Asparagus and White Bean Pesto Tart
I can’t believe it, but the holidays are coming. And when there are holidays, there are parties, and the ever growing need for easy, tasty, fancy seeming food that you can serve your guests. Here’s a beautiful, ridiculously delicious, and easy-to-make asparagus tart that is so freakin’ awesome you’ll want to make it even when you’re not expecting guests.
Now, there are a few trade-offs that make this recipe as easy as it is. The first Pepperidge Farm puff pastry, because it’s a pain the butt to make it from scratch. This stuff is miraculously vegan. The trade-off is that while it might be vegan, the ingredients list is pretty long and contains things like high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oil. This doesn’t bother me much, especially since I don’t eat things like this a lot. But I know some of my readers are uncomfortable eating products containing these ingredients at all. For those who aren’t, or don’t mind occasionally consuming something like this, head to the freezer section of your grocery store and pick up the Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets. They’re easy to use and only require 40 minutes of defrosting before using.
If you’re interested in making your own vegan puff pastry, there is hope! VeganDad made some beautiful vegan puff pastry simply subbing Earth Balance margarine for butter and following FoodBeam’s thoughtful recipe. Definitely check out both blogs. One day I’m sure I’ll try to make my own puff pastry, but that day is not today. Props to VeganDad for giving me hope that it’s even possible! You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
The other time-saving tips include using canned beans (which I always do anyway, because I’m lazy?) and a pesto concentrate that you can find at Whole Foods (and many other grocery stores) in the pasta/tomato aisle. It’s called Amore Pesto Paste, and the only ingredients are basil, sunflower oil, olive oil, salt, pine nuts, garlic, and citric acid. It’s wonderful to use in all sorts of stuff, so pick up a tube and try it out.
Asparagus Tart with White Bean Pesto
Serves 8 as an appetizer
1 15 oz Can Navy Beans
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 Heaping Cup Raw Cashews
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1 Tbs Amore Pesto Paste
2 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
2 Tbs Soy or Rice Milk, or water
1 lb Fresh Asparagus
1 Puff Pastry Sheet
Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil
Remove 1 puff pastry sheet from the freezer and let it defrost on the counter for 40 minutes on top of parchment paper. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400º F and make the filling.
Drain and rinse the beans, and add them to the work bowl of a food processor. Add of the remaining ingredients except the soymilk (salt through lemon juice). Pulse the food processor, stopping ever few pulses to scrape down the sides and pulse again. You want to break up the beans and the cashews. Once it’s as smooth as you can get it, dribble in the soymilk while the machine is running, as this should help further smooth the mixture.
After 40 minutes of defrosting, carefully unwrap the puff pastry on top of your parchment paper:
Roll the puff pastry out slightly into a rectangle. Then add the white bean pesto mixture, leaving a 1 to 1 1/2 inch border on all sides:
Trim your asparagus so that it fits the tart width-wise. Press the spears into the white bean pesto, alternating their direction so that there are tips and bases next to each other; this one everyone is guaranteed every part of the asparagus after cutting:
With a sharp knife, trim all the edges to they are neat and square. Trim away as little as possible.
Brush the spears with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper:
Using the parchment paper, slide the tart onto a baking sheet (don’t remove the tart from the paper). Bake at 400ºF for 25-30 minutes until the tart is puffed and golden brown and the spears are tender. Serve while just warm.
You can reheat this tart in the oven for a few minutes if you have leftovers, but it’s also good at room temperature. Fresh basil is a nice garnish. If you’ve never worked with puff pastry before, this is a great recipe to get your feet wet. It really is easy to use, just as delicious as phyllo dough with none of the stress. And it’s fun to watch it puff!
This looks delicious!
Not sure it’s available outside the Northwest, but we use Aussie Bakery puff pastry which doesn’t have any hf corn syrup or other yucky ingredients…
http://www.aussiebakery.com/pdf-files/FoodSvc.pdf
Oh, thanks for the tip! I haven’t seen that on the east coast, but I’ll keep an eye out for it!
that is a beautiful looking tart! white bean pesto… sounds delicious :)
BEYOND magnificent tart.
wow, I had no idea Pepperidge Farm puff pastry was vegan?! That is great to know, thanks. The tart looks amazing, and your photos always make me hungry ;)
Want! Want soooo much!!!!
You are such a genius and your pictures are gorgeous! This looks so fancy and delicious =)
mmmm..i love asparagus.
very creative, thanks!
Wow, this looks really impressive, and sounds delicious! I will most certainly be adding it to my Must Try list. Thanks for sharing.
They are beautiful and might just be a Thanksgiving treat that I bring to my in laws. Thanks!1
i love things like this, that are just fancy enough to seem special without being a ton of work. looks delicious!
thanks to the first commenter for the tip – i hope they have that brand in portland.
gorgeous tart! the flavors sound very complementary :)
Superbe comme d’habitude !!!!
Bizzzzzzzzz
Barbichounette
That sounds SOOOO fabulous!! I love this idea. Totally making this when my brother comes home! Thanks!
That looks scrumptious! Love your blog! Happy day to you!
The colors are stunning! I’ll have to give this a try. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful! Thank you so much for the fabulous walk through photos! That helps me picture myself making this easily!
Holy Moly! These photos are killing me. These look so amazing. I am going to have a party and invite you as the supremo guest-chef!! Because, there is no way that I could reinvent that….how totally fantastic. You rock!
this looks so delicious and easy! i never knew working with puff pastry was that simple, or i’d have been doing it long ago… and what a lovely combination of flavors. mm! i might have to brave the HFCS and hydrogenated oils for this one.
YOU, madam, are a lady and a scholar!
This is beyond fantastic! I typically hate most vegan quiches and the like, but this looks so delicious. Plus, it has protein and its good, hot food for cool weather. I cannot wait to make it this weekend.
xoxo
This looks and sounds so amazing. I’m definitely making this come holiday…or just for me now!
I don’t know if this has been suggested before but it would be awesome if you had a print version of each recipe so we could just print the instructions without the pictures (and if this feature is already available, perhaps I am blind). Not that the pictures aren’t magnificent because they are and I would visit this site for the pictures alone; just thinking it would be easier on printers to have a text-only version. 101 Cookbooks has a print version of recipes and I find it very helpful.
Yes, I’m working on that! It’s a great idea. I’m implementing some other features for the site as well, but I don’t have a timeline for them let. Just know that printer friendly recipes as well as other fun features are in the works.
ah beautiful! my son is gonna love this!
It’s funny Joselle, I get many, many emails from readers requesting a print-friendly version of the 101 recipes WITH photo. I think in the long run I’m going to have both – print-friendly with and print-friendly without photo.
Hope this helps Lolo. -h
That looks amazing! When the photo first started to load, I thought it was a little palm tree decoration on the tart. :-)
This recipe does look amazing! Can’t wait to try it. For those of you wondering about printing, I just highlight the whole document and cut and paste it into Microsoft Word. From there you can delete any text (no offense) or pictures that you don’t want for your print version. You can also resize photos if you want to print them out and save paper at the same time! I can usually get each recipe down to only 1 page (front and back) with most of the photos. It only takes a few minutes. Might be a good solution until a print option appears in the blog. Just a thought…
Should this be served as the main entree? If yes, what are some good side dish suggestions to accompany it?
I love that Pepperidge Farm puff pastry, and I’m usually in the no HFCS camp. But you gotta splurge for puff pastry.
Looks awesome! Also, love the Office reference! Haha.
Great photos (as usual!). I love this tart and it absolutely would make a great holiday dish. Such beautiful colors from the asparagus and basil!
Ohhhh – holiday dish! I think this would look so great served on a white platter with roasted plum or cherry tomatoes around it!
This recipe looks great. We haven’t had any fresh baby asparagus in Hawaii for a while…. once I find some I intend to make this!
This is absolutely to die for, I sincerely appreciate everything you do here on this blog! Thank you!
That looks super cool. I love how you’ve used every shortcut imaginable. A girl after my own heart…
Ooh, I used to make sun-dried tomato pesto all the time when I worked in a deli. I’m going to have to try this both with and without tomatoes…Ah, why do I always come to your site when I’m hungry??
I think your recipes are going to feature prominently in all my future parties…
Can I come to your house for the holidays? I am sure your spread will be magnificent!
The tart looks so elegant…thanks for sharing …loved the pesto :-)
jeejee … I like so much!. See how I did this recipe:
http://eldelantalverde.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/pastel-de-esparragos/
greetings
This appetizer looks like a million bucks! It’ll definitely take my make-shift dinner parties to a whole new level – thanks for the recipe! (:
Just made this as a main entree, Lolo. I actually doubled the pastry puff (so sort of made a Big Mac Asparagus tart :) and I found I needed more salt in the bean paste but it was really good and really filling!
hello,
i dunt know how i get here, but i gotta say, ehh this is a really nice site, (sry 4 bad english)
and i hope u will post more delicios things.
i will try to cook ur stuff :)
dear greetings from germany
anna
(again sry for my bad english)
What a gorgeous looking tart that is…
Oh god. that looks AMAZING, i wish i could make it. But im raw vegan :( aweee i need to find a a way to make this raw lol
Where do you live that asparagus is in season now?
Would it be possible to use phyllo dough instead of puff pastry if none is available?
Thanks
Did you guys know that asparagus season is in the springtime? If you are finding asparagus now, it probably was flown in (using oil, and losing nutrients) from somewhere in South America.
I find the taste of fresh-picked seasonal asparagus incomparable with that of off-season global-economy asparagus.
All food plants have a growing cycle (and a corresponding season), although that is something that many people have forgotten.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (by Barbara Kingsolver) is an excellent & enjoyable book about eating local.
Wow, thanks for taking the time to write such an informative and helpful post! I don’t usually photograph food, but there were lots of good pointers for other applications. Awesome.
When I made this the bottom and middle were kind of raw (but still tasty!). What did I do wrong?
What a fabulous dinner – we loved it!!
Great idea to use the white beans!! You are so talented!