Rainbow Chard Tart

Rainbow Chard is at its peak right now and a great way to add some colour into winter warming dishes.

Here’s a recipe for Rainbow Chard Tart from The Ridge House, for you to try or save to your recipe collection.

Ingredients

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed (I love Carême All Butter Puffed Pastry and used about ½ of the rolled sheet)

1 egg (white and yolk separated)

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon fried oregano

1 leek, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Zest of 1 lemon

About 12 rainbow chard stems with leaves

500g fresh ricotta (I use That’s Amore brand)

1 tablespoon of butter

1 tablespoon of olive olive

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a tray with baking paper.

2. Cut stems away from the leaves and wash thoroughly.

3. Finely shred the chard leaves. Cut the stems into even 15cm lengths. If needed, join shorter stems together or halve wider ones. You’ll need about 15-20 15cm stems for the tart top.

4. Unroll your pastry from the packet and use one of the stems as a centre-place marker, leaving 2-3cm of pastry on either side. Cut off this piece of pastry from the roll and place it on the lined baking tray.

5. Steam the chard stems for 8-10 minutes until tender.

6. Sauté butter, olive oil, leek, and garlic until soft. Stir in the shredded chard and cook until wilted. Add nutmeg, oregano, lemon rind, salt, and pepper. Cook for a few more minutes then set aside to cool.

7. Add ricotta and egg white to a bowl and stir in the cooled chard and leek mixture. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if needed.

8. Spoon the ricotta mixture onto the pastry, spreading it out to leave a 2-3cm border. The filling can be quite high as the pastry will rise to contain it.

9. Gently score the pastry around the filling edges to encourage puffing.

10. Beat egg yolk with a little water and brush the pastry edges.

11. Lay the steamed rainbow chard stems across the ricotta filling and brush with a little olive oil. You can get fancy and create an ombre of rainbow chard colours here.

12. Bake at 180 degrees, fan forced over for 30-35mins. Pastry edges will rise and turn golden brown.

13. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving to allow the ricotta mixture to set.

Serve with a green salad and Easy Rainbow Chard Pickles. (Recipe at Green Hills Farm). This is a great no-waste recipe for using leftover stem ends.

This recipe is by Kristy Plumridge from The Ridge House/Green Hills Farm.

Photography by Kristy Plumridge

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