Cream Cheese, Beetroot and Truffle Tarts

From Pure Vegetarian, Paul Gayler, Kyle Cathie Ltd, 2008.

If you have some cooked beetroot these are quick and easy entrée bites.

I used bought short pastry to make the tart cases. It was cut into 5cm circles, placed into tart cases and baked at 190ºC for about 15 minutes until golden.

The beetroot was cut into fine dice and cooked in a saucepan with 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar and 2 tablespoons maple syrup until it had caramelised just a little—basically when the liquid had almost gone.

The cream cheese was mixed with some chopped chives and salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble, the cream cheese went into the tart cases first, followed by the beetroot on top with a little chopped chives. A sprinkling of truffle oil was added on top.

These worked well. They looked good, you could eat them in one bite, and they were quite tasty. I do feel that the cream cheese—perhaps the oniony chives—took away a little from the enhanced beetroot with its sweet and slightly tart flavour. Next time I would use something different from cream cheese.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔