Nourish the Budding Lotus

Roasted Vegetable Tart

The other night we had a dinner party with some of our friends here in Boulder. It was great to see them again as time seems to get away from us when it comes to socializing.  When it comes to having a dinner party, I am always happy to create something that I don’t usually make for myself.  A new recipe, or an old favorite becomes an opportunity for a new twist.  I have been playing with tart recipes for a little while now, and thought that would be perfect for this crowd.  A mix of gluten-free gourmets I knew that it would be a great opportunity to try out a gluten-free tart crust.  Thankfully, the reviews were quite supportive of the outcome!

I made two different crusts because one friend also avoids flax and almonds, but I still wanted to see how the tart would taste with those ingredients…personally I think both were really good.  I will list the variations below in case you want to try both as well.  I will not mislead you by saying that this recipe is easy.  It was a lengthy process, but it was totally worth it!  And we just made sure to make extra so we would have leftovers to savor for the next few days.  (I suggest you do so as well!)

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Roasted Vegetable Tart

Vegetables:
2 bell peppers (red, yellow or orange)
4 medium zucchini
2 yellow (summer) squash
handful of fresh parsley leaves
1 t dried thyme
5 roma tomatoes sliced into wheels
olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 F

Rinse the bell peppers, zucchini and tomatoes.  On a lightly oiled pan, place the whole bell peppers and cook in the oven for about 40 minutes.  Check the peppers every so often to rotate them onto a new side.  Once they are done, remove from the oven and place in a bowl covered by a lid so that the peppers continue to steam as they cool.  When they have cooled, remove the peels, stems and seeds and slice the peppers into 1/4 inch thick strips.

While the peppers are cooking, slice the zucchini and yellow squash at a diagonal into 1/4 inch thick slices.  In a bowl toss the yellow squash with the dried thyme, 2 T olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste.  Next toss the cut zucchini in a bowl with the chopped parsley, 2 T olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.  Place the squash and zucchini slices on a an unoiled baking tray.  Cook both in the oven for 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool on a plate.

Baba Ghanoush:
2 medium eggplant
1 handful of parsley
1/4 c of tahini
1/2 fresh lemon – juiced
1/4 t cayenne pepper
2 cloves of garlic (roasted or raw)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 F

Roast the eggplant (whole) in the oven on a lightly oiled pan for about 30 minutes.  The eggplant will be done when the skin is soft and collapsing in.  Remove from the oven and let cool.

Once the eggplant is cool, cut off the stem and remove the skin.  Place the meat of the eggplant in a food processor with all of the other ingredients and puree until smooth.  Depending on your taste preferences you might want to add more seasoning.

Pastry Crust:
1 c gluten free oats
1 c amaranth flour
1 c gluten free oat flour
1/2 c ground almonds (or 1/2 c puffed amaranth)
1/4 c ground flax seed (or 1/2 c millet flour)* note this is not a typo, you need less flax than millet flour
1 t salt
3 T olive oil
1 T rice vinegar
cold water

Preheat oven to 400 F

To make the dough, combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl, mixing well.  Drizzle the olive oil and vinegar over the flour mixture, and using your hands, rub the flour together with the liquid making a crumb-like consistency.  This will not be drastically crumby, but resemble some crumbliness.

Next pour in the cold water a little at a time until the dough starts to bind and you can form a slightly moist ball.  Be careful not to make it too wet!  Let it set for about 10 minutes.

Cut the dough in half, form each half into a ball and on a piece of parchment paper roll one half at a time.  Because there is no gluten in the recipe, the dough may be a little crumbly at the edges, and not very elastic.  This is OK.  Although the consistency will seem a lot different, it still turned out to be a really great thin-crust!

Once the dough is between 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch you can transfer it onto the lightly oiled baking sheet.  This part was a little tricky because of the nature of the dough being a little crumbly.  Best thing to know is that if something breaks, you can just pat the seam with your finger, and the dough is re-formed.  I used a 17 x 13 inch baking sheet and formed each ball of dough into the size of one half of the baking sheet.  Once I transferred the dough I also closed the seam between the two by patting the dough with my fingers.  If you have some parts that are uneven, you can also cut overhang, and fill in any holes around the edge with the dough.

Feel free to ask questions if this part is confusing!

Cook the crust in the oven for 15-20 minutes.  You want to have dough that is golden on the edges, but not too brown.  You will be putting it in the oven a second time to make the tart.

Putting the tart together:

Turn the oven down to 350 F

Now that all of the ingredients are prepared, spread the baba ghanoush over the pastry dough in a thin coat.  You will not want to see the dough through the spread, but don’t over do it.  Next layer the roasted vegetables and raw tomatoes in whatever artist design you would like.  I made sure that the way I was going to slice the tart, each piece would have a little of everything, spreading the veggies evenly.

Cook the tart in the oven for about 20 minutes.  Be sure not to burn the crust, but you want the flavors to mix and the tomatoes to cook.  Remove and serve.

Be sure to write me a comment to let me know what you think!

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