Beet and Goat Cheese Tart

So today at work they had a farmer’s market and I decided to go see what was up.  I scored some beets and other veggies and didn’t even have to go to store!  This was a plus in my lazy book.  The problem is that I had to figure out what to make with this stuff that I didn’t really have a plan for.

I love me some beet and goat cheese salad, but I wasn’t feeling salad so I tried to figure out what else we could combine this delightful combination in.  I discovered a beet and goat cheese tart at Epicurious.  Tarts take a while b/c of all the dough making, blind baking, then custard baking and whatnot.  But since most of it is inactive time I went for it.  I still had to go to the store but since it was for two of my favorite things, goat cheese and wine, I was OK with it.  And I would get to use my nearly new Cuisinart food processor!

Food processor:

that's right, there's an AZ cutting board in the back

It was practically gleaming when I put it on the counter!  I was so psyched to make a dough not by hand! Apparently I haven’t used this baby nearly enough though. First of all, this thing when put together is sturdy.  I was scared to break it using my brute force trying to get the top off but after a struggle I was successful.  I looked in, thought “hm, looks like food would go in that hole in the middle” decided it didn’t matter and dumped in my flour and salt. 

What do ya know when I finally wrestled the top back on and locked it and pushed start I heard some whirring but definitely no processing. 

Did you know you need to put the blade in to make the thing work?  Yeah.

This made me feel stupid.  But I did remember I had a sweet blade organizer that I was excited to open up and it even had a dough blade.  After dumping out contents, putting in blade, and re-dumping back in the bowl things worked much better.

Tart Baking:

YUM

This was pretty standard and uneventful.  Roasting and peeling beets is always a fun and very red process.  I added beet greens to the mixture so I wouldn’t waste food and b/c it can’t hurt to have more green in your diet. I also omitted the walnuts from the original recipe.  (Something about walnuts in a quiche-like food didn’t sound good to me.)I also used half the amount of goat cheese as the original recipe called for; I started to put it all but it seemed kind of excessive.  Last substitution: I used a dough recipe that I’ve been successful with before instead of the one from the website.

I've got to say the finished product did not look like what I was expecting.  I don't know why it looks exactly like what beets and goat cheese would after being baked for 30 min.  Either way it's good.




Voila!

 

Beet and Goat Cheese Tart

2 to 3 small beets

1 tablespoon olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons dry white wine

3 large eggs

3/4 cup heavy cream (I used half & half and milk)
2 ounces fresh goat cheese

Crust

1 ½ Cups Flour
½ Tsp. Salt
3 Tbl. Crisco
6 Tbl. Butter
¼ cup water

Preparation

Heat oven to 400°F. Wash the beets and dry them with a paper towel. Roast about an hour until easily pierced by a fork, about and hour.

Peel the beets and cut them into a medium dice.

Heat the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion, season with a little salt, and cook until the onion is just tender, about 7 minutes. Add in the beet greens and then the white wine and cook for another minute.

Heat the oven to 350°F. Toss the beets and onion together and put them into the blind-baked tart shell.  (Bake the tart shell on it's own at 400 for 15-20 min till golden brown.)

Whisk together the eggs and milk/cream, season well with salt and pepper, and pour over the beats and onions.  Top with dabs of goat cheese to your liking and bake for about 30-35 min.