Posted by kathryn in Vegetables, Recipes, Nuts & seeds, Dinners, Winter and Vegan

I’m finally getting back to my dinner party menu. On the night I had twelve people for dinner, including one person who can’t eat wheat (but is okay with spelt) and another friend who is lactose intolerant. For the main course I made two of these tarts. They’re vegan and I used spelt flour for the crust.

I’d love to say I came up with this recipe, because it’s inventive, full of flavour and really adds to the total effect of the tart, but I didn’t – it’s adapted from the Holly Davis book Nourish.

I made both the pastry and the filling the day before and put them in the fridge. Then I heated up the filling and put the tart together just before serving. Sorry the photos are not great.

Sesame pastry

This recipe is easy and makes a very hard and brittle pastry that doesn’t absorb liquid, so it retains it’s bite and crunch even when filled. Be aware, the texture of the pastry means you can only roll it out once and whatever you don’t use can’t be re-clumped together and then re-rolled. These quantities made enough for two 22.5 cm flan tins, plus there was a bit extra which I used to make a little test tart in a 10cm flan tin.

• 280g wholemeal spelt flour
• 80g sesame seeds, toasted
• 100ml sesame oil
• 120ml boiling water
• 1 tablespoon tamari (wheat free soy sauce)

Combine the flour and sesame seeds in a large bowl.

Blend together the oil, water and tamari – I just used a stick blender for this – so they’re thoroughly combined.

Mix the wet ingredients in with the dry, a couple of tablespoons at a time. Start off with a knife and then use your hands, until you have a smooth dough and the bowl is clean. I didn’t quite use all the wet mixture, although this will depend on your flour. Put the pastry in a plastic bag and rest for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 200°C and roll out the pastry to fill the tart case. You’ll need to dust the surface you roll the pastry on with some flour, to prevent it from sticking. Line the tart tins with the pastry and put it straight in the oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Natto miso and ginger pumpkin tarts

The quantities here are for two tarts.

• 1.5 litres low salt vegetable stock
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 12 red onions, peeled and cut into wedges
• 5cm piece of fresh ginger, finely sliced
• 1.5 kg Kent pumpkin, cut into small wedges (I left the skin on)
• 4.5 tablespoons natto (or barley) miso
• 2 tart cases lined with sesame pastry
• 1 cup of fresh coriander, finely chopped

Heat the oven to 200°C.

Heat the stock, half the olive oil, onions and ginger in a saucepan. Gently simmer uncovered, for about 30 – 40 minutes, until virtually no liquid is left and the onions are very soft.

Meanwhile toss the pumpkin pieces in the rest of the olive oil and a pinch of salt. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the pumpkin is soft and starting to brown. You’ll need to turn the pumpkin a couple of times while it’s cooking.

Once the onions are cooked, add the natto miso and stir gently to dissolve. Then, add the cooked pumpkin and gently fold through to combine. Place in the tart cases and top with the chopped coriander. Serve immediately.

See the full dinner party menu here.

04 January, 2007