Vegan Tart with Beans and Beets

I have an issue with vegan food…Or rather the issue is not so much with the food but with the people who follow this diet because in many instances they are simply ‘food fashion victims’ and not fully consciously aware of the implications of the diet that they are following.

Why do I mention this? Because after many discussions with people who identify as vegan, when I tell them that traditional Greek cuisine is mostly vegan they look at me as if I were crazy.

And then I start to talk to them about the ‘ladera’ (vegetables cooked in oil), the wonderful traditional dishes we have with vegetables as well as the less well known dishes such as ‘kolokithokorfades’ (courgette flowers) the wonderful pickled dishes and all the rest and they tell me “ that’s..yucky”

Why don’t they like the traditional Bean Stew? It just isn’t trendy for them. That’s where they are missing out.

Recently however in the past few years things have improved somewhat and I see young people are starting to enjoy the traditional recipes, and actually use them and experiment with them.

Because, it’s great to have quinoa and millet but I would prefer not to have the enormous carbon foot print that goes with their importation. Also one other really great thing is that they are starting to bring out great vegan recipe books now.

I had been talking for years to two well known Greek chefs telling them to bring out a book with really tasty vegan recipes, that they would sell really well and in the end one made an attempt..I wonder if he remembered whose idea it was :-) I doubt it, but OK….

One of my favourite female chefs that does vegetarian recipes as well as vegan is Amy Chaplin.. Australian, but world renowned, I have eaten her food in New York at the wonderful restaurant Angelica’s Kitchen and I adored her and her style and everything about her.

I had guests on Sunday and I wanted to make something special.

As I hadn’t eaten any pulses for ages I wanted to have some beans in it. I remembered a recipe of her’s which I had seen for tartlets and I thought it would work as a whole tart and make it my own with a few changes.

It came out wonderfully and perfectly great!

The friends who tried it were blown away especially when I told them it had beans in it and I told them that I would give it to my brother without telling him what was in it.. I use him often as a guinea pig but I always give him great food and he never complains..

Just as he had not been able to make out what was in my vegan ‘soutsoukakia” recipe the other day (banana skin) he couldn’t work out what was in the tart..He loved it though..

I should add that I used wonderful beans for the tart from dikotilo the wonderful vanilla ones and the beetroot with which I decorated the tart were from the wonderful Irini.

So let’s see this wonderful and colourful recipe which I am sure you will be enthusiastic about as it is so different!

And if your kids don’t eat beans try this!

Diffuculty: 2 of 3

Duration:One and a half hours baking and one hour preparation

Serves:10

Ingredients

for the pastry

80g sunflowers seeds

50g oat flakes

25g rice flour

150g dinkel flour (I used wholewheat) divided

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 pinches of salt

1 tbsp Poppy seeds

70g olive oil

75g almond milk or soya milk

For the filling

250g dry vanilla white beans from Feneos (or something similar)

1 onion for the beans cut in half

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup of olive oil

2 tsp fennel seeds

2 onions cut in half and then in strips

2 garlic cloves

2-3 tbsp good white vinegar, apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper

For the Beetroot

12 small beetroots

2 tsp olive oil

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Salt and pepper

Method

For the base…

Pre heat the oven to 170c fan forced.

Put into the multi blender the following:-

The sunflower seeds, the oats, the rice flour and half of the dinkel flour and blend it all until it turns to powder.

Put it all into a bowl and add the rest of the dry ingredients.

Add the olive oil and stir with a spoon until the mixture is like wet sand.

Add the milk slowly and stir with a spoon in the beginning and then with your hands until a dough comes together.

You may not need all the milk or you may need more, you decide.

Put the dough in a tart tray 23cm in width with a removable bottom if possible.

Spread out the dough using your hands to cover the base of the tray and the sides making sure to keep the thickness of the dough as even as possible.

With a fork make holes in the base of the dough and place in the oven and blind bake for 15 mins.

Once done take it out of the oven to cool down completely and leave aside.

For the filling

I have told you that I always have boiled pulses in the freezer ready to use in portions..Therefore I used one of these. Otherwise I would have had to soak the beans overnight and then boil them as usual.

I boil them with one onion and a bay leaf. I separate them into portions and freeze them ready for use later having drained them well first.

The recipe needed about 400g of ready beans which would be 250g of dry beans to begin with..

Put the fennel seeds into a frying pan and sauté them on a low heat to bring out the smell.

We then leave them to cool down and break them up in a mortar and pestle.

In the meantime in a frying pan with half of the olive oil, sauté the onions and the garlic (kept whole) for about 10 mins.

Put in the rest of the oil and the fennel seeds and saute for another 10 mins. We want to caramelise the onions but not blacken them.

Put the beans with half of the onion in the multi-blender along with the vinegar salt and pepper. Blend until it becomes a smooth mixture.

Take the mixture out of the blender and put in a bowl adding the rest of the caramelised onion along with the oil salt and pepper- add more salt and pepper if needed.

Spread the filling into the blind baked tart pastry, return it to the oven and bake for 10 mins.

For the beetroot

In the meantime boil the beetroot. Once boiled cut them into thin slices and stir in a bowl with some oil, the vinegar and whatever herbs you wish.

Let them marinate in the bowl for a while and then place them on the baked tart for garnish

Serve…