Asparagus, Broad Bean and Poached Egg Tart

October 24th, 2010

Asparagus is on a great special at the moment in the shops and is tasting fantastic too. I always like using fresh, seasonal ingredients, because not only do they have an amazing taste, they are likely to have traveled less distance to reach the shops, and are also a good price – which is important to most people.

I have only just started getting into eating asparagus. This year in particular has been one where my whole family is eating asparagus – and broad beans too. I now have broad beans with a lot of meals, although we are lucky if they make it to the plate – as I tend to eat them whilst shelling them.

This is a quick and easy meal with fresh ingredients. I wish I was growing asparagus and broad beans as that would make it even more enjoyable and fresh. I haven’t left you with a recipe of how to poach eggs, as I haven’t come across a fool-proof way of making them yet so they look good. For my ones (which still tasted great), I boiled up water in a medium saucepan, added a splash of vinegar, stirred
the water, then added the egg. The eggs came apart a bit whilst cooking, although stayed together enough – they cooked for 2-4 minutes and were then drained.

Asparagus, Broad Bean and Poached Egg Tart

Recipe by Anita @ Leave Room for Dessert

Serves: 4

1 tablespoon olive oil
5 large onions, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 bunches of asparagus
2 cups broad beans
4-8 poached eggs
2 sheets puff pastry, thawed and halved
Caramelised balsamic vinegar to serve
Shaved Parmesan cheese, to serve

Preheat oven to 180C.

Heat oil in a medium saucepan on high. Add the onion and salt, stir and turn the heat down to medium/low (alternating if need be to make sure the onions don’t burn). Cook for 10-20 minutes until the onions are caramelised.

Place pastry halves on two lined baking trays. Divide the onion mix across the pastry halves, leaving a 2cm gap around the outside edges. Cook in the oven for 10-20 minutes until the pastry on the outside is puffed and golden brown.

Whilst the tarts are cooking, poach the eggs (with the method I used above, or according to your preferred method), and cook the asparagus and broad beans.

To cook the asparagus and broad beans, boil water in a medium saucepan. Place the broad beans in the water and cook for 2 minutes, or a little longer if they haven’t come to the surface of the water. Place in cold water straight away, to stop the cooking. Remove skins from the broad beans. Place the asparagus into the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Place in the cold water.

Rinse the broad beans and asparagus under a small amount of hot water, before draining and placing on top of the cooked onion tart. Top with 1-2 poached eggs per tart and drizzle caramelised balsamic vinegar around the edges.

8 Comments

  1. Trissa says:

    I love the simplicity and elegance of
    your dish

  2. This is great simple meal. Healthy too. Your photos looks fabulous!

  3. Wow it looks so great 🙂 really easy as well. Im home by myself tonight so might whip this up for a quick and healthy dinner. Thanks Anita!

  4. OohLookBel says:

    I’m also into broad beans and asparagus at the moment, and don’t they go well with the poached egg? Good on you for shelling the beans; I’m lazy and use frozen!

  5. A beautiful way to take advantage of our fresh produce. What a tasty and healthy breakfast.

    Let me know if you discover the secret of great poached eggs, mine are terrible!

  6. I love seasonal ingredients too! It gives you something to look forward to and asparagus is one of my favorites. I like how you’ve paired it with broad beans too Anita! 🙂

  7. I can understand eating the broad beans before they get to the table. I grew them one year, and they rarely made it all the way to the kitchen! Your tarts look like a taste of spring.

  8. Barbara says:

    I love all the uses for puff pastry, Anita! This is such a pretty tart…for brunch, lunch or even dinner!

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