Cheesy Vegan Chickpea, Pumpkin & Kale Tart (+ Wholewheat & Walnut Crust)

This vegan ‘cheesy’ chickpea tart is a recipe I’ve been meaning to attempt for a while now. Chickpeas are blended with tahini and nutritional yeast ("nooch") to give the body of this tart a delicious creaminess. It's sort of like baked hummus in a way, but firmer.

I love cooking hummus in the oven on pizzas (seriously, try it if you haven't already.. even this Melbourne vegan pizzeria agrees it's a good idea), so I thought I'd see what happened if I used it as a tart filling. I usually use silken tofu (sometimes mixed with cashews) for making vegan quiches/tarts, which works really well too.

The creamy chickpea filling in this dish is combined with vegetables such as onion, garlic, celery, pumpkin, mushroom and kale, which give the tart a real depth of flavour. Make sure you don't skip on the sautéd celery (unless you really dislike the vegetable), as it delivers a powerful umami hit.

For the tart base, I made a simple pastry using stoneground wholemeal flour, walnuts, lemon juice and a little olive oil. You could use any pastry recipe you like though (such as this oat + almond crust, or Minimalist Baker's coconut oil pie crust).

If you want the pastry to be shorter in texture, just add more oil. And if you'd rather use no oil at all, just add more water instead. It's up to you -  you know what you like best!
The lemon juice used here helps to make the pastry flakier.

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Cheezy Vegan
Chickpea, Pumpkin & Kale Pie

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Pastry ingredients

• 2 cups wholemeal flour
• 2/3 cup walnuts
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• ice cold water (approx 1-2 tbsps)

Filling Ingredients

For the cooked vegetables:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-3 ribs celery, chopped
• 1.5 cups mushrooms, sliced
• ½ pumpkin, steamed + cubed (if you don't want to steam it first, just ensure the pieces are chopped quite small, and cook them longer in the pan).
• Salt (preferably himalayan black salt), pepper + dried/fresh herbs to taste

For the cheesy chickpea filling:

• 2 cups cooked chickpeas
• 1 heaped tbsp tahini
• ½ cup nutritional yeast ('nooch' - this is where your cheesy flavour comes from)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• ⅓ cup soy milk
• ⅓ cup oats or corn flour
• ½ head of kale (or sub spinach/other dark leafy greens)

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Method

1. Make pastry by combining flour and walnuts in a food processor. Add lemon juice and olive oil, and then add cold water as necessary (try not to add to much). The less time you process the mixture for the better.
2. Pat mixture into a tart dish (mine was 85cm in diameter). Bake blindly for 10-15 mins at 200 degrees C.
3. Meanwhile, add olive oil to a saucepan and brown onions and garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add celery and mushrooms and sauté well, lastly adding the pumpkin. Add a good few cracks of black pepper, some salt (himalayan black salt will add a great "eggy" taste) and any of your favourite herbs and/or spices. Set saucepan aside.
4. Make the cheesy filling by combing chickpeas, tahini, nutritional yeast, soy milk and lemon juice in a food processor. Add flour and/or oats through to thicken the mixture as necessary.
5. Stir through sautéd vegetable mixture, add kale leaves and then transfer all of the mixture to the tart pan, on top of the pastry. Level the filling out with the back of a spoon or spatula, ensuring all gaps are filled.
6. Bake at 200 degrees C for 30-35 minutes, or until golden.
7. Allow to cool a few minutes before serving.

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