Graham's Vegetarian Roast Bell Pepper Tart Recipe

Well, it's time to hang my walking boots up for a few days and turn my hand to a little more cooking. This time I am going to introduce you all to a lovely vegetarian dish called "Roast Pepper Tart". It tastes truly delicious with the flavour of the roast vegetables being entirely different from that of boiled or fried.

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Ingredients:

PASTRY

175g / 6oz / 1 1/4 cups plain (all purpose) flour
Pinch of salt
75g / 2 1/4 oz / 6 tbsp butter or vegetarian margarine
2 tbsp green/black pitted olives, finely chopped
3 or 4 tbsp cold water


FILLING

1 red (bell) pepper
1 green (bell) pepper
1 yellow (bell) pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
100g / 3 1/2 oz / 1 cup Mozzarella cheese, grated
2 eggs
150 ml / 5 fl oz / 2/3 cup milk
1 tbsp chopped basil
Salt & Pepper

Please click HERE for a UK/US conversion table

If you do use this great recipe for the Vegetarian Roast Bell Pepper Tart, please be welcome to either email me or leave a comment at the bottom of this post with your feedback. Thank You ~ Graham :o)

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To make the pastry, sieve the flour and a pinch of salt into a bowl.





Then slice the butter/margarine into small pieces and rub into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (A tip here is to make sure your hands are cold whilst you rub in the butter and just use your fingertips).



Chop the olives finely (Make sure that the olives are very finely chopped, otherwise they will make holes in the pastry).



Add the olives and cold water, bringin the mixture together to form a dough.

Roll the dough out onto a floured surface and use to line a 20cm / 8 inch flan dish.



Prick the base with a fork and leave to chill. (Please note that I do not make pastry very often....lol! So please excuse my untidy attempt).



Cut the (bell) peppers in half lengthways and lay skin-side uppermost on a baking tray (cookie sheet). Mix the crushed garlic and olive oil and brush over the (bell) peppers.

I know I am a bit of a photography freak, and I just couldn't resist taking an "arty" photograph of the peppers coated in the olive oil and garlic. The colours were so vibrant!!!!



Cook in a preheated oven 200 C / 400 F / Gas Mark 6, for 20 minutes or until beginning to char slightly. At this point I found it almost impossible to avoid the urge to simply eat the roasted peppers. They are soooo scrummy!!!!!



Let the (bell) peppers cool slightly and then thinly slice. Arrange in the base of the pastry case, layering with the Mozzarella cheese. Please feel free to be as artistic as you like. In this instance, I simply sprinkled randomly around the flan dish - mixing and matching the colours. However you do it, it will look great when you take it out of the oven!!





Beat the egg and milk and add the basil. Season well with salt and pepper and pour over the (bell) peppers.





Put the tart on a baking tray (cookie sheet) and return to the oven for 20 minutes or until set.

You can serve this scrumptious dish either hot or cold.