Spiced Carrot Tart
Having made a delicious tart using soft cheese and peas, I wanted to try one using carrots and a bit of spice.
Carrot Recipes
Carrots are an incredibly useful vegetable, having been grown and eaten in Europe and the UK for centuries. Very cheap to buy, I buy a couple of kilos of them most weeks. These are two recipes I use carrots in pretty often – a super easy peanutty stir fry and a warm panzanella with roasted veg and crunchy croutons.
Peanut Butter Noodles. Add chicken or fish, or keep it vegan
An Indian Carrot Recipe
So, to the carrot tart. I thought I’d start with turmeric as I wanted it bright yellow, then a bit of ground coriander. Garlic of course, whisk in the eggs and the soft cheese, and whisk it all together.
Having mixed everything together, I gave it all a good sniff. Smelled gorgeous! A little on the bitter side from the turmeric, so I added a little sugar to offset it.
Then I mixed up the pastry. I always use rapeseed oil to make pastry now, as it’s so much easier than rubbing in a solid fat – just a bit of stirring.
When I made the pea tart, I used a 20cm flan tin. This time I fancied making individual ones, so I got out the 10cm flan tins and divided the pastry into 4 and filled all the tins. I had some pastry left, so used it to make a little jam tart galette in a 5th tin. Just to use up every scrap. I didn’t trim it, just folded over the surplus. Forgot to take a picture of that though.
So, into the oven at 180°C Fan / 200°C / 400°F / Gas Mark 6 for about 30 minutes until the filling was baked through, and oh my, they smelt, and looked, rather wonderful. Couldn’t wait for dinner time!
Changes to an Indian Carrot Recipe
Change the spices to ground cumin, turmeric and ginger, with a touch of honey; add a thumb of fresh grated ginger; or add a blob of Marmite for a completely different flavour; add some grated orange zest in the tart and sprinkled on top; or use lemon zest; or use a spice paste from a jar; and add chilli if you like a bit of heat.
Sprinkle fennel seeds on top, or sesame, pumpkin or sunflower seeds.
Change the vegetable to diced butternut squash, diced swede or parsnip.
Experiment and see what you can come up with. And don’t forget to let me know what you try, I love to see your pictures.
Ingredients
Pastry
- 200 g flour self raising
- 100 ml oil or 50g NB oil does not weigh the same in ml and grams
- 70 ml cool water or up to 100ml, you may not need it all
Spiced Carrot Tart Filling
- 200 g soft cheese the value brands are great for this
- 300 g carrots
- 2 large eggs
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- 2 tsps ground coriander
- 2 tsps ground turmeric
- 2 tsps sugar
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
Instructions
Savoury Tart Pastry
- Put the flour and oil into a mixing bowl
- Add the water. You may need a little more or a little less depending in the flour, they are all different
- Stir gently until amalgamated to make the pastry
- Roll out to fit your flan tin, or use 4 individual flan tins
Savoury Tart Filling
- Peel and dice the carrots and cook in a tiny bit of water until softened
- Mix all the filling ingredients together
- Season if you want, I didn't and it was fine
- Pile into pastry case
- Sprinkle the cumin seeds on top
Bake
- Bake at 180°C Fan / 200°C / 400°F / Gas Mark 6 for about 30 minutes until the filling is cooked through and firm
- Enjoy hot from the oven, or cold.
- Freezes beautifully, so is ideal for a packed lunch, especially the individual tarts
Notes
Got a great recipe? How about submitting it to appear on Thrifty Lesley!
Nutrition
The amount in the recipe is not strong, add some more, and perhaps some chilli too if you want it stronger
Will give this one a try. Like the idea of it being spicy