Sweet Potato, Chard, Goat Cheese Tart

Ah, how I love the smell of caramelized onions in the morning.  Tuesdays are my official “Get As Much Done as Humanely Possible” days and despite the fact that I don’t have class until 2 PM and I always think it will be entirely feasible to eat, work out, cook, photograph, blog, study, read, etc. it usually doesn’t work out that way.  This week I took a different approach.

Alarm set for 9 AM (yeah, like that was going to happen, right?)

No pressure to work out – if it fits in it fits in, if not oh well

Fun new recipe involving almond flour and roasting of sweet potatoes, aka time to study while potatoes are a’roasting. 

Now that’s a plan I can work with.  I even managed to fit in a quick trip to bring Joey his spare keys.  Let this be a lesson to you all, lack of sleep leads to silly mistakes like locking your keys in your car.

On to the recipe.

I finally found a use for that almond meal left over from my almond milk endeavors!  Tart crust, of course.  And not just any tart, a sweet potato, chard and goat cheese tart.  Because getting rid of almond meal is okay, but doing so and using up 2 of the 6 sweet potatoes lurking in my kitchen is great.

Sweet Potato, Chard and Goat Cheese Tart

Almond Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups almond meal (or flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup safflower oil
• 1 tablespoon water

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine almond meal, salt and baking soda in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil and water.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until well combined.
5. Empty “dough” into a 9 1/2” deep pie dish and press to cover the bottom and sides of the dish.
6. Bake crust for 12-15 minutes or until just starting to brown.  **You don’t want to cook it too long because it will be going back in the oven again later!

Sweet Potato, Chard and Goat Cheese Filling:

• 2 medium sized sweet potatoes
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (divided)
• 1 medium red onion, sliced
• salt
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (divided)
• 1 bunch chard, stems removed, chopped
• 2 oz. goat cheese
• 2 eggs

**I used rainbow chard but you could use whatever kind you want.

1. While the oven is on for the crust, wash, poke and place sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and bake until soft (40-50 minutes).
2. While sweet potatoes are roasting, slice onion and add to a pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil and a pinch of salt.  Stir and cook onions until soft and caramelized (7-10 minutes) then add 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar and cook 2 minutes or until liquid is cooked out.
3. Remove onions from pan and replace with chard, remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and a pinch of salt.  Cook until chard is wilted (about 5 minutes) then add remaining 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar and cook until liquid is cooked out. 
4. Transfer chard to a large bowl.  Add sweet potatoes and 1 oz. cheese and mix to combine.  Mix in eggs.
5. Transfer mixture to almond crust-filled pie dish.
6. Top with remaining 1 oz. cheese and bake 20 minutes. 
7. Add onions and bake for another 7-10 minutes or until onions are heated.

This exceeded my expectations.  I was partial to the slightly sweet almond-y crust, but the mixture of sweet potato, chard and cheese was lovely as well.  Sometimes I forget how good caramelized onions are and who can resist that purple color?

I’m off to study, friends.  Have a good one!