Spring Vegetables Galette
“Remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of an artichoke.”
– Bette Davis as Margo Channing in “All About Eve.”
Like spring flowers, spring vegetables have a delicate beauty about them that their bolder, heartier summer sisters just don’t have. How can you not love those tender greens and yellows? This easy-to-make galette is packed full of them – peas, asparagus, marinated artichoke hearts – along with fresh dill, a tiny bit of lemon zest, and some crumbled feta. Yum.
Thistle Be Interesting
Forgive me for that header – you all should know by now that I can’t resist a good pun. Putting this recipe together made me wonder about artichokes, which are actually a thistle. They’re such an odd vegetable, and so much work to get at their hearts. (Like some people I know. Just kidding.) Pliny the Elder apparently called them one of the “monstrosities of the earth” though he also noted their positive health benefits, listing everything from curing baldness to breath-freshening.
Legend would have it that Zeus – a volatile, oversexed deity at the best of times – fell in love with a beautiful mortal girl, Cynara. He seduced her and made her a goddess, taking her with him to Mount Olympus. But poor Cynara, homesick and missing her mother, snuck home to visit. Zeus, enraged by this mild perfidy, evicted her from Olympus and turned her into an artichoke. What price beauty, huh? Her name lives on, however, in the scientific name for artichokes – Cynara cardunculus.
Apparently artichokes and men with tempers go hand-in-hand. There’s also a story about the painter Caravaggio striking a waiter over a plate of artichokes. Unhappy with the response to his question of which artichokes were cooked in butter and which fried in oil, he lashed out at poor Pietro Antonio de Fosaccia. It would appear that food service was no easier in 1604 than it is today.
Reality Bakes
Galettes are wonderful in that your crust edging and folding can be as rustic (i.e. messy) or precise as you’d like.
That being said, be sure to chill your dough the full time. And I find the lamination really helps to make the crust flaky and delicious. I used whole wheat flour with the AP flour this time instead of the spelt and I loved how hearty the crust came out. It had a lovely crunch, too, which was wonderful with the spring vegetables.
Turned and ready to roll out and fold two more times.
Spring Vegetables Galette
Ingredients
For the Galette Filling:
- Olive oil
- 2 medium-sized leeks, cleaned and chopped (white and light green parts only)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 jar (8 oz) marinated artichoke hearts, drained
- 8 oz asparagus, trimmed and sliced on the bias
- 1/2 cup English peas, fresh or frozen
- 5 oz crumbled feta cheese, divided
- 1 tbsp chopped dill
- Zest of 1/2 lemon
- 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
For the Galette Dough:
- 1/2 cup salted butter, frozen and grated
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup whole wheat or spelt flour
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- Pinch of sugar
- 1/3 cup ice water
- Cornmeal, for dusting (opt.)
- 1 egg, beaten with 1 tsp water
Instructions
Galette Filling:
- Heat a large skillet with olive oil. Add the leeks, season with kosher salt and saute until soft but not browned, about 5 minutes.
- Add the asparagus and cook, stirring frequently, just until asparagus is tender and bright green, about 3-4 minutes. Add the artichoke hearts and peas, season generously with salt and pepper, and stir briefly to combine. Remove skillet from heat.
- Transfer the vegetables to a large mixing bowl and add most of the feta (reserve some for sprinkling on top), the dill, the lemon zest, and the lemon juice. Mix and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Galette Crust:
- Start the dough by grating frozen butter into a small bowl.
- Meanwhile, sift the flours, salt, and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Gently toss the grated butter into the flour mixture until mixture looks mealy. Slowly add the ice water a little bit at a time, just until dough takes shape – it will still be shaggy and you may not use all of the water. Form dough into a loose ball and transfer to a lightly floured surface before shaping into a flattened rectangle. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour until dough is firm.
- With a floured rolling pin and on a well-floured work surface, roll out the chilled dough to form a long rectangle, roughly 8 x 14 inches. Fold bottom third of the dough up to the center, then fold the top third down, creating a sort of package.
- Rotate dough 90 degrees and roll out again. Repeat folding process and rotate dough 90 degrees again. Roll out once more, and perform the third and final set of folds, then wrap folded dough in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
Assembly:
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle the top with a smattering of cornmeal (optional). When dough has chilled, roll it out with a floured rolling-pin on a floured work surface into a 12- or 13-inch round, roughly 1/8-inch thick. Transfer to the baking sheet.
- Mound the vegetable mixture in the middle, leaving about a 2 1/2-inch border along the edges.
- Beat an egg with 1 teaspoon water. Fold up the edges of the dough around the vegetables then brush the crust with the beaten egg. (For a true, rustic galette look, fold up the edges as is in an overlapping pattern, rather like an envelope. For a smoother appearance, go around with a pizza cutter before folding them up.) Drizzle the top with a little bit of olive oil, then bake the galette for 30 to 35 minutes until the crust is golden.
- Sprinkle top with remaining feta crumbles and let cool 5 minutes before serving.
Did you make this recipe? Share! Tag @realitybakes1 on Instagram.
Super awesome love the story about the Gods in the beginning!
Interesting, wasn’t it? Who knew!