This simple vegan chocolate beetroot tart is filled with a glossy whipped ganache made with dark chocolate and beetroot-cashew cream.
Root veg are probably not the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions chocolate tart, but beetroot, being sweet and earthy and a little bit fruity is actually a very successful pairing with dark chocolate. The number of beetroot brownie recipes on the web bears testimony to that.
Beetroot has the added advantages of blending to a perfectly smooth puree when cooked and having a really beautiful colour. I think just a hint of crimson is detectable in the finished ganache, although that may just be wishful thinking.
Beetroot also, of course, brings health benefits not usually associated with chocolate tart. It has been ranked among the top ten most potent vegetables in terms of its antioxidant capacity. Its colour, incidentally, is derived from the aptly named betacyanin – less famous relation of the anthocyanins that give red cabbage and blueberries their colour.
The chocolate-beetroot ganache in this recipe will set to a light cheesecake-like firmness and will last for several days in a cool environment. I’ve used a simple cinnamon shortcrust for the base, but any sweet pastry or biscuit base would be just fine.
Chocolate Beetroot Tart…
Ingredients
for the base
- 45 g coconut oil
- 80 g plain flour (white/unbleached or wholemeal)
- 40 g caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
for the ganache
- 100 g boiled, peeled beetroot (the plain shop-bought kind is fine)
- 100 g cashew nuts
- 50 g golden syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 g dark non-dairy chocolate
method
- Soak the cashew nuts in advance by covering them with boiling water and leaving them to cool. An hour should be sufficient.
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F and line the base of an 8″ round flan dish or springform/loose-bottomed cake tin.
- To make the pastry, first soften the coconut oil a little if it’s not already at warm room temperature. It should be of a similar softness to spreadable margarine.
- Blend the coconut oil, flour, sugar and cinnamon using a pastry blender or rub the mixture with your fingers until you have a fine crumb and no little lumps of coconut oil are visible. Add one to two tablespoons of cold water and mix with a fork until the dough comes together. Once you’ve added the water, only use your hands at the last minute to form the dough into a ball and transfer to a floured board.
- Roll the dough to roughly the right size and transfer to the dish/tin. You can press it into the edges with the back of a spoon if there are gaps. Bake for around 12 minutes until golden, then set aside to cool.
- To make the ganache, drain the cashew nuts and place them in a powerful blender or food processor. Add 50 ml of fresh water, the beetroot (roughly chopped), golden syrup and vanilla extract. Blend until completely smooth – this may take a couple of minutes or longer depending on your blender.
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or very carefully in the microwave just until it is fully melted.
- Pour the melted chocolate into the beetroot cashew cream, scraping the bowl to make sure as little as possible is lost, and blend for a little longer until you have a thick glossy whipped ganache. You can also do this last stage using an electric hand whisk.
- If you’re keen to keep the pastry base crisp, you could paint it with a thin layer of melted chocolate and let it set before adding the ganache, but it’s not essential.
- Pour the ganache into the dish/tin and smooth the top. Then place it in the fridge for a couple of hours at least to set.
- If you’re using a flan dish you might prefer to leave the tart in situ, but if you’re removing it from a cake tin, run a thin knife around the edge first to loosen it.
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