Vegane Paprika-Tarte (vegan roasted pepper tart)
A shortcrust tart filled with a vegan custard built on blended silken tofu and chickpea flour rather than eggs and cream, poured over peppers roasted until they collapse and sweeten. The tofu needs to be blended thoroughly and long past the point it looks smooth enough; a grainy custard is the most common way this goes wrong.
Prep35 min
Cook45 min
Oven200°C
Servings6
Christoph's vegan pepper tart, built on a blended silken tofu custard, written to insist on blending it far past the point it looks smooth enough.
Ingredients
Written for a 26 cm round tin
Units
Temperature
Servings
Base
- 200 g flour rounded
- 2 g fine salt rounded
- 90 g cold vegan block margarine, cubed rounded
- 40 ml cold water rounded
Roasted peppers
- 600 g mixed bell peppers, seeded, in strips rounded
- 30 ml olive oil rounded
- 150 g onion, sliced rounded
- 5 g fine salt rounded
Vegan custard
- 400 g silken tofu rounded
- 50 g chickpea flour rounded
- 20 g nutritional yeast rounded
- 10 g garlic, finely chopped rounded
- 3 g smoked paprika rounded
- to taste freshly ground black pepper rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Rub the cold margarine into the flour and salt until it looks like coarse crumbs, then add the water and bring together into a dough with a few folds. Wrap and chill for 20 minutes.
- Toss the pepper strips and onion with the olive oil and salt and spread on a baking sheet. Roast at 200°C for 20 minutes, until the peppers have collapsed and the edges are lightly caramelised. Leave the oven on.
- Roll out the dough and line a 26 cm tart tin. Prick the base, line with baking paper and baking beans, and blind bake at 200°C for 12 minutes. Remove the beans and paper and bake 5 more minutes, until pale gold.
- Blend the silken tofu, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, garlic, smoked paprika and pepper together in a blender or with a stick blender, for a full 2 minutes, well past the point it looks smooth; any remaining graininess will still be there once baked.
- Scatter the roasted peppers and onion over the base, then pour the tofu custard evenly over the top.
- Bake at 200°C for 30 to 35 minutes, until the custard is fully set with barely any give.
- Rest 10 minutes before slicing.
Notes
- Blend the tofu custard far longer than seems necessary. Silken tofu looks smooth in the blender well before it actually is; a custard that still has the faintest graininess when raw will not smooth out in the oven.
- Do not skip roasting the peppers first. Raw peppers release a lot of water as they bake, which would leave the custard watery; roasting drives that moisture off and concentrates the sweetness.
- Chickpea flour is what gives this custard body and a faint egg-like set, closer to a savoury pancake batter than cream; do not swap it for a different flour without expecting a different texture.
- It keeps for 3 days in the fridge and reheats well in the oven; a microwave leaves the base soft.
Ingredient substitutions
- Silken tofu is essential to the texture here; firm tofu will not blend to the same smooth custard no matter how long it is processed.
- Chickpea flour can be replaced with cornstarch in a pinch, though the custard sets slightly softer and loses some of the faint egginess chickpea flour provides.
- Mixed bell peppers can be all one colour; a mix of red and yellow gives the sweetest result.
- A scattering of vegan feta or black olives over the top before the second bake is a good, simple addition.
From Christoph Mayer