Vegetable Tarte Tatin

I made this tarte for my dad today when he and my mom came over for Father's Day. It turned out to be a bit of a pain to make because it took so long (but I think that's also because I forgot that I had to cook the rice before baking the tarte in the oven. Hence, a delay of about 40 minutes). Anyway, the recipe involves quite a few steps but is definitely worth a try when you have a bit of spare time (and patience) to cook.

Ingredients:

• 3.5 tbsp olive / vegetable oil
• 3 large courgettes / 6 small courgettes
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded
• 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded
• 1 pack asparagus
• 8 medium sized tomatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 1-2 tsp crushed garlic
• 2/3 cups red or white wine
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 cups brown / wild rice
• 1/2 pitted black / kalamata olives
• 1 roll vegan puff pastry
• salt, pepper to taste

Add 2 cups rice to 4 cups water and salt to taste. Once the water is boiling, lower the heat and simmer the rice for about 20-30 minutes. Remove and set aside.

While the rice is cooking, slice the courgettes, bell peppers and asparagus. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the courgettes until browned on both sides. Once fried, drain the courgettes on kitchen paper to absorb as much of the excess oil as possible. Add the asparagas and the peppers to the remaining oil in the pan, cover the pan with a lid and sweat the peppers and asparagus over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Remove the aforementioned ingredients and place to the side.

Slice 2 tomatoes into rings and set aside. Roughly chop the remainder of the tomatoes (if you're pedantic and not a fan of curly tomatoe skins, you can place the tomatoes in boiling water for about 30 seconds, remove and peel off the skin). Chop the onions and the olives.

Pre-heat the oven to about 140 degrees Celsius.

Heat the remaining oil in the pan and fry the onions and garlic until soft. Add the chopped tomatoes as well as the wine, oregano as well as salt and pepper to taste. Add the olive and rice to the tomatoe mixture.

Arrange the tomatoe slices, courgettes, peppers and asparagus in a single layer over the base of an large, oven-proof dish. Spread the rice mixture on top of the vegetables.

Roll out the puff pastry so that it is large enough to cover the top of the oven-proof dish and place it on top of the rice mixure. Pat the pastry onto the rice mixture and cut off any excess pastry peeling over the sides of the dish.

Insert the dish into the oven and bake for about 20-40 minutes (until the pastry is golden brown). Remove and leave to cool for about 10 minutes and then invert the tarte onto a serving plate.

*YUM*