Vegan Puff Pastry Tomato Tart

By Amy Gastman (IG @eatbyamy)

When the craving hits, you bet it hits! Pizza cravings live deep in all of us, and whilst there are many great vegan options out there, sometimes you don't want to be weighed down by the heaviness of the cheese, the dough and all those toppings.

This puff pastry tart will sure satisfy all those cravings and is also light, full of flavour and super easy to make.

It'll be sure to wow anyone you decide to share it with and is a really elegant party piece.

What you need:

320g Jus-Rol Puff Pastry Ready Rolled Sheet – this brand is accidentally vegan!

1.4kg large vine tomatoes

3 tbsp vegan pesto – my favourite supermarket brand is WaitroseVegan Style Green Pesto

80g vegan cheese of your choice

1 large red onion

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp good olive oil

Salt & pepper

Method:

1. Preheat a conventional oven to 180C.

2.Slice the onions thinly and add to a hot pan with a splash of oil.

3. Turn down the heat to medium-low and leave to fry.

4. Meanwhile, remove puff pastry from packaging and unroll sheet. Score around the edges leaving approx 1 inch of space for the crust.

5. Once onions have begun to brown add balsamic vinegar and apple cider vinegar. Turn the heat to low and leave to caramelise (approx 5-8 mins).

6. Avoiding the crust, spread the pesto and sprinkle half of the vegan cheese on the puff pastry. When the onions have caramelised spoon them on to the puff pastry.

7. Slice the tomatoes about 0.5cm thick and layer them closely together on top of the pesto/cheese/onions.

8. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt, pepper and nutritional yeast on the tomatoes.

9. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes (do not open the oven in this time!), then cover with foil and turn up the heat to 200C and bake for a further 10 minutes (or until the bottom is crisp).

About the chef:

I’ve always eaten a primarily plant-based diet. My mum, who was the main cook growing up, is a first generation British Asian and she grew up vegetarian - so my sister and I just inherited her eating habits.

I entirely cut out dairy, grains, sugar, alcohol and meat as part of a crazy diet whilst at uni around 5 years ago (please don’t do that, it was not conducive of anything good).

Now, older and wiser, I’m much less stringent with myself, so whilst I still LOVE cooking and inventing with vegan food, I don’t restrict or punish myself anymore.

If we could all try to eat a majority plant-based diet it would be one great step in the right direction, but let’s not kill ourselves over the odd indulgence.

Amy is a former journalist at Waitrose Food magazine and chef/owner of vegan meal prep service Eat by Amy