air-tight container and used within 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months for use in another recipe.

You can buy reduced fat sausages and squeeze the meat out of the skins to use as an alternative for the sausage meat in this recipe.