This savory vegetable cheese tart combines a thick buttery crust, a creamy herbed cheese filling, and a beautiful adornment of crisp roasted veggies! Top with fresh herbs and serve as an appetizer, lunch, side dish, or main course.
Welcome to recipe #3 in Pie Week! We’ve had our fill of sugar lately and with Thanksgiving dessert and Christmas cookies on the horizon, I figured now’s the perfect time to hop on the savory bandwagon. This is an absolutely INCREDIBLE savory vegetable cheese tart. The filling tastes like cheesy ravioli. I mean… do I even need to continue?!
Why Bake a Vegetable and Cheese Tart?
Make a cheesy veggie tart. Trust me when I say this vegetable and cheese tart solves all your problems. Sitting in a buttery pie crust, this salty herbed cheese filling is the creamy cushion for a cornucopia of vegetables. Watch me make it:
Tart That’s Not Dessert
So, what is vegetable and cheese tart? Today we’re combining 3 things:
The filling combines ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, 2 eggs for structure, garlic, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs. Does it taste like quiche? No not at all. It tastes like ravioli filling!! In fact, I’m even thinking of sautéing some spinach and adding that to the filling next time. Let me know if you try that!
Important step: Blind-bake (pre-bake) the crust before adding the filling, otherwise the crust will taste soggy. Pie weights are ideal for when we blind bake pie crust. Without pie weights, the pie dough will puff up, then shrink. Line the crust with parchment or aluminum foil, then fill the empty pie crust with the weights..
What Toppings Can I Use?
I used orange and purple sweet potatoes, but the options are seriously endless:
- Mushrooms + peppers + onions (and crumbled cooked sausage!)
- Tomatoes + basil + add fresh pesto after it bakes
- Zucchini + tomatoes
- Sweet potato + eggplant + add goat cheese after it bakes
- Chopped asparagus + add a drizzle of balsamic after it bakes
- Butternut squash + mushroom + onion
- Shaved brussels sprouts
- Fresh lump crab + asparagus (with lots of Old Bay seasoning!)
Add lots of fresh herbs and switch up the parmesan cheese in the filling. As long as you stick to the basic butter crust + ricotta filling, you can truly make this vegetable and cheese tart your own by playing around with the flavors.
If you love this recipe you’ll want to try my butternut squash tart and mushroom puff pastry tarts next.
What to Serve with Vegetable and Cheese Tart?
I’m including this because as I pulled a test veggie and cheese tart out of the oven, Kevin and I looked at each other and both said “what should we eat this with??” I have some ideas!
- Side dishes like corn on the cob, a big crunchy green salad, or corn black bean & avocado salsa which also serves as a side salad
- Soup such as minestrone soup or even fresh tomato soup
- For some meat: turkey meatballs
- A lighter option like baked lemon garlic salmon
- For lunch—a colorful fruit salad
Lots of options, but let me know how YOU enjoy this veggie tart!
See Your Savory Vegetable Cheese Tarts!
Savory Vegetable Cheese Tart Recipe
Ingredients You’ll Need
Instructions
- Prepare my pie crust recipe or all butter pie crust through step 5.
- After the pie crust has chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C).
- On a floured work surface, roll out one of the discs of chilled dough (you can freeze the 2nd for later use, see note). Turn the dough about a quarter turn after every few rolls until you have a circle 12 inches in diameter. Carefully place the dough into a 9-inch tart pan.* Tuck it in with your fingers, making sure it is smooth. Fold the overhang edges back inward.. Flute the pie crust edges. Chill for 20 minutes in the refrigerator or freezer. (Crust will shrink otherwise!) Line the chilled pie crust with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Fill with 2 sets of pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove tart from the oven and carefully lift the parchment paper/aluminum foil (with the weights) out of the crust.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the ricotta, eggs, parmesan cheese, garlic, herbs, salt, and pepper together until completely combined. Pour into warm crust. Arrange vegetable slices on top. Brush the vegetables and edges of the crust with olive oil, then sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, or more fresh herbs.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the vegetables and crust are lightly browned and crisp. After the first 15 minutes of bake time, place a pie crust shield on top of the tart to prevent the edges from browning too quickly. You can also tent a piece of aluminum foil over the whole tart if the top is browning too quickly.
- Slice and serve tart warm or at room temperature. Cover and store leftover tart in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
