Vegan Alsatian Tarte Flambée
Every season has its own dishes that we look forward to months in advance: in winter we could eat dumplings and vegan goulash every day, in spring we have asparagus and hollandaise sauce until we are sick of the sight of it (which never happens) and in summer, we enjoy our very favorite potato salad at every barbecue or picnic. You can probably already guess it: from September on, there's simply no way around tarte flambée.
Even though tarte flambée is very simple to prepare, you can also easily adjust it to every season and taste. Whether you top it with pumpkin, apple slices, or pesto – the options are endless. But today, we show you the absolute classic among all tarte flambées: a tarte flambée Alsatian-style! Traditionally, it's topped with bacon, onions, and crème fraîche. We just swap bacon with smoked tofu and use plant-based crème fraîche, of course. If you can't find it in the supermarket, we have a DIY recipe for you here that works just as well. Now, if there's a bottle of vegan Federweisser in your fridge, we guess we can ring in fall officially!
By the way, the name of this dish originates from times when people only dreamed of having an oven with a thermometer. Instead, they would put a thin cake in o the oven to better "measure" its temperature. The thin cake was baked over the flames, and this is how the name "tarte flambée" came about over time. Only when the tarte flambée was crispy baked, you knew that the perfect temperature was reached and your oven ready for bread baking. [(source)](https://www.kochwiki.org/wiki/Flammkuchen_(basic recipe))
Speaking of the base! We made our vegan Alsatian-style tarte flambée with the spelt tarte flambée dough from Tante Fanny, which conveniently just needs to be rolled out and even comes with parchment paper already. The dough consists of 100% spelt flour, and is made without any palm oil. Plus, it's suitable for savory and sweet dishes. "Tante Fanny" has lots of vegan doughs in its product range – from pizza, strudel, and yufka dough to croissant and puff pastry. This way, you'll have the right dough ready for every recipe when things need to go faster. And what's especially handy: you can also quickly find out where you can buy each dough nearby via their store finder on their website.
Vegan Alsatian Tarte Flambée
Ingredients
- 1 vegan spelt tarte flambée dough (e.g. from "Tante Fanny")
- 150 g (5.5 oz) plant-based crème fraîche
- 0.5 lemon (juice)
- 1 pinch of nutmeg
- 1 large onion
- 150 g (5.5 oz) smoked tofu (or vegan bacon)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- vegetable oil for frying
- chives for serving
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 220°C/430°F (top and bottom heat). Place a baking sheet in the oven to preheat it as well.
Season the plant-based crème fraîche with lemon juice, a pinch of nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste.
Peel, halve and slice the large onion (you can cut more onions if desired). Cut the smoked tofu into fine strips.
Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the smoked tofu for approx. 2-3 minutes. Add soy sauce and keep frying for approx. 1-2 minutes longer.
Roll out the vegan spelt tarte flambée dough (including the parchment paper). Spread the seasoned crème fraîche on top, then add sliced onions and smoked tofu. Transfer the topped dough to your bakingn sheet and bake the tarte flambèe at 220°C/430°F for approx. 15 minutes.
In the meantime, wash and finely chop chives. Remove the tarte flambée from the oven, sprinkle with chives, season again with salt and pepper as desired, and serve directly.
