Spiral Vegetable Tart (Vegan)

After seeing so many pretty little vegetable spiral tarts in France earlier this year, we were inspired to make our own vegan version.

This is a great dish to bring to a dinner party, as it's so spectacular looking. It's not too tricky to make either, so you can enjoy it on any occasion.

The base is made with oat flour and almond pulp leftover from making nut milk, but you could also just use ground almonds, or a wholemeal flour pastry if that's your thing. Sometimes we're in the mood for rolling out pastry, sometimes it's more fun to use this "press it into the pie dish" variety - it's all yum! 
 

Spiral Vegetable Tart

(Vegan, Wheat-Free Option)

We used leftover almond pulp, from making nut milk, in the base, because we happened to have some in the fridge. You could alternatively use ground whole almonds, with just as delicious results. If you need a wheat free option, simply omit the flour and increase the oats to 1 1/2 cups in total. 

The filling uses a fermented cashew herb cheese, which you can buy from most wholefood or gourmet stores nowadays. We generally make up a batch of this each week, from a recipe in our beloved Botanical Cuisine cookbook, as it is the best we've tried. Spread on crackers, dolloped on baked potatoes or folded into a baked tofu pasta, it's a very handy mainstay in our fridge. You could also do a quick version of this, by mixing 1/2 cup of drained cashews (soaked first for a couple hours in warm water) with 1/2 cup cold water and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, then processed in a high speed blender till super creamy. 

PASTRY INGREDIENTS

1 cup rolled oats

¾ cup almond pulp or ground almonds

½ cup stoneground wholemeal flour

2 tbs ground flax seeds (+ 6 tbs water)

1 tbs olive oil

Sprinkle of Italian herbs

Pinch of salt

FILLING INGREDIENTS

½ cup fermented cashew cheese

1 packet silken tofu

Juice of a small lemon

2 tbs nutritional yeast

Large handful of chopped parsley and dill

VEGGIES: A mix of seasonal finely sliced vegetables. We used zucchini, potatoes, carrot, pumpkin, capsicum, aubergine, mushrooms & cherry tomatoes for the centre.

Method

PASTRY:

Combine flax seeds + water, set aside for 10 minutes.

Process oats into flour in food processor. Add all remaining dry ingredients, then add flax egg mixture, oil and water as needed.

Press into pie tin and bake for 15 minutes. Let it cool slightly.

TOFU + CASHEW CHEESE FILLING:

Blitz all ingredients (except the veggies) in a food processor.

ASSEMBLY:

Layer filling on top of pastry. Then start assembling veggies by making a ring on the outside and working in, finishing with the cherry tomatoes in the centre.

Sprinkle with almonds and a drizzle of olive oil. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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This was made as Henrietta's contribution to a recent dinner party at a friend's house - and was very well behaved as a travelling companion. Which makes us think it would also make a delicious picnic food. Because with the warm summery days upon us, it's an enchanting idea to whizz up another version and tuck it into a wicker basket with some crisp salad, crusty bread, tubs of humus and a bottle of wine.