One of my favorite recipes I got from the vegan puff pastry was this caramelized onion tart. When I was in France this year I was paying special attention to how they make their tarts. One very popular noon time snack food (they don’t “do” fast food in France, not like they do here, although that’s changing a bit lately) is called a Pissaladière. That is an onion and anchovy tart with or without olives, usually on a puff pastry square. It is sold at most little cafes alongside the other snack foods they sell – which are freshly baked, not processed. Of course. Anyway, so I wanted to change it up a bit. I figure, if you are going to go to all of the trouble to make this thing you might as well give some bang to your buck nutritionally. With the Pissaladière the anchovy mostly does all the work, flavor-wise, so you can’t just put caramelized onions and olives atop puff pastry. It will turn out too bland. You need what anchovy provides: sharpness, saltiness, a little unpredictable spark.
So here is what I did. I kind of combined the Italian idea of prosciutto/arugula pizza. In this case I took fresh basil and put it, along with little cherry tomatoes, on top of the tart. But there needed to be something else there.
Puff pastry rolled to a square. Put the pastry square on a cookie sheet, with parchment or a silicon baking sheet.
Mix together (to taste, measurements are really up to you)
About a teaspoon of fresh miso paste.
About one-half cup of toffutti.
A wee bit of liquid of some kind – coconut milk, cashew nut, you could soy.
About two tablespoons of olive oil
Chopped parsley
Chopped (very very finely) two cloves garlic
(rosemary or basil or any herbs also work well – depends on what you like to eat)
Mix all of that together and smear it all over the pastry.
Take about five yellow onions. Put some olive oil in a pan and slowly cook them until they get brown and caramelized. You don’t need butter to do this. You will want to salt and pepper them but only a little. You really want the onions to get naturally sweet. You could mix in some shallots if you wanted, or even garlic. Just depends on what flavor you’re going for. I was aiming to mimic the Pissaladière so I went with just plain cooked onions.
Bake at 350 degrees until the crust is brown and solid on the bottom.
Take out and top with basil and tomatoes – if you feel like it. You could add arugula too. Otherwise you can eat the tart plain. Mine was the favorite thing I made with puff pastry.
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