A lazy quiche
I have an ongoing vague plan of the recipes I’m going to blog; recipes that I want to spend developing for personal or professional interest or simply those I think I’d rather enjoy to eat or to photograph. That said this vague plan often goes out of the window, because my imagination has led me down a new whim. That’s exactly what happened for this week’s post, thanks to beetroot – leading the role in my gluten free pastry galette.
The beetroot came in my first veg bag from Lee Greens , a recently discovered local organic veg bag scheme in my area of South East London. With Organic September in full swing (see my last post ), there couldn’t be a more perfect time for me (or anyone for that matter) to seek out and try a local organic scheme. I have always wondered about getting a veg box but been concerned it would be too difficult to get through the veg in a week since I’m away so much, and my fridge is usually full of leftovers from random work projects too. Since signing up to the scheme a few weeks back, I’ve been making more effort to let the veg box guide my daily meal choices and it’s definitely helped my daily veg quota. In fact the community based scheme caught my imagination so much so that I’m also volunteering for them for a bit to help with the social media and marketing ( come say hello! )
Vegetables from SE London local veg box scheme Lee Greens
So, back to the gluten free pastry galette. I’ve been playing around with gluten free pastry for years, but never had the whim to try a galette, silly really since a galette is SO much easier. It is simply a round of pastry with a delicious filling plonked on top, then the sides rustically folded in (not to be confused with a Breton Galette , which I also love). No faffing with moving a crumbly gluten free pastry into a large quiche tin, yet the pleasure of buttery pastry crumbling into your mouth is still very much a reward for your efforts.
The filling for this galette is actually mostly onion, simply because I seem to have an unlimited supply growing at home (I swear they multiply). The beetroot dyes the onion red, you could be fooled into thinking there was more in it. I added some chard and kale leaves for good measure and a colour contrast.
I like to use ground almonds in my pastry as they help with the texture and add moisture in what can be a dry affair. Alongside almonds I’ve used a mix of gluten free wholegrains – teff and sorghum. However I also tested this recipe with almonds combined with a shop bought gluten free flour blend and whilst the taste was less wholesome (who doesn’t love nutty wholegrain flours?), it worked just fine. If you don’t have teff or sorghum feel free to substitute with buckwheat or brown rice flours. Slightly different taste but you should get a similar bake.
Serve with a huge green salad to offset all that butter and carbs, and a satisfying grin.
- 50g ground almonds
- 30g teff flour
- 30g sorghum flour
- 10g tapioca starch
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 40g chilled butter, diced (or sub 35g coconut oil)
- 1 egg, whisked (or 1 flax egg)
- 3 small onions (red or white), thinly sliced
- 1 medium beetroot, peeled and grated
- 2 tsp mustard seeds
- splash balsamic vinegar
- 4 leaves of chard/cavolo nero, shredded
- seasoning
- feta & fresh dill to finish
- olive oil
- cucumber ribbons with watercress, dill and a simple dressing of salt + olive oil and lemon juice
- First make your pastry. Combine all of the flours with the salt and bicarb until evenly distributed. Add the butter and crumb into into the flours using your fingertips. Add around 3 tbs of the whisked egg then bring together into a ball. The pastry should not be sticky, if you've added too much egg add a bit more flour to balance it up. Reserve the rest of the egg for an egg wash later. Cover the pastry with clingfilm and refrigerate for up to 30 minutes.
- Pre-heat your oven to 180C.
- Meanwhile saute your onion slices in some olive oil until completely softened, for about 10 minutes. Then add your mustard seeds and grated beetroot and stir well and cook down for another 5 minutes before you add a splash of balsamic vinegar and your green leaves. Stir till wilted, season to taste, then remove from the heat.
- Now you can roll out your pastry. Divide the pastry into 2 and roll out 2 equal sized circles around 15cm in diameter, around 3mm thick. If the pastry breaks you can push it back together again. Spoon half of the filling into the centre of each round, leaving 2-3cm gap from the edge. Now roll over and pinch together your sides. The more rustic looking the better! Lastly, brush the rest of the whisked egg, over the exposed edges of pastry, not essential but helps with the browning.
- Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden brown then scatter crumbled feta on top and add some fresh sprigs of dill.
What would you put in your ultimate savoury galette? Here’s some other ideas;
- Caramelised Onion and Feta Galette
- Green Vegetable Galette with Flaky Pastry
- Vegan Spinach and Mushroom Galette
- Easy Mediterranean Vegetable and Halloumi Galette
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This looks fantastic Ceri. The pictures are absolutely gorgeous. I love your addition of almond flour. I think it would add such a nice nutty flavor to this gluten free galette. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Shahla, hope you have a chance to have a play with a galette soon! 🙂
Loving the new look! It’s fab. Also loving the look of this recipe and the photos are great. I am like you…I have a vague plan of recipes but they go out of the window when I wake in the night with a new idea! Have you tried my flour blend yet? If not, let me send you a bag. Email me!
Thank you Vicki! I am sure your flour blend would be great in this recipe instead of my random mix! I’ll drop you a line. Great to know us mad recipe writers are a like with our madness!!!
Galettes are one of my favourite ways to use pastry these days. They always look fabulous and as you say, you don’t need to worry about a neat finish. This sounds delicious, but I’m particularly interested in your gluten free pastry. I’ve never tried making it as I don’t need to, but it would be useful to have a good recipe up my sleeve if I’m cooking for someone who does need it.
I’m now thinking of a sweet one I could do too. So much easier eh? Always useful to have a recipe in case you need it. I’m always having to cater to so many dietary requirements its super useful to have things up your (my) sleeves!
Oh my gosh what an utterly stunning dish this is! The perfect lunch 🙂
Thanks so much Elizabeth! Gotta love pink beetroot!
I really need to cook with beetroot more often, it’s so stunning! This sounds yummy.
I just love how it turns everything pink! thanks Becca
These look really delicious! I love their rustic look and beetroot is a perfect filling! YUM!
Thanks, rustic is definitely the way I like to cook (no precision at all – ha ha!) 🙂
After my weekend of over-indulgence, I’m craving a nice healthy dish like this!
Ah, but indulgences are so worth it aren’t they! Thanks Cathy!