Spring Vegetable Tarte Fine

From The Meat Free Monday Cookbook, Kyle Books, 2011.

It looked like I was set for a green meal. I had made a basil soup and now set to work to make a tarte fine that was entirely of green vegetables.

Firstly I made the base that was of three filo pastry sheets laid on top of one another with melted butter as the sealant. The sheets were now cut into four and placed on an oven tray with another tray placed on top to weigh the pastry down. It went into a 180º oven for 15 minutes and it was done.

This was one of those recipes where you cooked all of the vegetables one after another. Some asparagus stalks were sliced finely on the diagonal and paced into boiling salted water for 10 seconds then into an iced water bath to prevent them continuing to cook. A zucchini was treated the same way. Then some peas were cooked for a couple of minutes and iced water bathed. These vegetables were all drained and dried.

Tablespoons of chopped chervil and chopped parsley were blended with about 50g of crème fraîche and two egg yolks. 30g of Gruyère cheese was grated and added to this.

Three spring onions were chopped and fried in a little butter. When cool this was added to the egg mixture.

Now the tartes were put together. The egg mixture was spread on first. Then some baby spinach leaves were placed over this. The vegetables went on next. Now some more Gruyère was grated and sprinkled over the top. It now went into a 160ª oven for about 10 minutes and it was ready.

This turned out to be a pleasing light meal. It looked healthy and appetising though was not always easy to eat as the pastry being light and flaky shattered into pieces on the plate. That aside, it all went down satisfactorily, even to the extent of eating two of the tartes.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔