Potato, Cheese and Spinach Tarts

A long time ago my local bakery used to do these little spinach, potato and cheese tarts that were absolutely delicious. Something brought them to mind the other day and I thought I’d have a go at making them. This is the result.

 

6oz potatoes
5-6 oz spinach, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 oz grated cheddar cheese
1-4 cloves garlic, crushed
salt
pepper
oil
knob of butter
tbsp of either cream or milk
1 pack of puff pastry.
1 egg beaten

Preheat the oven to 200c
Cut the potatoes into chunks and boil until soft. You can leave the skin on if you prefer.
Drain and roughly mash, you don’t want this to be too smooth.
Dice the onion and soften in a little oil. Add the crushed garlic and cook for 30 seconds you can put as little or as much garlic as you like.
Add the chopped spinach and cook until wilted.
Put in a bowl with the crushed potatoes, the cheese, cream and a knob of butter and mix together. Adjust seasoning.

Roll out the puff pastry and cut into 6 inch squares.
On opposite corners of each square score a line about 1 cm in from the edge being careful not to cut all the way through. Do this so that the score runs almost to the next corner. If this seems a little complicated then just score all around.

Place your filling in the centre and spread out, keeping it inside the scored lines. You want at least a tablespoon of filling , when spread out it should be a couple of cm deep.

Fold the unscored corners over to meet in the middle. [Or if you’ve scored all around then fold two opposite corners to meet in the middle.]

Brush with egg wash and place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchement

Bake for 15 – 20 mins. Until golden.
These are delicious hot or cold.

 

This can also be done as a roulade. Same quantities of everything, spread the cheese/ potato / spinach mixture on a sheet of puff pastry and spread right to the edges except for one of the long edges where you need to leave a couple of cms uncovered. Roll up to this edge and place seam side down on a baking sheet. Glaze with eggwash and if liked sprinkle with poppy seeds or salt.

If you prefer you can make this as an open tart with the edges scored as before but all the way around and strips of pastry laid over to form a lattice.

Bake at 200 for 25 to 35 mins.

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

4 long peppers [or bell peppers cut in half top to bottom]
1 pack of vegetable cous cous
1 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced or chopped
A couple of good handfuls of spinach
any other vegetables like sweetcorn, mushrooms or courgette that you have to hand [you will need 1 to 2 tablespoons of this mix per pepper]
4 oz approx of goats cheese or similar non-melty cheese
4 oz approxmozarrela / melty cheese of your choice – Gruyere is good for this.
1/4 cup of breadcrumbs / panko
herbs / spices to taste
Salt and pepper

Cut a T shape into the peppers down the length and half way through the top end so you can empty any seeds out and get the stuffing in. If using bell peppers then cut in half top to bottom and leave the stalk in place.

Make up the cous cous by pack directions [general rule of thumb put the cous cous in a bowl and cover with boiling water to 1 cm above the level of the cous cous]

Cut the non melty cheese into small cubes and grate the melty cheese.

Chop the onion and any other vegetables you are using and saute off – add the garlic and any herbs / spices you fancy and mix into the cous cous. I use parsley and Herbs de Provence for this.

Sweat off the spinach until wilted and mix in with the cous cous
Add the non melty cheese and adjust seasoning.

Pack into the peppers making sure the filling gets right down to the bottom [ particularly important if you’re using the long peppers].

Mix the melty cheese and the panko [ you can also use crumbled cream crackers for this ] and pile on top of the opening.

Bake in a lightly oiled baking dish for approx 30 mins on 200C.

I serve this with salad, home made wedges and ranch dressing.
Variations on this.

Replace the cous cous with savory golden rice. This is nicer with a more robust spicing – I use Baharat mix.

You can also add things like diced chorizo / bacon / fried minced beef if you want to make it non-vegetarian.

For a vegan version omit the cheese or replace with tofu.