A creamy, tangy goats cheese partners up perfectly with fresh, seasonal greens, honey and pine nuts for this true spring treat.
This recipe for a spring veg and goats cheese tart includes an easy way to make your own puff pastry which is whipped up in no time. However, feel free to buy readymade as it will save you a little time.
The veg in this dish gets cooked up while your pastry is chilling and then everything goes in to bake together. This will really get that goats cheese melty and gooey. The final touch – while still warm – is to top the tart with runny honey and pine nuts.
If you’re hosting or expecting company, this recipe is a great one to serve up when you have friends over, but is so easy for a midweek meal for all the family, too.
Simply serve up with some buttery garlic new potatoes for a simple spring feast. You can substitute the greens for alternatives that you and your family prefer, but I opted for my seasonal favourites.
The preparation time is around 15 minutes if using store bought pastry, or 45 minutes if you are making your own – and that’s including chill time, too.
To cook? It takes just 15 to 20 minutes.
Spring vegetable and goats cheese tart
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 350g Puff Pastry
If making your own:
- 125g plain flour
- 125g cold butter
- 60ml cold water
For the tart (vegetable weights approximate):
- 1 medium leek
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp thyme
- 75g asparagus
- 50g petit pois
- 75g purple sprouting broccoli
- 100g goats cheese
- Drizzle honey
- 25g pine nuts
Method
- If making your own pastry: Do this by adding the flour and butter to a large bowl and rub together with your fingertips until roughly combined. You do not want to take it as far as breadcrumbs, there should still be bits of butter visible in places. Add the water and make into a ball. Wrap and chill for 30 mins.
- Remove the pastry from the fridge, roll in one direction to form a long rectangle. Fold the top edge down to just below the middle. Then fold the bottom edge over this to form a square with three layers (it will look like a book end). Rotate this block 90 Degrees and repeat. Wrap and chill for another 20 minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200C Fan/220C/425F/Gas mark 7.
- At this point, cook your vegetables. Using a large frying pan on a medium heat, start with the leeks as these take longer. Add in the butter, garlic and herbs and cook on low until soft. Add some water and fry the remaining veg until it is starting to reach that final cooked stage – soft leeks/still crunchy asparagus will take about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Roll out the pastry to a large rectangle. It should be about 1/2 inch thick. Score edges to mark ‘margins’ (like a pizza crust). Layer on the veg all over (avoiding the edges) and add slices of the goats cheese. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until the pastry is golden.
- Drizzle over honey and sprinkle over pine nuts to serve.
Check out our bank of recipes, or you can get more baking inspiration from Florence’s website or Instagram page.
Florence Stanton is a baking Instagrammer and blogger from Aberdeen.
