Wholemeal Broccoli Tart with a simple Spinach and Avocado Salad
Serves: 4
Time: 45-50 minutes
Pastry could be considered a food that should be in the naughty pile, and I would be interested to hear what a nutritionist might have to say, but I am all for butter - it’s a good fat and the flour I have chosen is wholemeal, so once you add all the veggies into the mix and the healthy fresh greens on the side I’m still chalking this one down as a very delicious health(ier) option. And you know I love a good cheat so don’t get too pedantic with the pastry - if it starts to crumble and fall apart just squash it back into shape and say it’s rustic. (It still tastes fabulous).
Leftovers
This is a pie that’s big enough to serve 4, so lunch tomorrow is an exact replica of tonight’s dinner.
Take Butter Out
What makes this pastry so quick to make is having the butter out and soft ready to go so remember to take this out in the morning. Traditionally butter gets rubbed in cold but this is a little cheat that I like to do that saves time.
What you'll need
400g wholemeal flour
200g soft butter
4 tablespoons cold water
1 large broccoli or 2 small
1 small brown onion
3/4 bunch of coriander
1 tub of Persian feta
8 eggs
1 small bag of baby spinach
1 large avocado
1/2 lemon
From the Pantry
olive oil
salt and pepper
Feeding Four
You have extra spinach and avocado in your shopping list
Prep and Cook
Preheat oven to 180c
Make Pastry
Measure flour into a mixing bowl, add a large pinch of salt and the softened butter and mix until it forms a dough. Add the cold water 1 tablespoon at a time - you don’t want the mix to be too wet so if you think you don’t need all the water, that’s totally fine.
Sprinkle a clean surface with flour and tip the pastry out and gently knead into a ball. Move dough to the side and clean down your surface.
I always like to roll my pastry out on top of cling wrap because it makes it really easy to pick up.
Wipe your bench with a clean damp cloth then roll the clingwrap out over the wet surface, this helps the clingwrap to stick to the bench.
Place pastry on top and sprinkle lightly with flour, then roll out flat (if your dough is a touch too sticky then sprinkle again with flour and lay a sheet of baking paper over top and roll. large enough to fit your pie dish (I don’t actually have a pie dish so I’m using an oven-safe frypan instead). Remove baking paper once you’ve got the pastry flat.
Pick up the edges of the plastic and turn into the dish so that the cling wrap is on the top, then press the pastry in and peel the cling wrap away. Don’t worry so much if bits fall off, this is a nice soft pastry so just patch it up.
Keep the pastry slightly higher than your sides, if you want to you can make the top look pretty but I’m a bit lazy so I’ve just levelled it off a bit and left the top rustic as.
Pop into the fridge to chill.
Prep Filling
Peel onion and roughly slice.
Cut broccoli into florets and chop the steam down into small chunks.
Wash the coriander and roughly chop.
Heat a large frypan with 1 tablespoon of oil on high heat.
Sauté the onion till slightly translucent then add the broccoli and work till it just starts to lightly singe on the edges. Remove from heat.
Cook Pie Crust
Remove the pastry from the fridge and line the inside with baking paper. If you have baking beans like dried kidney or dried chickpeas, then place roughly 3/4 of a cup inside the dish on top of the baking paper, this will prevent the pastry from puffing up. Alternately rice would work rice or even a slightly smaller cake tin could work.
Bake for 10 minutes. You aren’t going for colour, all we are doing is giving the pastry a head start.
Remove from the oven and carefully remove your baking beans.
Cook Pie
Remove from the oven and carefully lift out the baking paper with whatever weights you have used.
Mix the coriander through the onion and broccoli and fill the pie.
Crumble over and mix through the Persian feta, and whisk the eggs with 1/4 cup of cold water, a large pinch of salt and some fresh cracked pepper.
Pour the egg mix over the top and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the eggs are no longer wobbly (this will vary depending on the size and depth of your dish).
Make Simple Salad
Roughly chop spinach leaves and pop into a medium sized mixing bowl.
Slice the avocado in half and remove the stone. Scoop out the flesh and chop up into chunks.
Squeeze lemon juice over the avocado and season well with salt and pepper.
This is what the kids pizza looked like and only took about 7 minutes to cook.
Lunch tomorrow
This is best eaten as a cold piece of tart, you could heat it up in a microwave if you wanted to but the pastry would go a bit soggy so I prefer cold with some flakey pastry.