Cooking Up Magic | Cowgirl Chef

This week has been so full of love, I am positive some sort of magic is cooking up. In that spirit, we wanted to share another recipe from our dear friend,  Cowgirl Chef Ellise Pierce's Cookbook Cowgirl Chef Texas Cooking with a French Accent.

I am on a huge vegetable kick, so this Roasted Brocooli-Red Bell Pepper Tart looks like just the recipe to satisfy this healthy craving. 

INGREDIENTS

1 medium head of broccoli, cut into florets 

1/2 of a red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

3 green onions, sliced (white part only)

olive oil

6 egg whites

3/4 cup of reduced fat milk, such as 2%

sea salt and pepper

2 cups of grated cheddar, Monterey Jack, or your favorite melty cheese

1 Polenta Tart Crust, blind-baked and cooled 

RECIPE

1. Preheat your broiler, and line 2 big cookie sheets and 1 smaller one with foil. Toss the broccoli florets on one, the red bell pepper pieces on another, and the green onions on the small one. Drizzle about a tablespoon or so of olive oil over each batch of veggies, salt and pepper them, and give them a good toss with your hands.

2. Now that all of your veggies are prepped, go ahead and slide your broccoli into the oven, and let it cook for about 15 minutes, or until the florets are light brown. Do the same with the red bell peppers, and then the green onions. (These cook at slightly different times, which is why they're on separate cookie sheets, but they all cook quickly.)

3. Once the veggies are roasted, leave them on their pans to cool, and reduce your oven temperature to 375 degrees F. 

4. In a medium bowl, mix up the egg whites, milk, and salt and pepper. 

5. Assemble your tart. First, lay as many broccoli florets as you can into the tart shell. Then add the cheese, and all or as much of the red bell pepper as you'd like, and top with the onions. Gently pour the eggy-milky mixture over the veggies. You'll probably need to use your fingers to squish the cheese down a bit between the broccoli florets. Put the tart on a foil-lined cookie sheet (in case of spillage, this will make for an easy cleanup), and slide into the oven for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the tart is set. Let cool 10 minutes before serving. 

Polenta Tart Crust | Makes 1 (11 inch) Tart Shell

1 3/4 cups of flour

3/4 cup of yellow cornmeal or polenta

1 teaspoon of sea salt

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 tablespoon of honey

1/4 cup of ice water

1. Line the bottom of an 11 inch tart pan with a round of parchment paper (very important, so your tart crust doesn't stick) and preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Whisk together your flour, cornmeal, and sea salt. Add the oil and honey and mix it up. Pour in the water bit by bit, adding just enough for the dough to come together. 

3. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, and gently lay it into your tart pan. Snip the crust edges with your kitchen scissors., leaving a dough hangover of about 1/2 inch. Refrigerate for an hour or simply pop in the freezer (which I do often) until firm, for about 30 minutes. 

4. Blind bake your crust. Line the chilled crust with parchment and fill it up with pie weights or dry beans, making sure to push them tightly into the edges, where shrinkage can occur. Put the tart pan on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the weights and parchment, and bake for 10 more minutes, so the bottom cooks through. Let the tart shell cool completely before you fill it. 

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Sounds delicious! Thanks to our friend Ellise for her cooking up some magic today. Be sure to buy her cookbook, which includes this recipe! Follow along with her adventures as well on her Facebook page and website. Happy Wednesday to all!