Although it may not feel as though spring has really arrived yet here in Wales, thankfully the damp & colder weather hasn’t had too much of an impact on our seasonal favourites. The market is still awash with colour & as we wait for the warmer sun of summer & the rainbow that it brings, right now, we have an awful lot of delicious spring greens available. A glorious & welcome wash of freshness as we ease ourselves away from the store cupboard.
Put it all in front of me & I’m like a kid in a sweet shop when it comes to food, I want it all & don’t want to settle for less. Given the choice between a slap up meal or a buffet, I’ll be hitting the finger sandwiches hard & going back for seconds until I’ve tasted at least one of everything. In baking though, this isn’t alway such a bad thing, as I’m about to demonstrate with this flavourful & vibrant spring greens tart.
Rather than stick to just one of my seasonal favourites, I’ve thrown them all into the mix, not just because I’m glutton who loves the colour green, but because as the saying goes ‘what grows together, goes together’ & I can’t think of a more perfect example of this than my tart. A smooth, creamy filling which borders somewhere between a quiche & cheesecake provides the perfect canvas for the allium & earthy flavours of chive, wild garlic, spring onion & asparagus. This light & fresh spring greens tart is incredibly moreish & is just as delicious served hot or cold.
SPRING GREENS TART
(makes one 23cm tart)
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
- 240g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 120g butter, cubed
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 – 2 tbsp cold water
For the filling:
- 400g cream cheese
- 35ml milk
- 2 large eggs
- 70g strong cheddar cheese, finely grated
- 10g chives, finely chopped
- 50g wild garlic, chopped
- 35g spring onions, chopped
- 150g asparagus
Optional – For the decoration:
A few:
- wild garlic leaves
- Chive blossoms
- Wild garlic flowers
- Pansies
Method:
- To make the pastry, begin by sifting the flours & salt into a large bowl
- Add in the cubed butter to the bowl & using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
- Add the egg yolks to the bowl & use a spoon to stir these through
- Next add in 1 tbsp of water & stir through, continue to add water sparingly, only adding 1 tbsp at a time, just enough until the mixture starts to clump together
- Use your hands to finish bringing the mixture together to form a dough
- Flatten the dough into a shallow disc shape, cover in a beeswax wrap or some cling film & chill in the fridge for approximately 30 minutes (you could even do this the day before)
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C & roll out the pastry into a round, to roughly the thickness of a £1 coin, one large enough to fill a 22cm round tart tin
- Line your tin with the pastry, leaving the excess to hang over the edges of the tin
- Next, use a fork to prick small holes all over the bottom of your pastry
- Place a sheet of baking parchment in the pastry case & fill with baking beans or rice
- Blind bake the pasty for 10 minutes, remove the beans & parchment & continue to bake for a further 5 minutes until slightly golden in colour
- Remove the tin from the oven & allow to cool for 10 minutes before trimming off the excess pastry overhanging the sides of the tin
- Turn down the temperature on the oven to 140C
- To make the filling, simply whisk all of the ingredients except for the asparagus together in large bowl, making sure that everything is well combined
- Carefully pour the filling into the pastry shell
- Drop the asparagus into the filling, arranging them how you like & add on any extra decorations is using
- Bake the tart in the oven at 140C for 35-40 minutes until the filling is just set, but with a slight wobble
- Remove the tart from the oven & place on a cooling rack to completely cool before serving
