I am home alone this weekend which means eating , sleeping and after a couple of glasses of wine manic cleaning which leads to clearing out the fridge. I find tarts or quiches are a great way to use up food from the fridge you just need some eggs and a little pastry which can be made in seconds.
The first use-up ingredient was a bag of chard. I have a terrible history with chard, once a month a huge bag arrives in the vegebox. Despite its beauty, I always picture myself eating it as a cow chewing through cud. So here is my terrible vegebox confession – one in three packets turns to slime .
Also in the fridge a block of very smelly cheese , a Munster from Natoora parcel some months ago . I do not belive in sell-by or use by dates , I think they improve with age.
Reading Nigel Slaters recipes in this weekends Observer he includes hemp seeds in a recipe and I remembered we had a packet for making flapjacks , I figured they would make a delicious addition to pastry and they definitely added a nutty crunch.
The result was a light tart/quiche the strong cheese heated through deliciously with the chard without any bitter green taste , the pastry falling apart.
Chard and Cheese Tart
5 handfuls of chard ( I used rainbow) finely chopped
3 eggs
75g of flavoursome cheese ( mature cheddar, stilton) roughly chopped
100ml of milk
Salt and Pepper
Wholemeal Pastry
100g of wholemeal flour
2 tbp of hemp seeds
50g of butter
20ml of water
Pinch of salt
- Line an 8inch diamter tart case with greaseproof paper
- Make the pastry , crumb together the wholemeal flour , hemp seeds salt , and butter
- Add the water to form a dough
- Roll out to a few millimeters thick and line the tart case
Filling
- Beat together the eggs and milk
- Add the finely chopped chard and cheese
- Season with salt and pepper
- Pour into the tart case
- Bake at 180degC for 25 minutes until the filling is set
The colour is fantastic, I really like the sound of this.
I think it would work with spinach too. It was delicious and got polished off in no time
This looks lovely. I am always looking for ways to use chard since I get it in my veg box every week. I love the taste of it but they always give me so much! Sometimes I chop it finely and stir it into curries in the last five minutes of cooking. I am also planning a chard risotto later this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration.
Oh, and the wholemeal pastry with hemp seeds sounds great, too. I never make anything with only white flour now. I love the nutty taste of whole wheat and the health benefits are important too.
The colour on that tart is amazing!