OMG. I haven’t written anything for ages. But I’m getting back on it now during the run up to Christmas and will be sharing some fancy and nice looking recipes, which I hope you can use and impress with. I’m pretty pleased that I’ve managed to talk my family into letting me do a fully vegan Christmas meal for five! So I need to come up with a few tricks. I had a go at this gluten free vegetable tart, which I think will look even better the more times I make it.
For this you will need:
- A mandolin slicer (or a wide vegetable peeler, or excellent knife skills to slice thinly and neatly)
- A loose bottomed baking tin
- A food processor
You can use any vegetables you like, really. I had a butternut squash which needed using, but I will definitely be making it again with aubergines, courgettes, carrots. The more variety, the better it will taste and more colourful it will look.
INGREDIENTS
For the crust:
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water – mix and leave to one side for a few mins)
- 225g rolled oats (you can use gluten free if ya wanna)
- 25g pine OR walnuts
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
For the filling:
- 1 small red onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 handfuls of fresh, baby spinach
- 2 finely sliced mushrooms
- ½ finely sliced bell pepper
- ½ butternut squash (sliced very thinly, lengthways with mandolin)
- A pinch of smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Ground black pepper
METHOD
- Put the nuts and oats in the food processor and pulse until it forms a coarse flour type of texture. Add the flax egg, salt and olive oil, process again for about 30 secs. The mixture should stick together when you pinch it between your fingers.
- Spread this out into your tin, pressing down with your hands to compact the crust mixture against the bottom and along the sides. Thoroughly washed and clean hands, yeah? Don’t be gross…
- Pop this in your oven at 200C for ten minutes whilst you prepare the filling. Take it out and reduce oven temperature to 180C.
- So for the filling. Food process the onion, garlic, spinach and 1 tbsp of oil then spread it along the base of the crust with the back of a spoon.
- Now you can start assembling your thinly sliced veg. I started in the middle with the smallest pieces of butternut squash. Roll tightly and place in the middle. Then start working your way around it with bigger strips, overlapping in a spiral pattern.
- Layer the larger slices along the outer edge and continue to overlap until all the strips meet in the middle.
- Place the pepper and mushroom between the squash, distribute evenly and again, use the smaller strips towards the middle and the bigger ones along the outside.
- Sprinkle over with paprika and freshly ground black pepper. Lightly drizzle with a bit more olive oil.
- Stick it in your 180C oven for 40 mins and it should come out looking beautiful. Let it cool for a few minutes before you pop it out of your tin.
Enjoy 🙂 You could experiment with different ingredients to spread on the base. A tablespoon of pesto or any savoury preserves or chutneys you might have will add to the flavour.
S.x
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