Vegan and Gluten Free.
GOOD FOR THE PLANET and GOOD FOR YOU.
What are you cooking this Earth Day? This very savoury and healthy tart is the perfect way to honour our Earth. Inspired by this week’s Ooooby (Out of Our Own Backyard) delivery it’s packed with goodness and tastes and looks like autumn.
Organic carrots start life sweet but roast them and they’re even sweeter. Tofu plays a vibrant creamy egg free role, oozing with savoury complexity. And the crust! Pumpkin, sage and nutty crunchy goodness awaits your taste buds.
This is the kind of recipe that is as pleasurable to cook as it is to eat. Take your time and enjoy the gifts from our earth as you prepare it. Vegan has never tasted this good. Thank you Mother Earth.
And a huge thank you to the community organic food delivery network Ooooby for delivering fresh organic food to hundreds of families around Aotearoa. It’s produced by people who are passionate about the earth and what we eat and is helping rebuild local food communities. You can taste the difference.
PASTRY
1 c roasted pumpkin flesh – 400 g raw pumpkin
½ c coconut oil
10 large fresh sage leaves, chopped finely
3 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
½ c almond milk
1 c chickpea flour, plus extra for rolling
1 ½ T ground chia seed
1 ½ T ground linseed
1 ½ psyllium husks
½ t baking powder
1 t salt
Black pepper
ROASTED CARROTS
1 kg organic carrots, halved or quartered length wise
2 T olive oil
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper
1 whole bulb garlic (this is for the tofu cream)
CARAMELISED ONIONS
4 large organic shallots or replace with 2 white onions
3 T olive oil
1 bay leaf
2 T balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
TOFU CREAM
½ c roasted cashew nuts
400 g tofu drained
⅓ c nutritional yeast
2 T olive oil
80 g golden beetroot cut into chunks and boiled till soft
Juice of 1 large lemon
½ c almond milk
Salt to taste, I like salty so used 1 t
1 t turmeric
½ c steamed and squeezed dry kale or silver beet, stalks removed and cut finely.
TO ASSEMBLE
Fresh thyme sprigs
Olive oil
Rock salt
Pepper
Method
We’ll start by making the pastry. To roast the pumpkin, chop into hunks with skin on, lightly oil and salt and roast at 200°C for 10 to 15 minutes, until soft but not browning. Scoop the warm flesh out of the skin and push into a 1 cup measurement.
Melt half the coconut oil in your Ironclad Legacy pan over a moderate heat, then fry the garlic and remove with a slotted spoon when browned. Add sage leaves to the pan and turn off the heat. The sage leaves will brown quickly so don’t leave unattended!
Into your food processor pop the cooled pumpkin, almond milk, garlic, sage and coconut oil from the pan plus remaining quarter cup and process until blended and free of any pumpkin lumps. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse for 30 seconds until well blended. The mixture will be sticky but not sloppy.
Put pastry in a bowl and into the fridge for 30 minutes and we’ll get on with roasting the carrots and caramelising the onions.
Toss the carrots in oil, salt and pepper and roast with bay leaves for 10 to 15 minutes until just beginning to soften.
In a small pan, a Lil’ Legacy is perfect for this, over a medium heat sauté the onions and bay leaves in olive oil until soft but not too brown. Add balsamic vinegar and salt in the last couple of minutes and stir well as you finish of the caramelising process.
Remove the pastry from the fridge and form into a ball using plenty of chickpea flour to stop it sticking to the bench. The only way you’ll be able to roll this dough is between two sheets of baking paper. Chickpea flour the bottom baking paper sheet well and pop dough in the middle. Sprinkle the top of the dough with more chickpea flour and press out with your (floured) hands to the size of a side plate. Dust the dough and baking paper with more flour then put second sheet of baking paper on top and roll out to a circle, a little larger than your Ironclad Legacy pan.
Remove the top layer of baking paper and flip the top side of the pastry into your well-greased pan. Press the pastry into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Carefully pull off the top layer of baking paper. If any of it gets stuck, don’t worry! You can fill in the gaps with your fingers. Trim off any excess dough from around the edges and don’t worry about it looking perfect. It should be rustic.
Line the pastry with a fresh piece of baking paper, fill with rice or baking weights and blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove the baking paper and cook for a further 5 minutes until the base feels dry.
In your food processor blend the cashew nuts until fine. Add all the remaining ingredients apart from the spinach and blend until smooth (squeeze the garlic out of the bulb). It should be a glorious yellow!
Remove half the mix from the processor to a bowl and add the drained, cooled spinach to the remainder of the tofu cream in the processor and blend until smooth and vibrant green!
And now, finally, we are ready to assemble!
Spread a thin layer of caramelised onions over the pastry base.
Spoon in the yellow layer of tofu cream and spread evenly over the onions. Spoon the green tofu cream on top and spread evenly. Arrange the carrots on top and sprinkle with thyme leaves, a brush of olive oil and some extra rock salt.
Bake at 180°C for 45 to 50 minutes until the tofu cream is set. If the pastry is browning too much, cover with tinfoil in the later stages of cooking.
Cool a little before serving so it slices easily and serve with a salad.
Mother Earth. You are the best.
