Beet, Goat’s Cheese & Walnut Tart

8 servings  (Loosely inspired from this recipe)

Cooking and Preparation - Up to 1 hour 30 mins - but definitely worth the effort!

If you find beetroots with fresh and good looking greens, go ahead and use them. They are usually pretty easy to find during the spring and summer. If not, just use the beetroots and replace the beet greens with spinach, chard or kale instead.

This is a GUEST RECIPE taken from Green Kitchen Stories, link below

It is a little fiddly and more time consuming, and the images above show the assembly of two pies, one made with purple beetroot and the other with yellow and white beetroot - these are sweeter tasting.   

The purple variety have a rather more earthy flavour.

Ingredients

Tart crust
1 cup / 100 g / 3.5 oz rolled oats (or 3/4 cup / 200 ml oat flour), choose certified gluten free if you are intolerant

1/3 cup / 50 g rice flour

1/2 cup/ 50 g almond flour

2 tbsp potato starch

1 tbs linseeds (or mixed seeds)

1/2 tsp salt

80 g / 5 tbsp cold butter or coconut oil, cut into dices

4 tbsp ice-cold water

Filling
2-3 beetroots (approx 1 lb/450 g),

1 red onion, peeled

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp fresh or dried thyme

salt & pepper

2 large bunches beet greens (or spinach)

1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)

3 large eggs

1/2 cup / 140 ml milk of choice, we used rice

330 g goat’s cheese / chèvre

10 fresh mint leaves

10 walnuts, lightly crushed

2 tbsp honey

Thick Natural Yogurt

 

AND THIS IS WHAT YOU DO.....
 

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C.
   
   
2. Add rolled oats, almond flour, rice flour, linseeds and sea salt to a food processor and pulse until the oats have been mixed into flour.
   
   
3. Add the diced butter and pulse a few times until you get really small pieces of butter evenly distributed in the flour. (These steps can also be made by hand.) Add the water, pulse until everything comes together. Try to form a ball with your hands. If it feels crumbly, add 2-4 tbsp extra water. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill for about 30 minutes.
   
   
4. When done, place the dough between two baking papers and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until you got a rough circle, about 1/8 inch / 5 mm thick. Carefully transfer it to a 10 inch / 27 cm tart pan. In order to do this, I placed a flat baking tray on top of the dough, carefully turned it over and then turned my pastry tin upside down and placed in centre of the dough and then turned it all over again and used the greaseproof paper to coax the pastry gently into the edges.  Trim off any excess dough then use a fork to prick it a few times.
   
   
5. Blind-bake for 10 minutes to prevent the crust from getting soggy.
   
   
6. Peel the beetroots and grate them coarsely on a box grater or in a food processor.
   
   
7. Cut the onion thinly. Place a large frying pan on medium heat. Add a slab of coconut oil or butter and, when melted, spread out the onion slices evenly in the pan. Fry for 4-5 minutes and then shake the pan and fry them on the other side.
   
   
8. Add garlic and thyme and fry for about 30 seconds before adding half of the beet greens (or spinach) together with apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper.
   
   
9. When the greens have wilted down, add the rest, stir around and then take the pan off the heat.
   
   
10. Beat the eggs together with the milk and then crumble in the goat’s cheese finely.
    
    
11. Add sautéed vegetables and mint leaves and stir around.
    
    
12. Arrange the grated beets at the bottom of the tart, reserve some for the top.
    
    
13. Pour the egg and greens mixture over the center, make sure that the cheese is somewhat evenly distributed. We usually leave about an inch / 2 cm of beetroot untouched towards the edges (just because it’s pretty) but it’s not necessary. Make sure the filling is all moist from the liquid.
    
    
14. Tuck in walnut pieces here and there at the top and drizzle over the remaining beetroot shreds.
    
    
15. You can drizzle some honey on top before baking if you prefer a bit of caramelised top, or just save it for after it’s baked (or do both if you prefer ir a bit sweeter).
    
    
16. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden and firm.
    
    
17. Serve with extra cubes of goats cheese scattered amongst the walnuts, a dollop of Turkish yogurt and some drizzled honey on top.