Golden Hour Broad Bean Tart

This recipe offers a refined yet informal way to enjoy a bright green broad bean and pea purée, roasted tomatoes, toasted seeds and watercress. The tart grew out of the Golden Bun version and for that, you can use my recipe and go down to the Woods...

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Photographed truthfully. If you cook it, yours will look like mine.

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Prep Time 20

Cook Time 1

Resting time 30

Total Time 1 50

Course Dinner, Lunch, Main

Cuisine British Home Cooking

Servings people

Calories/Seving 505 kcal

Ingredients

Ingredients for the Wholemeal Pastry

160 g wholemeal plain flour | ideally 'from the fridge' cold
40 g plain flour | ideally 'from the fridge' cold
¼ tsp salt
100 g butter | 'from the fridge' cold
2 tbsp icy cold water | plus more if required

Ingredients for Broad Bean Filling

300 g broad beans | double-podded to reveal the perfect green within
240 g peas
3 clove fresh garlic | sliced into waver thin rounds
6 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp lemon juice
¾ tsp ras el hanout
¼ tsp salt | taste the purée first and add pinch by pinch
¼ tsp ground black pepper | taste the purée first and add pinch by pinch

Ingredients for Roasted Tomatoes

3 units tomatoes
6 tsp olive oil
¼ tsp salt | after a while, as a cook, you get a sense with your fingers how much salt to add; you don't need to measure it out. You just know...
¼ tsp ground black pepper | pepper is a personal thing and only add it if you like the spice...

Other Ingredients for serving

2 tbsp egusi seeds | pumpkin or sunflower would work fine too
80 g watercress | to serve with the tarts

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Instructions

Preheat the oven and prepare the tins

Preheat the oven to 180℃ fan (200℃ conventional).
If your tart tins are thin, place a thick baking sheet in the oven to preheat – this helps avoid soggy bottoms.
Grease your tart tins thoroughly. Pacing them on a tray makes them easier to handle.

Make the pastry

Sieve both flours and the salt into a large bowl. Add the cold butter in chunks and rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs – or use a food processor
160 g wholemeal plain flour, 40 g plain flour, ¼ tsp salt, 100 g butter
Add the icy water, bit by bit, to bring the pastry into a soft dough. Handle lightly. It doesn't need kneading.
Wrap the ball of dough in clingfilm being careful to remove air from the surface of the pastry ball and allow the dough to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Resting helps to avoid shrinkage when cooking.
2 tbsp icy cold water

Line the tart tins and blind bake

Grate the cold pastry into the tart tins, pressing onto the sides first, and then the bases. Prick the bases carefully with a fork.
Add a layer of tin foil over each tart to ensure the edges are covered and fill the tart with baking beans. If you are doing lots of these, put them into the fridge as you do them, to keep them cold.
Cook the tart shells for 20 minutes in the preheated oven. After 20 minutes, bring the tart shells out and look at them. Check for raw spots. If there are raw spots (darker), pop back in the oven for a few minutes. If it's just one tiny raw spot, don't put back into the oven.
Trust what you see and trust your instincts. Double check the tart shells are complete; that there aren't any holes. If so, just press in a tiny bit more pastry.
Goals here? Cooked edges. A base (the most important part to check) that is cooked and really quite firm. Please read the 'Bake the tart' section below if you are at all unsure about pastry. There are plenty of variables that will affect outcomes.
Leave the oven on for the next steps if you're doing all of this in one session.

Make the broad bean purée

Mash the double-podded broad beans and peas together. You can keep some texture or go smooth – it’s up to you.
300 g broad beans, 240 g peas
Add the ingredients listed to complete the purée. Taste it and adjust it to your liking.
6 tbsp olive oil, 3 tsp lemon juice, ¾ tsp ras el hanout, ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp ground black pepper

Prepare the egusi seeds

Toast the seeds in a dry frying pan on a low heat. The seeds swell and colour. When done, tip onto a plate to take the heat out of them.
2 tbsp egusi seeds

Prepare the tomatoes and garlic

Cut the tomatoes into slender wedges and cook gently in the oil, with salt and pepper. When the tomatoes are ready, turn the heat off and lay the garlic slices in the warm pan, to gently wilt them and take the edge off their rawness and to pick up some salt and tomato essence from the pan.
3 units tomatoes, 6 tsp olive oil, ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp ground black pepper, 3 clove fresh garlic

Assemble the tart

When you are happy with your blind baked tart cases, taking care to keep the filling inside the case (don't spill it on the edge of the case – looks messy), fill each case with the broad bean purée, add the garlic slices and top with tomato slices (remembering to cover the garlic completely with the tomato to protect the garlic).
Work in batches – all the purée, then the garlic, then the tomato. It’s quicker and more even.

Bake the tarts

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes at 180 ℃ fan (200 ℃ conventional). This finishes the pastry, heats the filling and deepens the tomato flavour.
Check for doneness – the tart should be sizzling, the base golden and firm. If no, return to the oven briefly, protecting the tops with foil if needed.
Using an thermometer can help you know if something is hot in the middle... the temperature should jump up to 70℃. If you put a thermometer in, and the temperature is slowly dragging it's way up, it's not hot enough.
Each oven is different. Some ovens will cook uniformly across a batch of tarts like this, some won't. Some ovens are gentler than other ovens due to fan speed and some ovens have two fans or no fans! You might be making 2 tarts so timings will change compared to a full batch of 6 or perhaps two shelves of tarts. To change from being a recipe follower into a cook, you simply need to stay calm, look, learn, listen and adjust. Follow your instincts as well. If it doesn't look cooked, it probably isn't!

Serve

Serve warm or cold, with watercress underneath or on the side. Scatter the toasted seeds over the watercress rather than the tart.
80 g watercress
For a little extra: try flower petals, a drizzle of balsamic glaze, or dress the watercress with vinaigrette before plating.

Nutrition

Calories: 505kcalCarbohydrates: 43gProtein: 10gFat: 33gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 7gMonounsaturated Fat: 20gTrans Fat: 2gSodium: 420mgPotassium: 343mgFiber: 6gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 749IUVitamin C: 23mgCalcium: 58mgIron: 3mg

Nutritional values are estimates only and will vary depending on specific ingredients used. Nutrition is per serving. Information is for the main recipe, not optional accompaniments.

Keywords broad bean tart, individual vegan tart, summer tart

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