Spiral Vegetable Tart (Vegan)
After seeing so many pretty little vegetable spiral tarts in the south of 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.
PASTRY INGREDIENTS
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup ground almonds (or the same quantity of almond pulp leftover from making almond milk)
½ cup wholemeal flour
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
6 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sprinkle of Italian herbs
pinch River Murray salt
1 tablespoon iced water
FILLING INGREDIENTS
½ cup fermented cashew cheese*
1 packet 300 gm silken tofu
Juice of small lemon
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
Large handful each of finely chopped fresh parsley and dill
Fresh veggies finely sliced. We used zucchini, potato, carrot, pumpkin, capsicum, aubergine, mushrooms, and whole cherry tomatoes for the centre.
METHOD
PASTRY
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C in a fan forced oven.
Combine ground flax seeds and water in a small cup. Set aside for 10 minutes to thicken.
Process oats in a food process to form flour. Add all remaining dry ingredients to mix. Add flax seed mixture and oil, and process in short bursts. Do not over process or the mixture will become tough. If needed to come together, add the reserved tablespoon of iced water.
Press into 26 cm pie tin. Bake for 15 minutes. Let it cool slightly while you make the filling.
FILLING
Blitz all ingredients (except fresh veggies) in a food processor until mixed.
Finely slice all vegetables.
Heat the oven again to 175 degrees C (fan forced oven - adjust the temperature up a little if not using fan forced).
ASSEMBLY
Layer cheese/tofu filling on top of slightly cooled pastry.
Start layering the veggies by arranging them in concentric circles, placing them in overlapping rings from the outside in.
Finish with whole cherry tomatoes in the centre.
Sprinkle with chopped almonds and drizzle of olive oil.
Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180 degrees C or until veggies are lightly caramelised and the potato is cooked through. You can check this by piercing it with a sharp knife. If it slices through easily, it’s done.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Really good with pesto dolloped on top.
If you can’t find fermented cashew cheese, you can make a really tasty substitute by mixing 1/2 cup of drained cashews (soaked first for a couple hours in boiling water) with 1/2 cup cold water and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, then processed in a high speed blender till super creamy.
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.
