A Veggie Galette filled with Garden Goodies
Who knew that there was even such a thing as a galette. Not me anyway, given that I had made similar things by accident in the past, imagine my surprise to find out that this is a real dish.
The galette is a french name for a pie/flan that is free form so has no need of a tin or a case to bake in. In fact the more rustic and thrown together the better, which works well for beginners and rubbish cooks like me. It is usually done with sweet fillings but it is one of those things that you could use anything you like as a filling and it will taste good. I love flaky, buttery pastry so this type of thing will always be a winner for me.
I made a very rustic Spinach, potato and onion version and it was delicious. It took me around 35 mins including making the pastry. It then takes around 40 mins to cook and we ate it straight out of the oven, but as I write this I can see my naughty husband stealing another piece now it has cooled down.
What did I use
300 g Spinach ( but any greens will do)
300g potatoes – cooked and sliced
4 medium onions
3 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tsbp Olive Oil
1 lemon – zest and juice
Salt and Pepper to taste
100 g hard cheese (cheddar or a hard cheese you like)
For the pastry
250g plain flour
125 g butter
pinch salt
2 med eggs (1 for the pastry and 1 for the egg wash)
What did I do?
Make the pastry first so it has some time to rest in the fridge.
In a bowl place the softened butter, flour and salt. Rub mixture together with fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs and all lumps of butter have been broken up.
Add into this 1 medium egg to bind and bring the dough together, finish with a tsbp of cold water and the dough should stick together. wrap with film or foil and place in the fridge.
Making the filling
Potatoes need to be par boiled, so chop into large quarters and place in pan of water, bring to boil and then simmer until they are just soft. Drain and refill with cold water and allow to stand.
Place the olive oil into a pan and add the onions roughly chopped along with the garlic and salt/pepper. Cook until onions are beginning to turn brown. Now add the red wine vinegar and cook for a further 5 mins.
Tip this mixture out into a bowl for later
For the greens I just pulled the leaves off the stalks and left them whole.
Wash greens but don’t remove the excess water simply place in original pan, during cooking they will wilt so no need to chop really.
To the greens add salt/pepper, the zest and juice of one lemon. Cook on a low heat until the greens have wilted.
Slice the cool potatoes and add into the pan with the greens. Sprinkle the cheese on the top and stir so cheese is mixed over the vegetables.
Roll out your pastry, remember this is rustic so it doesn’t need to be straight or measured. This not going into a tin. Before adding the filling I transferred the pastry on to a baking tray on which I added some baking paper.
Get your onions and and spread over the pastry, leaving a 3 to 4 cm edge on the pastry as you are going to fold it over.
Now spread out your spinach, potato and cheese mixture on the top of the onion.
Fold the edge of the pastry inwards, you are effectively making a little crust to hold the filling in. it can be as rough as you want. Mine was really rough as I am so bad at dainty things.
Use an eggwash on the pastry edges to give it a gentle browning whilst cooking
Place the galette into a preheated oven gas mark 6. Leave for about 40 mins and check – it should be ready but if in doubt give it 5 mins more.
So here it is in all its glory. I think it looks much better cooked. The taste was lovely, the lemon flavour of the green veg was really zingy. All in all a really great meat free dinner.
As I am trying all different ways to make sure we eat all the veg coming in from the garden. I am very pleased to say I would eat this again for sure.
Hubby has made me promise to make him an apple and blackberry version after we have been out picking the blackberries so I guess I cant get away with that one.
So if you are new to baking and fancy a go this is certainly an easy start, or even if you just want to throw together something for a snack. I am sure there could be so many combinations of filling we would never get bored.
See you soon and remember
Just Breathe
Steph