Pea, mint and preserved lemon filo tart
A quick tart made in a frying pan with not much fuss but all the flavour. Most of the things in this tart I have on-hand in the freezer or my cupboards – some bunches of fresh herbs liven things up. For very little work this looks impressive, too. A crumble of feta on top would not hurt, if that’s your thing. This tart is vegan, provided you use vegan filo, which happens to be the most common.
45 MINUTES | SERVES 6 | EASY |
fresh or frozen peas 500g
olive oil 1 tbsp, plus extra for drizzling
spring onions a small bunch, sliced
small white beans (such as cannellini) 400g can, drained
spinach 125g, wilted
preserved lemon 1, flesh removed, rind finely chopped
green olives a handful, pitted and roughly chopped
dried chilli flakes a good pinch
mint a small bunch, leaves picked and roughly chopped
flat-leaf parsley small bunch, leaves picked and roughly chopped
vegan filo pastry 200g
shelled pistachios 50g, roughly chopped
1 Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Boil the peas in a pan of well-salted water for 3-4 minutes, then drain and set aside.
2 Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a heavy, ovenproof, 24-26cm frying pan (you will use this for your tart) and cook the spring onions with a good pinch of salt over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes until soft.
3 In a bowl, roughly mash the beans and peas to make a chunky paste. Add the spinach, preserved lemon rind, olives, chilli flakes, mint, parsley and spring onions, then season well and mix. Drizzle a little oil all round the frying pan.
4 Unwrap the sheets of filo and lay them one by one over your frying pan, leaving a little overlap round the edges. Drizzle with oil, then keep layering and drizzling with oil until you have four sheets – you may need to patch it together a bit if you have small sheets.
5 Drizzle with a little more olive oil, then use a pastry brush to spread the oil all over the pastry. Spoon the filling into the middle, spread it evenly across the base and fold the excess filo back over the filling to form a wavy edge. Brush a little oil on top. Scatter over the roughly chopped pistachios. Put the pan over a medium heat and cook for 3-4 minutes to crisp up the pastry on the base.
6 Bake in the bottom of the oven for 15 minutes until golden and crisp. Check halfway through and rotate the pan to ensure the pastry cooks evenly. Allow to cool, then carefully transfer to a chopping board to cut into slices.
PER SERVING 377 kcals | fat 18G saturates 2.6G | carbs 35G | sugars 3.3G fibre 9.9G | protein 13.8G | salt 0.5G