Crisp, buttery pastry encloses a gorgeous sweet, spicy, salty filling in these rustic tarts. Feta and caramelised onion galettes make a simple yet sophisticated family meal.
Ms. Forgetful
I’d had a combination of flavours going round my mind for a few days – sweet caramelised onions, salty feta cheese, a hint of something smoky… It all sounded great and I thought I’d organise the components into some sort of tart using ready-made puff pastry for ease and speed.
So of course, when Kipper and I nipped to the supermarket and bought a huge pile of fruit and veg, bread, baking ingredients, juice, cleaning products etc etc etc the one thing we forgot was the puff pastry.
I realised as soon as we’d loaded the car and started the engine. Just for a millisecond, I considered running back in. And then I though, “Oh, sod it! I’ll just make galettes instead!”
What exactly are galettes?
A galette is a round, flat, rustic tart/pie/cake/pastry, with a name that suggests a French origin. I think (and could well be wrong) that traditionally they have a sweet fruity filling, like a sort of informal pie. Confusingly, there is also a variety of buckwheat crepe called a galette (also French). This recipe is for the former, not the latter.
Easy feta and onion galettes
Delightfully, galettes are pretty easy to make. The buttery dough for these cheese & onion galettes handles like a dream and rolls out beautifully, and because of their ‘rustic’ nature, it doesn’t even need to be trimmed into shape or otherwise fiddled about with. Any uneven edges just add to the feta & onion galette’s shabby-chic charm! The dough bakes to a very light, flaky and crisp pastry with a lovely buttery flavour.
Ingredients for feta and onion galettes
The recipe for these delicious onion galettes comprises two parts – the galette pastry and the feta and caramelised onion filling. The ingredients for each are:
Ingredients for the galette pastry:
- chilled butter
- plain flour – also called all-purpose flour
- water
Ingredients for the feta and onion galette filling:
- onions – of course!
- olive oil – to fry and caramelise the onions
- smoked paprika
- dried thyme
- tomato puree
- feta cheese
Large or small – the choice is yours!
I made four individual feta & onion galettes, rather than one big one, but you could just as easily make a large galette and cut it into slices to serve.
The feta & caramelised onion filling I’d been fantasising about turned out just as I’d hoped – rich but not overpowering, a perfect balance of sweet, spicy and salty. We ate them with salad, for our first meal this year served IN THE GARDEN! Bring on the summer!
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📖 Recipe
Feta and caramelised onion galettes
Ingredients
For the galette dough
- 100 g butter
- 145 g plain flour
- 2-3 tablespoon cold water or thereabouts
For the filling
- 550-600 g onions (approx 4 medium onions)
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ – ½ teaspoon hot smoked paprika
- 4 teaspoon tomato puree
- 125 g feta cheese, crumbled or cut into small dice
Instructions
For the galette pastry dough
- Wrap the butter in cling film and place in the freezer for at least an hour.
- Once frozen, grate the butter into fine shreds in the food processor. Swap the grating disc for the regular blade, add the flour, and process until the mixture looks like sand. With the motor running, gradually add just enough of the cold water until the dough comes together.
- Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate while you make the filling.
For the filling
- Peel and thinly slice the onions. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and cook the sliced onions, stirring occasionally, for around 15 minutes until caramelised and golden.
- Stir in the thyme and smoked paprika, and if necessary add a little water to deglaze the pan. Remove from the heat.
To make the galettes
- Heat the oven to 200°C.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and cut into four pieces. Roll each one out of a floured surface to give a rough circle around 20cm across.
- Spread 1 teaspoon of tomato puree on each pastry circle, leaving a 2-3cm (approx. 1 inch) border at the edge. Spoon a quarter of the onion mixture onto each circle and spread over the tomato puree. Divide the feta cheese between the four pastry circles.
- Fold up the pastry border to cover the edges of the filling – pleat and pinch to create a rough, rustic edge for the galettes.
- Place on a baking sheet and bake at 200°C for 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the cheese is just starting to brown at the edges.
- Cool for a moment or two, then serve.
Notes
Nutrition
More delicious recipes using pastry
If you love feta and onions, but would rather use a ready made crust, you might enjoy this caramelised onion and feta tart made with puff pastry.
Or take a look at this gorgeous cheese and onion quiche with fennel seeds or this roasted butternut squash and feta tart.
You can find more of my yummy vegetarian recipes here.
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