Spring Vegetable Tart

Say hello to spring with this vegetable tart featuring asparagus and snow peas. Cut into 12 pieces, it’s a wonderful accompaniment to any meal or, slice it into 24 pieces and serve it as an appetizer.

It’s that time of year, a “changing of the guards” so to speak in the produce aisle. Winter’s hearty vegetables are being replaced with crisp and light spring produce. I’m celebrating the arrival of warmer weather with today’s Spring Vegetable Tart featuring asparagus and snow peas.

Asparagus and snow peas

Aside from the vibrant green color these vegetables add to this tart, they supply a variety of nutrients. Tender asparagus provides folate (a B vitamin), vitamins A, C, and K, potassium, and fiber. Sweet, crisp snow peas contain vitamins A, C, and K, along with iron and fiber.

Vegetable tart recipes like this one typically feature puff pastry. Puff pastry is a laminated dough which means butter is rolled and folded into a dough multiple times, creating alternating layers of butter and dough. Once baked, puff pastry resembles a croissant with lots of thin, buttery, flaky layers.

Unfortunately, puff pastry supplies a lot of calories along with a significant amount of saturated fat. An alternative that worked really well in this tart recipe was a refrigerated tube of crescent dough. Pillsbury actually makes a crescent dough sheet that comes in an 8-ounce tube. If the crescent dough sheet isn’t available at your grocery store, use the tubed crescent dough that’s perforated into 8 triangles. Just unroll the dough onto the prepared sheet pan and press the perforated seams together forming one large sheet.

The calorie and saturated fat savings that come with using the crescent dough instead of puff pastry is quite impressive. When comparing an 8-ounce Pillsbury crescent dough sheet to 8 ounces of store-bought puff pastry, the crescent dough has 25 percent fewer calories (660 calories vs. 885 calories) and 68 percent less saturated fat (9 grams vs. 28 grams).

To keep the crust from getting soggy, avoid overloading the tart with too many vegetables. Vegetables provide moisture and excess moisture can lead to a soggy crust. Another way to keep the crust crispy is to give the dough a light brushing with the vinegar and oil mixture along with a 5-minute prebake before adding the vegetables. This helps to form a moisture barrier between the crust and the vegetables.

Crescent dough sheet with a light brushing of the vinegar and oil mixture. It’s ready for a 5-minute prebake.

For this tart, I recommend cutting the asparagus spears in half (lengthwise) for quick, even cooking. Depending on the thickness of the asparagus, you’ll need about 6 to 8 spears (12 to 16 half spears) to cover the entire tart.

If you want the color of the vegetables on the tart to “pop” a bit more, use white balsamic vinegar (sometimes called golden balsamic vinegar) in place of regular balsamic vinegar. I made one tart with regular balsamic vinegar and one with white balsamic vinegar. Check out the difference.

Spring Vegetable Tart made with regular, dark balsamic vinegar and with white balsamic vinegar

One final tip when making today’s tart has to do with ensuring that the bottom of the crust is nicely browned. An easy trick to accomplish this is to place a sheet pan, upside down, in the oven while it’s preheating. Once the oven and the upside-down sheet pan are hot, place the sheet pan containing the tart on top of the heated upside-down sheet pan and bake.

Sheet pan setup for getting a golden-brown bottom crust

To your health,

Darlene

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SPRING VEGETABLE TART

Yield: 12 servings

Serving Size: 1 piece

Prep: 15 minutes

Ready: 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• Vegetable oil cooking spray

• 1 tablespoon cornmeal

• 1 tube (8 ounce) crescent dough sheet (such as Pillsbury crescent dough sheet)

• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or white balsamic vinegar

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

• 6 to 8 fresh asparagus spears, cut in half lengthwise

• 1/2 cup fresh snow peas, cut in half

• 1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion

• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a large sheet pan with cooking spray and evenly sprinkle with cornmeal. Unroll crescent dough sheet onto prepared sheet pan and shape into a 14-by-8-inch rectangle.

   

   Crescent dough sheet shaped to a 14-by-8-inch rectangle

2. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, oil, sugar, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper. Using a basting brush, lightly brush top of crescent dough sheet with about one-third of the vinegar and oil mixture. Bake 5 minutes in preheated oven.

3. Remove from oven and allow crust to cool slightly, 2 to 3 minutes. Arrange halved asparagus spears, snow peas, and onion on top of crust. Brush vegetables with remaining vinegar and oil mixture. Sprinkle top of tart with parmesan cheese and bake an additional 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and allow tart to cool slightly. Cut into 12 pieces and serve. Cut into 24 pieces if serving as an appetizer.

Nutrition Information per Serving

95 Calories, 5 g Total fat, 1 g Saturated fat, 0 g Trans fat, 1 mg Cholesterol, 202 mg Sodium, 11 g Total carbohydrate, 0 g Dietary fiber, 3 g Total sugars, 2 g Added sugars, 2 g Protein, 0 mcg (0%) Vitamin D, 20 mg (2%) Calcium, 1 mg (6%) Iron, 29 mg (0%) Potassium

© 2023 RECIPES MADE HEALTHY BY DARLENE ZIMMERMAN, MS, RD LLC

Spring Vegetable Tart

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