Asparagus and Herb Cheese Tart

Asparagus and Herb Cheese Tart

Asparagus and Herb Cheese Tart is a really quick and simple supper or lunch dish and can be eaten hot or cold. It uses ready-made puff pastry with a topping of lemon and herb flavoured cheese and fresh asparagus. You can make this recipe in around half an hour so it is perfect when you want to get something hot and tasty on the table in hurry.

What you need to know about this recipe

There is no shame in using ready-made puff pastry – it makes things so much easier – but if you can find a brand that says it is made with butter it will taste so much better!
I combine plain cream cheese with garlic, lemon and herbs in this recipe as I like to choose my own flavourings. However, there are lots of ready-made garlic and herb cream cheese varieties. If you want to make this recipe even easier, you can use one of them rather than making your own.
In this recipe, I have used fennel, thyme, chives and parsley as I had to hand in my garden and which I think go well together and with the asparagus. However, you can use any herbs that you like. Others that would go well would be lemon balm, lemon thyme, dill and tarragon.
The one thing I would recommend keeping in, is the lemon zest. Asparagus has an affinity with lemon and with dairy products – a traditional way of serving it is with buttery, lemony Hollandaise sauce – which highlights its fresh, grassy flavour.

Other asparagus recipes

If you like this Asparagus Tart recipe, you might also like my Asparagus Quiche. This is a different kind of recipe that is made with shortcrust pastry and contains a savoury custard filling studded with pieces of asparagus and fresh herbs. You might also like my Asparagus and Pea Soup which is flavoured with chervil and is a fantastic light summer soup.

Other quiche and tart recipes

Savoury tarts and quiches are a fantastic, cook-ahead simple supper or lunch. They are easy to make and are great either hot or at room temperature. They can also be easily divided into portions if you are feeding a large number of people. Easily transportable, they also make a good addition to lunch-boxes or basis for a picnic. Some of my favourites are listed below.

Asparagus Quiche is a simple quiche-style savoury tart that highlights the taste of fresh asparagus.
Two kinds of onion tart – Caramelised Onion Tart which is based on sweet, slow-cooked onions and another version, Onion Tart with Wild Garlic, which has the addition of fresh herbs. I also have an easy Shallot Tart with Thyme and Anchovy which uses ready-made puff pastry.
I also have two very different carrot-based tarts. Carrot and Coriander Tart combines these two classic flavours in a simple quiche-style savoury tart. Carrot Tart uses ready-made puff pastry and combines large pieces of carrot with orange and soft cheese.
Beetroot Tart is deliciously sweet and earthy. Tomato Tart is fresh and sweet.
Spinach Tart combines leaf green spinach with feta and crunchy pine-nuts.
Butternut Squash Tart with Chilli and Sage also has a sweetness to it but this is off-set by the addition of a little hot chilli.
Feta Quiche with Roasted Peppers is a fantastic comination of rich, smoky roasted peppers with salty feta cheese.
If you love garlic, you will like my Garlic Tart which is a celebration of one of my favourite flavours!
I also have a couple of fish-based recipes. My Crab and Prawn Tart has Asian-inspired flavours of coriander, lime and chilli. My Smoked Salmon Tart with Prawns is easy to make and is perfect for a celebratory meal or party.
In addition to larger quiches and tarts, I also have a recipe for individual Herb Tartlets which are great as canapes or snacks.

Asparagus and Herb Cheese Tart recipe

Asparagus and Herb Cheese Tart

Author: Tastebotanical
Prep Time: 15
Cook Time: 30
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: for 6 people 1x
Category: Tart
Method: Baking
Cuisine: English

Print Recipe

Description

This Asparagus and Herb Cheese Tart combines crisp buttery pastry with creamy cheese and fresh asparagus. It is very quick and easy to make for a light lunch or supper.

Ingredients

Scale

375 g (14 oz) pack of puff pastry (the brands made with butter are best!)
200 g (7 oz) cream cheese
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
Grated zest of half a lemon
A bunch of mixed herbs to taste – I used fennel, thyme, chives and parsley – (finely chopped)
Salt and pepper
7 or 8 stems of asparagus
Olive oil

Instructions

Set your oven to 180 C, 350 F or Gas Mark 4.
Roll your puff pastry out into a rectangle to fit your baking tray. Place it on the tray.
Place the cream cheese in your mixing bowl and add the crushed garlic cloves, lemon zest and chopped herbs. Season with salt and pepper.
Spread the cheese mixture onto your pastry rectangle leaving about 2 cm clear around the edges.
Remove the thyme leaves from the woody stems (keep the stems) and put them in a small bowl. Add the grated zest of your lemon along with the crushed garlic. Put your softened butter into the bowl and mash to combine with the other ingredients. Season with salt and pepper.
Remove the ends of the asparagus stems as these can be woody and difficult to eat. The best way of doing this is to simply bend the stem and it will snap at the right point.
Place the asparagus on top of the cheese mixture on your pastry rectangle. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.
Place the baking tray into the oven and cook for 20-30 minutes until the pastry is crisp, golden and puffed up and the asparagus is soft.
The tart can be eaten hot or at room temperature.

Keywords: asparagus tart, herb cheese tart

Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding

This recipe for Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding is very easy to make and is a great starting point for someone who is new at dessert-making. Traditional Bread and Butter Pudding consists, as the name suggests, of slices of buttered bread set in a simple baked custard.

This recipe combines the lovely creamy custard with golden crispy bread and tangy sweet-sour rhubarb. It is an easy way of providing the classic combination of rhubarb and custard. It is really easy to make – no messing about making pastry or sponge cakes for pudding – and should please those who like a traditional pudding and those who like something a bit different.

What you need to know about Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding

It is extremely easy and can be assembled with the absolute minimum of skill. Just butter bread, add jam and put it in a dish with some eggs and milk. Cook for half an hour in the over and that is it.
You can use home-made Rhubarb Jam. I have an easy recipe for this if you want to try it. However, you can make it with shop-bought jam and it will still taste good. You can also make it with other jam flavours. Any flavour would be good but I would recommend using one with a stronger, tart flavour such as gooseberry or maybe blackcurrant.
You can eat this pudding either hot from the oven or at room temperature. If you have some left over, you can cover it with clingfilm and keep it in the fridge for up to three days.

In praise of traditional puddings

I love making traditional old-fashioned puddings which can be made quickly from ingredients that are available in most households (bread, milk, eggs). These puddings fell out of fashion, partly due to the focus on French cordon bleu style cooking in the 1970s. However, they had a renaissance in the 1980s when they began to appear on restaurant menus.

In addition to this recipe for Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding, I also have one for Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding which is another twist on a traditional Bread and Butter Pudding recipe. That recipe is also known as Osborne Pudding as it was allegedly a favourite of Queen Victoria. It has a great combination of bread-filled custard and orange and slightly bitter marmalade.

If you are looking for another kind of easy pudding recipe, then crumbles (or crisps as they are known in North America) are another good option. You could try a traditional Apple Crumble or maybe a Rhubarb Crumble?

Other rhubarb recipes

I love rhubarb and have lots of other rhubarb recipes. It makes a great jam, compote or fruit curd. It is also great in a crumble. Rhubarb is also good in many home-baking recipes such as Rhubarb Crumble Cake, Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake , Rhubarb Victoria Sandwich Cake and Rhubarb Roulade. It also makes a good basis for cold desserts such as Rhubarb Curd and Rose Ice Cream or Rhubarb Fool. You can also use it to make Rhubarb Cordial and a pretty good Rhubarb Gin liqueur!

Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding recipe