No, it’s not pizza. Sort of looks like it, with some arugula on top. It’s a grain type crust with a filling that contains caramelized onions, sweet potatoes, Feta cheese and Swiss chard.
When I was served this tart, I’d only heard the name teff. Knew nothing about it. Had never tasted it. It bakes up kind of dark (see the crust at the back edge?) and it’s crunchy. Even though the grains are tiny, they don’t dissolve, but they remain crunchy through the baking. I liked that part. Teff is an ancient grain and is full of iron, in case you need some in your diet. It’s a carb, of course. You can buy both the grains (whole, tiny little things) or you can buy teff flour. In this recipe, don’t use teff flour, only the grains.
There at right you can see a photo of the grains. It’s hard to get a perspective with the photo – but those grains are about the size of poppy seeds. Golden brown, obviously.
So the crust you make here contains regular flour too, along with salt, butter and ice water to bring it together. You make it, then chill it for a bit, to make it easier to roll out and get into a tart pan. Use a tart pan with a removable bottom. You can press the pastry some to get it up into the edges. It’s chilled for a bit again, then you pre-bake it, blind bake with foil inside and filled with pie weights or dried beans. The only caution with this tart has to do with the baking . . . After baking for about 10 minutes, lift a corner of the foil. If any of the tart shell sticks to the foil, bake another 1-2 minutes and check again. It shouldn’t take much more than that. If it sticks, the shell isn’t quite cooked through and will get soggy.
Meanwhile you will have started on the filling. Sweet potatoes need to be baked, then cooled, peeled and chopped into small pieces. Red onions need to be rendered and caramelized, which takes awhile. Balsamic vinegar is added to the sweet potato mixture and another little jot added to the Swiss chard mixture. Some Feta is crumbled up and you use eggs to hold the filling together. Those things are layered in a particular order, then the tart is baked for 25-30 minutes, then the caramelized onions are added on top. They warm up just from the temperature of the tart coming out of the oven. Garnish the top with some arugula and serve warm. Or it can be served at room temp, but I’d recommend the warm version. The recipe came from Tarla Fallgatter, at a recent cooking class.
What’s GOOD: the crunch of the teff, for sure. Liked the combination of sweet potatoes and Swiss chard, plus the little bit of Feta. And the super-sweet caramelized onion add a lovely flavor. Altogether delish.
What’s NOT: this takes a bit of work on all counts – baking the potatoes, making the crust and blind-baking it, chopping up all the other ingredients and cooking both the Swiss chard part separately from the sweet potato part. Just more work than you might think.
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Savory Teff Tart with Swiss Chard, Sweet Potato and Feta
Recipe By: Tarla Fallgatter, cooking instructor
Serving Size: 8
CRUST:
1 cup teff grains — see notes (not teff flour)
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces unsalted butter — cold, cut into pieces
4 tablespoons ice water — or up to 1 T. more
FILLING:
2 medium sweet potatoes — roasted until tender, cooled, peeled, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium red onions — peeled, halved, sliced 1/4″ thick
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 large garlic cloves — peeled, chopped
1 bunch Swiss chard — (large quantity)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3 ounces Feta cheese — crumbled
1 pinch red chili flakes
2 large eggs
freshly ground black pepper
arugula, chopped, for garnish (optional)
Notes: do seek out teff grains, not teff flour. It may be hard to find, although you can buy it on amazon if you’re inclined to order there. Health food stores will likely have it and probably Whole Foods.
1. CRUST: Combine teff, flour and salt in food processor. Pulse in butter and add just enough ice water to form a dough. Form dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes. Roll dough into a 14-inch circle and unroll over an 11-inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom. Chill tart. Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake tart blind, lined with foil and filled with pie weights or dried beans. Test tart at 10 minutes by lifting up an edge of the foil. If the dough sticks, bake another minute. Test again until the foil doesn’t stick – approximately 10-12 minutes. Cool on a rack and remove pie weights and foil carefully.
2. Heat olive oil in saute pan and add onions, stirring, and cook until onions wilt and develop a dark-brown color, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low, partially cover pan with foil and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions have caramelized. Add balsamic vinegar and stir until it evaporates and glazes the onions. Set aside for later.
3. Remove onions and set aside. Add second amount of olive oil to the pan and stir in garlic. Cook just until fragrant. Add swiss chard and cook on medium heat until completely wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with second quantity of balsamic vinegar, tossing it until the vinegar cooks away. Transfer to a bowl to cool.
4. Add most of the feta cheese to the chard mixture along with eggs and a pinch of red chilii flakes. Spread this mixture into the bottom of the crust. Top with sweet potato pieces and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
5. Bake the tart on a flat baking sheet until cheese is nicely browned, 25-30 minutes. Spoon onions over the top of the tart, allowing bits of cheese to peek through. Let tart cool slightly, about 10 minutes, then remove the tart rim. Sprinkle arugula on top if desired. Slice and serve warm, or at room temperature.
Per Serving: 446 Calories; 25g Fat (45.5% calories from fat); 22g Protein; 46g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 109mg Cholesterol; 349mg Sodium.
hddonna
said on May 1st, 2018:
Does the flour go in with the teff and salt? It’s omitted in the instructions.
This sounds very unusual, but I do like all the ingredients and would probably enjoy it. I’ve had teff in the Ethiopian bread injera, which I love. Have never had the whole grains, though. When you say the grains remain crunchy, do you mean a light crunch or a hard crunch? I made toasted millet pancakes once and found them inedible, as the millet was so hard I found it unpleasant. The teff grains appear to be much smaller, though. You compare the size to that of poppy seeds. Would the texture be similar as well? They probably have it at my Global Foods Market. I’ve seen the flour.
(If I can’t find the teff grains, I bet this would be good made into a frittata by adding more eggs and cooking in a skillet. A different dish entirely, but the filling sounds great on its own as well!)
Oh, goodness, yes. I thought I’d corrected that in the instructions, but obviously I didn’t. I noticed it when I was typing up the recipe! They’re not a hard crunch, but they do have texture. I think they’d be awful if they were mushy. It was really good, considering it was a new grain for me. . . carolyn t