Leftovers Tart

I have a problem with throwing things out. I'm actually not alone in our household, my husband is far worse than I am. It's for this reason our fridge is often a complicated game of Jenga where occasionally a block pulled out has been lost and forgotten for so long it has now become potentially hazardous waste. It's then that the wails of disappointment can be heard from the kitchen as I begin to punish myself for the wasted opportunity: "oh the potential that soup had".

Well, anyway, here we are at a magnificent light-bulb moment from the other day. Tarts. of course, tarts!

take that frozen pastry out of the freezer and follow those thawing instructions. If you're smart you'll quickly learn to have a variety of pastry options in the freezer: puff pastry squares that need zero thawing time for speedy meals and big blocks that need 90 minutes minimum but will make you two big tarts or hundreds of small imaginative things.

Check the ingredients before you purchase but in my experience puff pastry is often vegan, containing margarine instead of the more expensive butter option.

Moving on to today's recipes, do you remember my baked sambouseks? Well that leek and potato filling was so good and I couldn't let the leftovers go to waste, we had plenty of soup in the fridge already (remember that Adas soup? or the every so dreeeeeeamy pumpkin soup?)

I literally scooped it out on to the puff pastry and bunged it in the oven.

And do you remember the roasted pumpkin and lentil salad? Well, in usual fashion, I made too make lentils and purposely saved some pumpkin to mash up and spread on puff pastry, fold up the sides and see what magic my oven would bring.

Brushed with an olive oil and soy milk mix.

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Recipe

'CHEESY' LEEK AND POTATO TART

Look at the pictures above for some extra guidance. Because these tarts are made from leftovers I suggest experimenting with either what you have or what you and your family like eating. Perfect picnic food so use ingredients you like cold too! If you're not making this 'cheesy' recipe then I recommend having something moist on there like a puree (hence me blending the pumpkin with a little bit of milk on my other tart in the pics) just to balance the flaky pastry. You should have extra 'cheese' sauce left over, just heat it up in a dry frying pan and mix in some cooked pasta, hello mac 'n 'cheese'!

MAKES 1 TART

PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOK TIME 45 MINS | 60 MINS

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp oil

1 leeks (chopped and washed)

1/2 potato (peeled, chopped & parboiled)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

Puff pastry

1 tbsp soy milk + 1 tbsp olive oil + brush

'CHEESE' SAUCE

200 ml DF milk (or half milk + half water)

3 tbsp tapioca flour

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Take puff pastry out of the freezer and check thawing instruction ahead of preparation.

2. Fry the garlic in the oil on a med heat for 1-2 mins or until just starting to brown.

3. Add leeks and potatoes and give a really good stir. Stir every couple of mins for 10 mins or until soft.

4. Blend the 'cheese' sauce mix and add half (or as much as needed to just cover mix) to the leek mix and stir until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat. Set aside to cool.

5. Pre-heat oven to 200°C.

6. Roll pastry out on to a lightly floured surface and score a line all around about 1 cm away from the edge.

7. Place pastry on to a greased baking tray and scoop filling on keeping within the scored edge and brush with the oil and milk mix.

8. Bake for 20-30 mins or until pastry is starting to go golden and bottom of tart is crisp.

9. Remove from oven and let rest until ready to serve. Can be served hot or cold.