Until I actually started paying attention to the health and cost aspects of the foods I was preparing and eating. And then I stayed far away. Since deli roll is traditionally made with puff pastry dough- made with margarine round these parts- something that is one of those few things mainstream and alternative medicine agree is super bad for you. Add to that the gluten in puff pastry dough (debatable about whether it is actually unhealthy for everyone, or just for many people including myself and a few family members), and all the garbage found in standard deli meat, and you've got one of the more unhealthy foods out there- something I certainly don't plan on making for my family to eat.
But... I have this thing for rolled up stuff. I just think the fact that something is rolled up makes it look so much nicer, more appealing, and usually photogenic as well (the irony being that the pictures in this post didn't come out as photogenic as I'd hoped). Its how I take dirt cheap things and pretend I'm being fancy- by rolling them up!
So while I didn't make deli roll in years, I can't say I never missed it. I recently saw a recipe in a group for grain free deli roll, using potatoes, eggs, and potato starch, and I was excited about it.
Until I realized that it had eggs, which make me feel icky when I eat them.
And deli.
Since deli meat, in addition to being unhealthy because of all the additives in it, is also far from cheap.
And then I had this brilliant idea- instead of making my "deli roll" with deli, I'd make it with deboned chicken. To keep it extra frugal I used a whole chicken that I bought on sale, then boiled it to make broth, and then deboned it and used the meat from the chicken to make these pinwheels, so I ended up getting quite a few dishes from that chicken, and it was much cheaper than deli meat.
Everyone in my family loved it and said that I should make it again.
I made mine completely grain free, with potato starch and flax seed only, however, I think the next time that I try to make this, I will end up using some other flours, maybe rice flour or buckwheat flour, instead of the potato starch...
If you're vegan, or just looking to save money, you can mix and match up the filling. I did a mix of chicken and carrots, but this would also work well with lentils, beans, other meat replacements, veggies, or a mix of the above.
And now that I've been thinking about this- this probably would be super awesome pizza style, with tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings, instead of the meat and veggies. I'm super psyched to try that version out!