Freeform Red Onion Tart with Goat’s Cheese and Pine Nuts

Name: Freeform Red Onion Tart with Goat's Cheese and Pine Nuts
Yield: 2 tarts : 6-8 people
Ingredients: For the tart base - makes 2; 2 cups (300g) buckwheat flour; 2 teaspoons salt; 100g cold butter; 1 tablespoon (15g) flaxseed meal; 2 teaspoons (10ml) apple cider vinegar; 100-150ml cold water (around 2/3 cup); For the topping for each individual tart (double the quantities if you wish to make topping for the 2 bases); 3 red onions, thinly sliced; a good pinch of flaked salt; a good cracking of black pepper; a generous drizzle of olive oil; 100g goat’s cheese, crumbled (I used cherve with dill); 20g pine nuts

When I think about it, given the right attitude, I’m pretty sure I could find a lot of my days funny. Because honestly, things can be completely hilarious when you don’t know what you’re going to get. Life (especially with kids, but often all of it’s own accord) is excellent at creating these one-off situations that you just never could have imagined for yourself. Even better when you get a whole run of them in one go, which is so often the case, and you have yourself a real doozy of a day. Maybe that’s where that old saying ‘things come in threes’ stems from – from those crazy days when bizarre things happen.

Often when I’m asked what did you do today I say “not much”. But some days, when you break it all down and think about the individual moments and the various things that all happened in just those waking hours (if you’re lucky and your adventures don’t go on all night) it can actually seem quite hysterical.

A fair bit of this comes from having small children. That alone makes the flow of the day much more unpredictable. A regular, normal ol’ day is never for certain. Sometimes the quirks happen in a good way and you get surprised by something magical and unexpected – ladybirds discovered on the walk home and kept lovingly as pets, or something thought lost found once more. Small wins, all excellent. And sometimes the day goes in directions you never would have thought, you parents out there would know what I mean. I don’t want to get graphic, but perhaps you can imagine. Being a parent you deal with a lot of things that don’t make the photo album. But these messy, random, spontaneous occurrences, given the right outlook and a bit of time, can make the best stories and paint an honest portrait of life in the time that was.

I love these memories for their sheer craziness. A collection of priceless moments to treasure and revisit on a day which has been a bit too ordinary, at a time when everyone could do with a laugh.

We have a good batch of these stories in our house; lots come from when the kids were babies and did cute, silly things, like reversing under tables and chewing chair legs or screaming like a pterodactyl (every single dinner time) – totally funny in hindsight. Or that time we rode around Amsterdam each with a kid on the back of a bike, only to blow a back tyre and have to walk back (a fairly long way) to the bike hire, with the inner tube tying itself in a knot in the gears so badly the pedals would not move. We had to cut it off with a key. Not that funny at the time, but absolutely hilarious now.

Life can be absurd! And that’s what I love about it. It’s almost as if the crazier the day gets, the funnier it can become. And I don’t know if this is because I reached some kind of breaking point years ago, or if it’s an indicator of some kind of true, positive self development… I guess that thought in itself is all a matter of perspective. Honestly, I think it’s probably a combination of them both.

I just figure life may as well be laughable (when appropriate of course).

So, go forth lovely people, and see the hilarity of your day! Because sometimes the ‘worse’ it gets, the ‘funnier’ it becomes.

Freeform Red Onion Tart

For those freeform kind of days…

Originally I wanted to make you (and me) some kind of galette. One full of greens from the garden which is bursting at the seams at the moment. Galette seemed like a good idea because it’s turned a bit cold again and I felt like something a bit comforting, but without eggs. Greens galette, yum.

But here’s what happened – I had a day that didn’t go to plan. Fancy that!

We’ve all had them, days when things happened. Nothing big, but just enough to make you skip a little, or side step at least. Just when I was about to go out and pick the greens, the heavens opened up and it literally POURED with rain, like torrential, which made me think maybe I needed to leave those greens for another day. I guess they will just grow a little bigger. And then when I went to fold the edges of the pastry over to form that beautiful, rustic galette edge it had completely glued itself to the baking paper, totally fused, and crumbled in my hands.

That’s okay I thought, I can do this kind of a dance, so instead what we have is a freeform red onion tart, with goats cheese and pine nuts. Flat and crispy, sweet, salty and delicious. Kind of like a cross between quiche and pizza. With a bit of shuffling it did very nicely, and was actually a lot less fuss than the dinner I had originally planned. So we will save that greens galette for another day, and instead celebrate making things up as you go along and doing the best with what you have.

Red Onion Freeform Buckwheat Tart with Goat’s Cheese and Pine Nuts

makes 2 tarts, each tart serves 3 – 4 with a side salad • gluten free, grain free, vegan option

I made two tarts, one with the delicious red onion topping and another topped with thinly sliced sweet potato and olive oil, for my sweet potato loving kids. I imagine the base would also freeze well. Likewise, you could make one giant tart, if you have an oven and baking tray big enough 🙂

If you would like to make this tart vegan you could substitute the butter with coconut oil and vary your toppings.

For the tart base – makes 2

2 cups (300g) buckwheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
100g cold butter
1 tablespoon (15g) flaxseed meal
2 teaspoons (10ml) apple cider vinegar
100-150ml cold water (around 2/3 cup)

For the topping for each individual tart (double the quantities if you wish to make topping for the 2 bases)

3 red onions, thinly sliced
a good pinch of flaked salt
a good cracking of black pepper
a generous drizzle of olive oil
100g goat’s cheese, crumbled (I used cherve with dill)
20g pine nuts

In a food processor, place all of the base ingredients except for the water and process until combined. With the motor still running, slowly pour in the water until the dough forms into a ball. The dough will be quite sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and divide into two. Form each dough half into a thick, flat disc, wrap in cling film and pop into the fridge to chill for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F / Gas mark 6.

Once the dough has chilled, remove each disc from the fridge and roll between two sheets of baking paper until it is flat and around 2-3mm thick. Peel off the upper layer of baking paper, and place onto a baking tray.

Top the tart pastry with the red onion slices, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pop into the oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, remove the tray from the oven, crumble the goats cheese over the onions and sprinkle with the pine nuts. Return to the oven for another 10 – 15 minutes, or until the pastry is golden all over.

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