Pumpkin, Spinach and Cashew Cream Tart (Vegan)
Packed with so much goodness you totally won’t miss the dairy or eggs!
After many years working in catering, I am pretty familiar with tarts. The are the perfect catered lunch – easy to pre-make, look great, perfect with salad and always a hit with customers. My shortcrust pastry tarts with caramelised onion, potato, goats cheese and tarragon was probably my most requested dish of all time and I could whip one up with my eyes closed. It's pretty damn delicious but very rich and rather labour intensive. And too be honest the novelty of hand making my pastry started to wear off!
In an attempt to make my life a bit easier, I started experimenting with using pre-made puff pasty. As I've always made my own pastry, I felt like a bit of a fraud buying pre-made pastry. But after relasiing just how much easier it was than making my own I got over that pretty quick! Plus puff pastry has the added bonus that you can easily buy both vegan and gluten free versions so it's super easier when catering for people with dietary needs.
The very first puff pastry tart I made is was with mascapone, slow roasted tomato and goats cheese. And it was so good! Even after lots of experimenting it is still my favourite combo - the richness of the pastry and mascarpone is balanced perfectly by the sweet juicy tomatoes and savoury goat's cheese. Added bonus it has like only five ingredients in it - almost unheard of for me!
I made a vegan version of the tomato tart using my truffle cashew cream instead of the mascarpone and goat’s cheese. It was nice but didn’t blow me away. After much fun playing around with flavours,
I decided pumpkin was my favourite - it’s sweetness went really well with the creamy texture of the cashews. I also added some extra lemon and sautéed greens to balance it all out plus some vegan feta for extra flavour. But by all means feel free to add whatever you like! The cashew cream filling is the perfect base.
Pumpkin, Spinach and Cashew Cream Tart (Vegan)
Prep time: 1 ½ hours plus extra time for soaking the cashew cream.
Serves: 1 large tart enough for 4 serves
Dietary guide: This recipe is vegan and gluten free if using GF puss pastry. For a FODMAP friendly version of this dish see the end of the recipe.
Ingredients
1 sheet of vegan puff pastry frozen
Approximately 450g of Kent/Japanese pumpkin
½ a serve of my truffle cashew cream*
3 cups of greens such as baby spinach or kale
1 brown onion
Salt and black pepper to taste
3 tablespoon of olive oil
¼ cup of chopped fresh herbs such as dill, parsley and chives
70g of pine nuts
120g of vegan “feta”
Pinch of nutmeg
Squeeze of lemon juice
Dash of soy milk (or any plant based milk)
* Note you only need a half serve of the cream so if you don't want any leftovers just halve the ingredients. This cream can be made ahead or you can pre-soak the cashews and make the cashew cream as you are waiting for the pumpkin to cook. Also note, if you want to save time you can skip adding the shallots in white wine to the cashew cream recipe.
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Remove 1 sheet of puff pastry from the freezer and let it de-frost slightly whilst you prepare the pumpkin (don't let it sit out for too long or will become very soft and hard to handle). Peel and chop the pumpkin into bite sized pieces. Toss the pumpkin with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, season and place in a single layer on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Roast for about 1 hour or until soft and starting to take on some colour. Get the rest of the elements for the tart ready as you wait for the pumpkin to cook
Next, the pastry. Line a baking tray with baking paper and place the pastry sheet on top with the plastic sheet facing up. Remove the plastic. Find a large plate that just fits inside the peraminters of the pastry sheet. Place the plate face down on the patry and run a sharpe knife around the edge to create a large circle. Remove the excess pastry from the corners. Find another plate that is a bit smaller than the circle you have juts made (about 2cm smaller). Place the plate evenly in the middle of the circle and cut another slightly smaller circle. You should now have one cirlce of pastry and a slightly larger ring of pastry. Gently remove the the ring of pastry and lay on top of the circle – as it is slightly bigger you will need to cut the ring a point and make it over lap a little. Brush the ring/boarder of pastry with a little soy milk and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until puffed up and golden. Remove from the oven and gently push down the pasty in the middle of the ring.boarder that had puffed up. Set aside until needed.
In a large fry pan or wok, gently cook the sliced onion with the remaing 2 tablesspoons of olive oil. Cook stirring often until translucent and taking on a little colour - about 10-15 minutes. Add the greens, season lightly and saute until the greens have just softened.
Transfer the onions and greens to a mixing bowl and add the cashew cream, nutmeg and season with lots of freshly cracked black pepper. Mix well. Add most of the pumpkin (reserve some for the top) and vegan feta if using and gently mix through. Taste and add a squeeze of lemon juice if it tastes too sweet and salt if you think it needs it. Scapre out into the prepred pastry avoiding the edge. Scatter the remaning pumpkin and the pine nuts on top and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until nice and hot. Enjoy hot or at room temperature.
The tart can be made up to 2 days ahead fully assembled - just don’t cook the finished tart until you are about to serve it.
FODMAP friendly adaptation: Follow the instructions for the cashew cream to make it vegan. Omit the onion from this recipe and replace with 1/4 cup of chopped (green part only) spring onions No need to cook the spring onions.
