This delicious tart has a rich and crumbly tahini pastry and garlicky macadamia and pesto filling, topped with griddled asparagus and a flavoursome burnt caper and pine nut topping. A sensational plant-based, allergen-friendly centrepiece!
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time20 minutesmins
Total time (including pastry cooling)45 minutesmins
100gmacadamias, (soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes or in cold water overnight)
100gwater
30gbaby spinach leaves
1garlic clove, (roughly chopped)
2tablespoonvegan pesto
¼teaspoonsalt
Topping:
230gasparagus spears
1tablespoonolive oil
2tablespooncapers
2tablespoonpine nuts
1garlic clove, sliced
1tablespoonchopped chives, (or any other fresh herbs you like)
zest from 1 lemon
Instructions
Set the oven to 200°C.
Pastry
Mix the pastry ingredients together by pulsing in a food processor a few times until it is well combined. (Thermomix users: 20 secs / sp. 4, scraping down half way through). Pour the mixture into a 24cm tart case (or 8 small ones) and press down and up the sides to form the tart case. Cover and put in the freezer to chill for 10 minutes.
Once the pastry has chilled to harden up a bit, stab the base a few times all over with a fork, then line with a crumpled up piece of baking paper (crumpling it softens it for lining the pastry) and fill with baking beans (or dried rice/beans).
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 200°C until the pastry is browned and there is no grey colour on the base. Check it after 10 minutes – if it is browned on the sides but not quite ready on the bottom, take the paper and baking beans out and turn the temperature down to 180°C to cook the base for a few more minutes. Once cooked through, take it out of the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Filling
Meanwhile, make the filling by whizzing all the filling ingredients in a high powered blender until smooth. (You may need the tamper to push down the spinach while blending).
Topping
Put the griddle pan onto a high heat. Cut the woody ends of the asparagus stems then mix them with 1 tablespoon oil and some salt and pepper. Once the griddle pan is very hot, add the asparagus spears and cook for a few minutes, turning frequently. Remove to a chopping board.
Put the asparagus onto a board, lined up so that the pointy end of the stems are all in line. Use one stem to measure half way across the pastry case, then cut the rest of the asparagus stems to the same size. (Store the discarded bits in a sealed container in the fridge for use in other recipes, e.g. stir-fry’s, risottos, etc.).
In a small pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and, when hot, quickly fry the garlic, capers and pine nuts in the oil for a minute until browned (stirring continuously). Remove from the pan as soon as they have browned as they will burn quickly.
Assemble the tart
When the pastry case has cooled, spoon the filling into it and spread it to the edges.
Then place the asparagus spears in a pretty pattern on top of the filling.
Sprinkle the fried caper mixture over the asparagus tart so that the mixture is evenly distributed on top. Then sprinkle the grated lemon zest and chopped chives (or other herbs) over the tart.
Serve with a fresh green salad lightly dressed with a simple French dressing.
Notes
If you have a high speed blender, you hardly need to soak the macadamias but soak for longer if you have a less powerful blender.
As an alternative, you could use cashews instead of the macadamias.
You could steam the asparagus instead to make a healthier vibrant green version
To make this in advance, you can make the different constituent parts and keep them covered in the fridge separately. They will happily sit for a day or two in the fridge.