An easy to make, rich and creamy, herby, garlicky mushroom tart. Fabulous as a starter, lunch or simple supper. But beware, it tastes so incredibly good, you’ll find it very hard to stop at just one slice.
CT brought home some field mushrooms last week. He’s very good at spotting them when out and about. They were a little past their best, but still perfectly edible. But I thought I’d better cook them quickly before they deteriorated further. So the question was, what to make? Normally in this situation, I go for mushrooms on toast, but for some reason I had mushroom tart on my mind.
Mushroom Tart
This mushroom tart is delicious straight from the oven, but also just as good at room temperature. It’s best, however, served on the day of baking.
For a super quick and simple tart, puff pastry is the way to go. I wish I could get hold of wholemeal, but I’m nevertheless happy to indulge in shop bought puff pastry from time to time. Unless I’m making something that’s specifically vegan, I opt for an all butter version.
Ready rolled puff pastry sheets are now widely available and are in my experience easier to get hold of than a block. This means the process of making this mushroom tart is even easier. There’s no flouring of boards and rolling out and you can use the paper the pastry is wrapped in to line the baking tray.
So in order to make this mushroom tart beautifully creamy, I’ve added a layer of cream cheese between the pastry and mushrooms. This part is also incredibly easy. Just mix a good quality cream cheese with some finely chopped or grated garlic and chopped herbs. Spread it over the pastry sheet, ensuring there’s a border around the edge. You don’t want to miss out on that beautiful puff.
You can, of course, make your own pastry if you prefer. I usually do. Just follow the instructions for this tomato galette recipe. It’s made with my favourite pastry which not only tastes delicious, but is also really easy to make.
Preparing The Mushrooms
The fussiest bit of this recipe is cleaning the mushrooms. This is especially true if the mushrooms are foraged ones. You need to wipe the tops carefully with a damp cloth or dust them with a soft brush and ensure there’s nothing unwanted on the underside.
Once the cleaning is done, it’s just a simple process of slicing the mushrooms and sautéing them in a bit of butter and olive oil. Add some herbs and a drizzle of soy sauce to enhance the mushrooms’ natural umami flavours. Then scatter them over the cream cheese along with a few chopped scallions and bake.
You may need to fry the mushrooms in batches, depending on what you have and how big your pan is. I fried my mushrooms in two batches as they were both very different types. I fried the firmer chestnut mushrooms first in butter and oil, but didn’t add any herbs or tamari. The second batch was the field mushrooms and these were the ones I added the additional ingredients to.
Mushroom Tart Step-by-Step
First turn the oven on. It’s so annoying when you’re ready to bake, but you’ve forgotten to take this all important step. Don’t ask me how I know!
Lay your pastry, along with the paper it comes with, onto a baking tray. Spread the herbed cream cheese mixture over the top with a knife or back of a spoon, making sure you leave a border of about one centimetre.
Layer half of the mushrooms over the cheese. The ones you can see above are wild field mushrooms.
Scatter the spring onions, aka scallions, over the cream mushrooms.
Finally layer on the remaining mushrooms. Bake, slice and enjoy.
Can You Make This Mushroom Tart Vegan?
The answer is yes you can. It’s really quite easy. You just need to make sure you use a vegan puff pastry and do a simple swap. The only non-vegan ingredient in this mushroom tart is the cream cheese.
These days, it’s easy to buy vegan cream cheese or you can make your own. I have a vegan cream cheese recipe right here on Tin and Thyme. So just swap the traditional cream cheese for one of these.
What Sort of Mushrooms Can You Use?
You can use any edible mushrooms you like for this mushroom tart. Some are more flavoursome than others, so a mix is really nice.
Personally I like shiitake mushrooms mixed with chestnut mushrooms. But for this tart I used a mix of foraged field mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms because that’s what I happened to have.
Please be careful if you forage your own mushrooms. You need to be really sure the ones you pick are edible as many of them are extremely poisonous. If you’re not certain, don’t pick them and certainly don’t eat them. Field mushrooms are the only ones I recognise. Luckily, CT is a botanist so I do get to eat a wider variety of foraged mushrooms than I otherwise would do. That’s if he can find any of course.
How many mushrooms you need will very much depend on the type you use. It’s best to go for more rather than less, as you can always pile extra onto the tart, but skimping on them won’t impress your guests. My foraged mushrooms cooked down to less than half their original size, whilst the chestnut mushrooms only shrank a little.
Which Herbs Go Well with Mushrooms?
Mushrooms can take bold flavours really well so don’t skimp on the herbs. Thyme is my favourite to pair with mushrooms, but parsley, chives, marjoram, sage, oregano, tarragon and rosemary all work well too. It’s nice to ring the changes and as this mushroom tart is bound to become a firm favourite, you can try a different one each time.
For this recipe, I’ve gone with two herbs. The mushrooms are cooked with sage for some strong aromatic notes. But I’ve also added some chopped parsley to the cream cheese layer.
Other Mushroom Recipes You Might Like
- Creamy garlic mushrooms on toast
- Dried mushroom risotto with chocolate
- Mini mushroom pies made with hot water crust pastry
- Mushroom curry
- Slow cooked vegetable stew with mushroom dumplings
- Vegetarian sausage rolls with mushroom & chestnuts
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this easy mushroom tart, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate it. Have you any top tips? Please share photos on social media too and tag me @choclette8, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more tart recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
Mushroom Tart. PIN IT.
Mushroom Tart – The Recipe
Mushroom Tart
Ingredients
- 320 g puff pastry ready rolled (I used all butter)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 25 g unsalted butter
- 350-400 g mushrooms wiped clean and sliced (I used half wild field mushrooms and half chestnut mushrooms)
- 6 fresh sage leaves finely chopped
- 1 tsp tamari (affiliate link) or soy sauce of your choice
- 250 g full fat cream cheese
- 1 plump clove of garlic finely chopped or grated
- 6 sprigs fresh parsley finely chopped
- good grinding of black pepper
- 1 spring onions (scallions) finely sliced
Instructions
- Sauté the mushroom in the olive oil and butter over a medium high heat for about six minutes or until they are nicely browned and most of the moisture has evaporated. You may need to do this in batches, depending on the mushrooms you use and the size of your pan.
- Turn the mushrooms after about three minutes and add the sage and tamari a minute or so before finishing.
- Whilst the mushrooms are cooking, mix the garlic, parsley and pepper into the cream cheese.
- Place the pastry onto a lined baking tray. I had to cut a strip off mine to allow it to fit my 30cm x 23cm tray.
- Spread the cream cheese over the top, leaving a 1 cm border around the edge.
- Place the mushrooms over the cheese, then scatter with the spring onion slices.
- Bake on the top shelf of a preheated oven at 200℃ (400℉, Gas 6) for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is puffed up and golden.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I’m sharing this recipe for an umami rich mushroom tart with Apply to Face Blog for #CookBlogShare.
Gita says
This recipe looks fantastic. I love the use of puff pastry to make a savory tart!
Choclette says
Thank you. I’ve made a few over the years and they’re all delicious. Ready made puff pastry makes it so easy, but I try not to indulge too often.
Joanna says
This looks like the perfect simple supper. I love mushrooms and adding tamari or soy to bring out the flavour is a great tip. I think this would disappear pretty quickly in our house!
Choclette says
I always use tamari with mushrooms, it really does give them a flavour boost. The tart disappeared way too quickly in our house. It was meant to last the two of us two days, but we polished it off in one sitting – oops!
Beth Sachs says
I love easy puff pastry tarts like this. Will be giving this a go for meat free Monday!
Choclette says
They are indeed very appealing. Quick, easy and delicious but something I try not to indulge in too often.
Jenny Walters says
Fabulous recipe that I can’t stop thinking about! Simple but packed full of flavour! Thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare
Choclette says
Make it Jenny, then your really won’t be able to stop thinking about it
Kat (The Baking Explorer) says
This sounds absolutely yummy, and luckily my partner doesn’t eat mushrooms so I’ll get the whole thing to myself! 😀
Choclette says
Oh but you’ll need to be careful. It’s just too easy to have just one more slice 😀
sherry says
this looks so delicious. i adore mushrooms, and the herby cheese is a great base. such a wonderful flavoursome tart this must be.
Choclette says
It really is Sherry and a lovely contrast of textures too.
Corina Blum says
I definitely would find it hard to stop at one slice of this! I love cheesy mushroom recipes and can’t resist pastry either. I just wish I was confident about going out to forage for mushrooms myself!
Choclette says
Definitely not something you want to take risks with. But I’m with you on pastry, I love pretty much anything in pastry.
angiesrecipes says
I like to use ready made puff pastry…it makes life so much easier :-)) Your mushroom tart look absolutely droolworthy.
Choclette says
Ready made puff pastry certainly makes for a very quick meal and it is so very tasty.