Spinach, Crayfish, & Roasted Tomato Roulade

I discovered this recipe from Rose Elliot's The Classic Vegetarian Cookbook.  Although I have been working on removing cheese and eggs from my diet, this looked so beautiful in the cookbook - I had to give it a shot.  Of course I modified it...

First, I will list the original version and then note my replacements.

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh baby spinach leaves
4 eggs (separated into different bowls)
1 tablespoon butter
Salt - Pepper - Nutmeg

The filling

2 roasted red peppers (roasted in the oven while roulade is cooking - cored)
1 cup cream cheese
Milk (to make cream cheese spreadable or use store bought spreadable)
4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400.
2. Line a 9x13 shallow baking sheet with wax paper (mine stuck a bit, so adding a little olive oil spray may be helpful), leave extra paper up the sides.
3. Rinse and saute spinach until tender (using only the water still clinging to the leaves).
4. Drain.
5. Add spinach, butter, and egg yolk to processor and blend till smooth.
6. Transfer it to a large bowl and add salt, pepper, & nutmeg.
7. Whip eggs until stiff .
8. Fold in stiff egg whites to the spinach mixture bowl.
9. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of Parmesan on the wax paper prior to pouring in mixture.
10. Pour in spinach mixture and smooth to edges.
11. Bake for 12-15 minutes until firm to touch and toothpick comes out clean.
12. While this is baking, roast the peppers on the bottom rack of the oven.
13. While they are baking, prepare your cream cheese with a mixer and a little bit of the milk until spreadable.
14. Remove roulade from oven and let cool while you get another piece of wax paper and lay flat next to roulade.  Sprinkle that piece of wax paper with Parmesan and transfer roulade face down on to the new sheet.
15. Removed the wax paper from the top of the roulade (tricky, mine was a little sticky, however I used a spatula to ease the paper away without tearing the roulade).
16. Spread cream cheese over entire surface.
17. Arrange red pepper over the top in widely spaced stripes (it will look like a red and white stripes).
18. Roll it up from the short sides (example).
19. I served mine warm over butternut squash soup.
20. Cut with a serrated knife.

The roulade refrigerates well and is good for up to a week.

My variations:

I replaced:

Butter with olive oil

Parmesan cheese with finely grated (in the food processor) raw almonds

Red pepper with Roma tomatoes.
Milk with almond milk

Added crayfish lightly sauteed with seasonings.

The next time I make this I will try out using this egg replacer instead.  It is gluten free, soy free, etc.

The butternut squash soup I used as a base can be found in your local organic section, they also have other great soups that work great as replacements for oil in sauteed vegetables or over tilapia.  The carrot ginger is one of my favorites!