Archive Recipe of the Week: Winter Vegetable Galettes

This is a recipe that goes waaaay back to the first year I spent fiddling around on these pages. I still like to make it at least once every winter, not the least reason being that making it once means making a few meals in one fell swoop. I just feed the two of us, my husband and me, at each supper, so one pie lasts for two meals. But that’s not all. There are two pies in a whole recipe and these happen to freeze quite well to lie ready and waiting for a busy night’s meal.

 

I’m not sure I really had that in mind when I first posted this recipe. I didn’t have a job and was blogging because I loved trying new recipes and wanted to talk about them. Now, I work full time at a position that kicks my butt sometimes and am blogging because I can’t stop. (Okay, and because I still love it.) And I’m making dishes like Winter Vegetable Galettes partly for the leftovers.

 

I actually kind of made up this recipe myself, starting with the original version of this Butternut Squash Pie with Feta and Mint. I turned it into a galette instead of a pie, got rid of the phyllo dough (not that there’s anything wrong with phyllo dough) in favor of a whole wheat pie crust, mixed up the vegetables using whatever was in the refrigerator, swapped out the feta for cheddar, added more onion, and put in some mustard, which I really like with some of the stronger root vegetables.

Speaking of those vegetables, I get the best flavor with a mixture of sweet and strong ones. Most recently I used carrots, parsnips and rutabaga, but squash and turnip are good, too. This really isn’t anything to get too fussy about. In my original post, I called this recipe a “Bounty Buster” because I applied it to using up extra vegetables I seemed to accumulate from our winter CSA share. Root vegetables still seem to accumulate in my kitchen somehow, and I still like using this recipe to accumulate some leftovers for busy weeks.

 

Winter Vegetable Galettes with Cheddar, Mustard and Caramelized Onions

Use a food processor with a shredding blade to make quick work of shredding the vegetables.

I recently made the second galette into four smaller turnovers instead, which I froze for another meal.

 

Whole Wheat Pastry

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup ice water, or more as needed

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, and salt. Pulse a few times to combine

2. Add the butter pieces. Pulse until all of the butter is in flour-coated chunks no larger than small peas.

3. Add about 1/3 cup ice water. Pulse until all the water is incorporated and the dough just holds together when squeezed, adding more water a little at a time as needed. Try not to over-process the dough, but make sure it will form a ball when pulled together.

4. On a lightly floured surface, gently press the dough together into a ball. Divide the ball in half and form each half into a disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use. Dough is easiest to handle when chilled at least 15 minutes. (If you freeze the dough, place the wrap disk(s) in a freezer bag. Thoroughly thaw in the refrigerator before using.

Alternatively, the pastry dough can be made by hand: Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or with knives or a fork. Toss the mixture with the ice water, using only enough to allow the dough to come together when squeezed. Proceed as above.

 

Filling and Baking

4 cups shredded winter vegetables, such as winter squash, parsnips, carrots, rutabagas, turnips, celeriac, sweet potatoes, etc.
¼ cup bulgur
¾ teaspoon salt, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
¾ pound yellow onions (about 2 medium), peeled and thinly sliced
3 ounces shredded cheddar cheese (sharp or extra sharp preferred
2 tablespoons Dijon or coarse-grained mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water (egg wash)

1. Combine the shredded vegetables, bulgur, ½ teaspoon salt and pepper in a large bowl. Let stand at least 30 minutes. (Mixture can be held longer, but cover and refrigerate if you’re going to let it stand more than an hour.)

2. Preheat oven to 375 F. To make the caramelized onions, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and remaining ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook over medium heat about 20-30 minutes or until very soft and golden brown. Stir occasionally. Add a little water and/or reduce the he heat if the onions seem to be getting too brown before getting soft. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Add the onions, cheese, mustard and garlic to the vegetable mixture. Mix well.

4. Roll out one disk (1/2 recipe) of the whole wheat pastry into a 12-inch circle. Carefully transfer the dough to a large baking sheet, leaving room for a second one of the same size if possible. Place half of the vegetable mixture into the center of the dough circle leaving a few inches of pastry at the border. Pull the edges of the dough up over the filling, leaving the majority of the filling exposed in the middle of the galette. Repeat with the second half of the pastry dough and the remaining filling and place it on the same pan if there is room. (If not, use a second pan.)

4. Brush the pastry with egg wash. Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes or until the crust is crisp and lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes. Cut into wedges to serve.

 You could also fully enclose the filling in the crust if you would like it to remain moister, or make small turnovers. Each kind of pie can be frozen after baked. Wrap in aluminum foil and seal in a freezer bag. Reheat on a pan at 375 F for about 20 minutes.

 Makes 6-8 main-dish servings.

Other recipes like this one: Butternut Squash Pie with Feta and Mint, Pasta with Shredded Winter Vegetables, Winter Squash and Leek Empanadas with Sage