We have a group of friends dating back all the way to Molly’s nursery years that are a combination of ‘fish eating vegetarians’, full vegetarians, confirmed meat eaters, peanut allergy (serious) and of course we’re no egg and no dairy.
So…feeding everyone is a bit of an effort. We tend to go buffet style! It was my turn to host recently and I decided on some Vegan Party Tarts that everyone could eat. I’ve never made, nor will ever try to make, vegan puff pastry. Thankfully Jus Rol do a great dairy free puff pastry sheet, as do Sainsbury’s. I’m a big believer in ease when entertaining and simply having to unroll the pastry worked for me!
There needed to be several fillings for our Vegan Party Tarts to keep things interesting so went for:
Wild Mushroom and garlic
Caramelised onion and asparagus
Caramelised peppers and olives
Dairy free pesto and olives
Free From: dairy, egg, nuts, soya
Contains: gluten
Preheat oven to 200°C, 400°F
Mushroom and Garlic
250 g of mixed wild, and chestnut mushrooms finely chopped
4 cloves garlic (fat ones)
3 tablespoons dairy free margarine
Chop up the mushrooms into a fine dice.
Melt the margarine in the pan and add the mushrooms.
Mince the garlic and add to the pan.
Fry gently until soft but not mushy (maybe ten minutes). The smell of garlic should fill the kitchen. If you like, sprinkle a bit of chopped parsley or a tablespoon of truffle oil on top. Cool completely.
Caramelised Onion
2 Finely sliced onions
3 tablespoons of dairy free margarine
¼ cup brown sugar
Melt the margarine in the frying pan and add the onions.
Sprinkle the brown sugar on top and fry on a medium heat, stirring now and then.
The onions will go a deep caramel colour but it will take a good 20-25 minutes. Cool and set aside
Caramelised Peppers
A mix of colours is nice here – red, yellow and orange. I don’t like green peppers as I think they are sour.
Finely dice ½ of a red, yellow and orange pepper
3 tablespoons dairy free margarine
¼ cup brown sugar
Melt the margarine in the pan, add the diced pepper and the brown sugar. Cook on a medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The peppers should still be firm, but beautifully sweet.
Assembly
Grease a muffin tin (I used no stick spray as I find it easiest)
Roll the pastry out and cut into squares. This doesn’t have to be precise, I had a variety of shapes as my precise measuring skills aren’t up to much when I’m rushing.
Place a square of pastry in each muffin cup and gently press down.
Caramelised Onion and Asparagus
Fill each cup with a teaspoon of caramelised onion.
Buy the fine asparagus tips for this recipe and chop up into ¼ inch pieces. Keep the frilly head bits in one piece as they look nice in the centre of the tart. Put the frilly bit in the centre and two small stalk bits on the sides.
Caramelised Peppers and Olives
Fill each cup with a teaspoon of caramelised peppers and pop an olive (or two) on top
Wild Mushroom
Fill each cup with a teaspoon of the mushroom mixture.
For the Dairy Free Pesto and Olives I used Sacla Dairy Free Pesto – again just a teaspoon into each cup with an olive on top. Simple but lovely.
Bake in a hot oven for about 10 minutes. Do make sure that the mixtures are cool when they go into the pastry. The pastry will puff up and be brown on the bottom and tops.
I grated Violife parmesan on top the mushroom ones, and the pepper and olives ones as well. Makes 24 tarts.
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