Ετικέτες
almonds, basil, olive oil, sunflower seeds, zucchini, zucchini tart
Tarts –sweet or savory- are some of my favorite dishes, as long as they combine a crunchy, taste crust with a rich, creamy filling, enriched with all the seasonal produce.
When I make tarts, I often try to experiment with many different ingredients instead of using “ready-to-bake” pie crusts or the classic “butter-flour- cold water” recipe, in order to explore healthier but yet tasty variations.
As far as it concerns the filling, the adventure begins right here! Depending on the season and the ingredients available, we can create small miracles, without any animal ingredient.
So today, I decided to make this zucchini tart for our lunch, with the freshest, tender zucchini I got this morning from the farmers market. In order to highlight the summer character of this dish I decided to add fresh basil leaves.
For the pie crust I mixed ground almonds, white and whole wheat flour and olive oil instead of butter. To make things easier, I added some baking powder into the dough, so as to avoid the pre-cooking of the crust and save some time.
In a recipe like this, nothing could go wrong! It is simply delicious!
Ingredients
For the crust
- ¾ cups (115 gr) all purpose flour
- ¾ cups (115 gr) whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup (100 gr) raw unblanched almonds
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup (80 ml) olive oil
- ½ cup (100 ml) cold water
- ¾ cup (100 gr) raw unblanched almonds blended into flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
For the filling
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- ½ kg fresh courgettes sliced
- 1 medium sized onion diced
- ¼ cup white wine
- 1 clove of garlic pureed
- 1 tsp carry powder
- salt and freshly ground pepper
sunflower seed cream cheese
- ½ cup skinned sunflower seeds soaked for 2-4 hours
- 3 tbsp water
- 3 tbsp lemon juice or apple-cider vinegar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup diced and skinned boiled potatoes
- 1 handful fresh basil leaves chopped
on top
- 2 courgettes sliced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp fresh basil leaves chopped
- salt and freshly ground pepper
Method
- For the crust, mix water with olive oil, salt, baking powder and add gradually almond flour, all purpose flour and whole-wheat flour while stirring spoon to make a soft, non-sticky dough. Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface until smooth.
- Form the dough into a ball, place in a bowl, cover with clear film or greaseproof paper and chill for half an hour or more.
- For the filling, put olive oil in a large pan and sauté the onion for 1 minute. Add the courgette slices and the garlic and cook for one more minute. Pour the wine, salt and pepper and carry powder, lower the heat and cook for 5-10 minutes until the vegetables soften a little bit. Turn of the heat and set aside. We will need the broth that is left in the pan later.
- For the sunflower seed cheese, drain the sunflower seeds and blend them with the salt, lemon juice and water in the blender for 2 minutes or until a thick paste is formed.
- In a bowl add the cooked potatoes with the broth that is left in the pan and with a fork puree the potatoes. Mix well with the sunflower seed cheese.
- Add in the mixture the chopped basil and the cooked zucchini. Mix well carefully, as we want the courgette slices to remain as intact as possible.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and using a rolling pin, roll out the dough on a lightly floured greaseproof paper to a thickness of 1 cm. If you want you can roll the dough between two parchment papers, but I find it easier to use only one. It depends on everyone’s personal technique. The thing is that there is no easier way to make a pie crust since after you’ ve rolled out the dough you can use the sheet to help you turn the dough over into the tart pan. I used a tart pan of about 22 cm diameter. Fit the dough against the bottom and sides of the pan and with a knife cut the dough even with the top of the pan.
- Add the filling carefully –to avoid breaking the underlying pie crust- and smooth the surface with a spatula.
- For the cover, combine the zucchini slices with the olive oil, basil leaves, salt and pepper and put on top of the pie forming concentric circles until the top of the pie has been covered.
- Sprinkle the pie with a little bit water and cook in pre-heated oven at 200oC for 50 minutes or until golden brown.
- Let it cool for 15 minutes and serve.