Flaky puff pastry is slathered with ranch dressing and then loaded with fresh fiddlehead ferns and vegan salami. Baked to a golden-brown, this tart is perfect for a light meal or appetizer. It’s sure to be a hit among those that are veg-friendly and meat-eaters as well.
Summer came early in Alaska this year. So early that we were shocked to see we missed the boat on tapping birch trees for syrup! Drat! Feeling my crunchy-hippie-wilderness-vibe slipping through my fingers, I was determined not to miss foraging the tender, new fiddlehead ferns.
“There are three values: feel good, be good, and do good.”
A friend and I had the most awesome time just lazily wandering around behind our house, down by a creek and found the ferns in abundance. Unfortunately, we were just at the very tail end of the season and most of the ferns were full-grown or pretty darn close. To think, already, almost one month before I harvested them last year! A happy ending though, we found a few that were still new and not yet unfurled .
I knew I wanted to make something really fun with the little green coils. I went to the kitchen to ponder, but I didn't have to spend much time daydreaming this recipe up! A puff pastry had been hibernating in my freezer for awhile and I thought a fiddlehead tart would be perfect. Just a few days earlier, I had bought a bottle of vegan ranch dressing to try out and knew it would be great as a sort of sauce. Finally, a super clearance package of vegan salami winked at me from the fridge. I had bought two packages earlier in the week to try out and one of them still remained. The rest is history; this super easy, super scrummy, beautifully vegan, foraged tart was born!
If you've never had fiddleheads before, they taste a bit like asparagus; I've also heard folks describe them as artichoke-like. They have to be cleaned and boiled. If eaten raw they can cause 'gastric distress', so definitely boil them no matter what. No worries if you don't have access to them or if they're not in season, just use asparagus for this recipe!
Curious about foraging fiddleheads yourself? Find out all about it in this awesome article, and check out my photos below! These were taken a couple weeks ago.
Ranch Fiddlehead & Salami Tart
Published 05/23/2016
Flaky puff pastry is slathered with ranch dressing and then loaded with fresh fiddlehead ferns and vegan salami. Baked to a golden-brown, this tart is perfect for a light meal or appetizer. It’s sure to be a hit among those that are veg-friendly and meat-eaters as well.
Ingredients
- 1 (about ½ lb) sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
- 2 cups fresh fiddleheads, cleaned and trimmed (or asparagus, no need to boil)
- 3-4 tbsp vegan ranch dressing
- 1 ½ tbsp large-flake nutritional yeast
- 6 slices of vegan salami, chopped
- ¼ tsp dried marjoram
- dash of kosher salt
- dash of freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Add the trimmed fiddleheads and boil for about 10 minutes. Strain and rinse under cold water to remove the chaff (brown leaves); set aside.
- Roll out the thawed puff pastry into a 10-by-15-inch rectangle on a parchment-lined baking sheet and prick all over with a fork. Bake until golden, about 12 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
- Spread the ranch dressing on top of the puff pastry, leaving about 1 inch border on the sides. Sprinkle on the nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and marjoram.
- Evenly distribute the salami and boiled fiddleheads (or raw asparagus) onto the tart. Bake the tart on the middle rack in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cut into 6 rectangle; serve warm.
Yield: 6
Did you read this awesome article all about aquafaba, that was whipped up in the New York Times? .... Get it? Whipped up... I'll be here all week.
