All the things about this tart make me very happy. Earthy, sweet beetroot, bright green spinach, the pretty beetroot greens and the creamy goats cheese. This is a fairly classic combination, but I’ve included a few tweaks in this recipe to include more vegetables and use some of my favourite things. The result is a nutty, sweet and salty tart that I love for lunch or dinner.
The pastry in this galette is my take on this recipe. And it’s as wonderfully easy to use as that post claims. Using olive oil instead of butter is a simple way to make pastry a little less heavy. At first it seemed a little oily to me but this actually just made it super easy to handle and once cooked that oiliness wasn’t an issue. I’ve used spelt flour and wholegrain flour as I wanted the slightly nutty flavour of spelt in the tart. You could use all of either flour and it will turn out fine, this combination just has a nice balance.
The other thing I like about this tart is that there’s the cooked and raw version of so many of the ingredients, such as the goats cheese, the spinach and even the beetroot (cooked) and the beetroot greens (not cooked). I think this brings a balance of flavour and texture that I love. The almond meal is there to stop the pastry from getting soggy from the beetroot and spinach. If you don’t have any don’t stress it will still be fine without it. Be generous with your beetroot, I didn’t overlap mine the first time I made this (see below) and as the beetroot shrinks when you cook it I ended up with some bald spots! Make sure you have lots of beetroot right up to the edge you fold over, this stops the edge but from just being pastry. I know, that sounds great right, just pastry – yum why ruin that? But it gets dry without the filling so trust me you want lots of beetroot.
You could use pine nuts instead of sunflower seeds but I like to think of sunflower seeds as the poor man’s pine nuts as they impart a somewhat similar flavour and texture for way less cash. But if you’re not budgeting (remember that whole leaving my job thing?) and want to splash out a pine nuts then go ahead!
Don’t be put off by the fact this involves making your own pastry, it’s super simple and really worth it. You can also start the beetroot prior to starting the pastry, and make the pastry while it steams.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
Pastry
1 cup spelt flour
1 cup wholegrain all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup olive oil
Gallette filling
5 medium beetroot
2 cups spinach
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 tablespoon goats cheese
1 tbs almond meal
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tbs sunflower seeds
To topĀ
1 tsp thyme leaves (fresh!)
1 cup spinach
1 cup beetroot greens
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 Tbs sunflower seeds, toasted or roasted!
2 Tbs Goats cheese
Directions
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
For the pastry: Mix the flours and baking powder together in a large bowl. Mix the water and oil together by whisking well or shaking in a jar. Pour the liquid into the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. Tip out onto a piece of baking paper and roll into a circle about 2-3mm thick. Trim the edges so it’s nice and neat(ish).
For the filling: Steam beetroot by placing in a steaming basket over boiling water for 25 minutes. Remove, allow to cool and then rub skins off. Slice into 2mm thick slices.
Place the spinach in a pan with the lemon juice, a pinch of salt and olive oil and turn on the heat. Cook for 30 seconds – 1 minute until just wilted, allow to cool slightly then remove from pan and squeeze in your hands to remove some of the water. Take 1 Tbs of goats cheese and spread thinly on to the pastry, you can stop 2cm from the edge. Sprinkle the almond meal over this. Scatter 1/2 the spinach over this then layer the beetroot over, you can overlap the pieces if you need to to fit it all on. You should still leave the 2cm edge blank. scatter the remaining spinach over top followed by the thyme leaves. Fold the blank edges in, over the beetroot. Press the sunflower seeds onto the edges. Slide the galette on to a baking tray and bake until golden 35-45 minutes.
To finish: In a bowl combine the beetroot leaves (tear up the big ones), spinach, olive oil, mustard balsamic, 1 tbs goats cheese and 1 tbs sunflower seeds. Scatter a Tbs of goats cheese over top of the galette, the tsp of thyme leaves then place a handful of the salad in the centre of the galette. Serve each slice of the galette with some of the salad mix on the side. Season with salt and pepper.
HH. x
