Whenever I walk past patisseries, I stare longingly at the beautiful cakes with lots of cream and sugar (I love cream) and always wanted to create something similar but with less calories and more natural goodness. This little gem of a recipe is vegan, gluten free and most importantly it’s so tasty you won’t be able to tell the difference. To add a bit of “personality ” I decided to make a passion fruit curd instead of the classic lemon.

There are 3 stages to the recipe, with 3 separate different layers but it's not that complicated at all. Don’t be afraid of making it if you don’t have a blowtorch for the meringue, I didn’t check mine before I made the meringue and ended up using the oven grill! (Yes that’s the solution if you want to make something like this). 30 seconds under the grill can replace your blowtorch. I used a small metal tart basket 8″ to make the crust but if you have smaller or bigger pan just multiply or divide the ingredient measures by 2.

For the crust

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup almond flour

3 pitted Medjool dates

3 Tbsp coconut oil

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175C. 

2. To make the crust mix all the ingredients into a food processor.  Pulse several times until the mixture resembles wet sand.  Don’t worry if it’s a bit sticky. 

3.Pour the crust mixture into a lightly greased tart pan, press well.  Poke some holes through the crust with a fork.

4. Bake at 170C for 8-10 minutes until fragrant and slightly golden.  Remove and cool completely.

For the curd

Ingredients

1/2 cup (120 ml) lemon juice

1/2 (170 g) honey (depending on how sweet you want it)

1/3 cup (40 g) cornstarch (or arrowroot powder)

Pinch of salt

Pinch of turmeric

1/8 cup (20 g) coconut oil

2 passion fruits

Method

1. In a saucepan, combine the lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch and salt. Cook on medium-high heat, with constant stirring, until thickened. Remember that once it’s cooled down it will get thicker as well so don’t leave it alone!

2. Add a pinch of turmeric to get the golden colour.

3. Remove from heat and mix in the coconut oil (you also can add coconut cream if you want it to be creamy)
While warm, pour the curd onto the tart base and allow to set for approximately 30 minutes in the fridge.

For the vegan meringue

There are quite a few different ways to make it, this version is not too complicated and worked well.

Ingredients

400 g can of chickpeas – you just want the liquid from the tin

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

2 table spoon of sweetener Stevia

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Method

1. Using a high speed mixer, beat the chickpea water (aquafaba) , add the cream of tartar and stevia .

2. It can take up to 7 minutes to get the right consistency so don’t worry if you can’t see the fluffy meringue after 2 minutes.

3. Once soft peaks appear, use a piping bag (a sandwich bag with a hole at the tip is a good substitute) or a big spoon and spread it over the tart with little peaks.

4. Finally, preheat oven to 220C-250c grill , once heated, place the meringue tart under the grill for 15-30 seconds. The length of time depends on the power of the oven and colour you want to achieve.

Remove from the grill, allow to cool and add some edible flowers or lemon zest on top, or leave it plain and serve immediately…

Words by Christine Barnett

Photography by Jelena Fairweather