This has become our picnic tart of choice. The soft onions collapse into the rich, gooey blue cheese to give a wonderful savoury starter. It belongs in that small space between setting up and the entire extended family and friends converging for the main meal.
In our family, the kids also like blue cheese, so there is real competition for this one.
This one is going with me to the Novice Gardener’s Friday Fiesta, co-hosted this week by the Novice Gardener with Elaine@Foodbod and Stacey@10 Legs in the Kitchen.
A tart of caramelised onions over a bed of gooey blue cheese: delicious!
Onion and blue cheese tart
Ingredients
- 5 or 6 onions, washed, peeled and sliced
- a generous pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
- 1 cup of apple juice
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- a few sprigs of fresh thyme
- shortcrust pastry (already baked)
- 125-250 grams of blue cheese
Directions
- Prepare the onion filling: Saute the onions with the salt in a large frying pan over a low heat for about 10 to 15 minutes. You want the onions to be soft and golden, with no suggestion of barbecues or burning.
- Add the balsamic vinegar, apple juice and sugar. Cook over a low heat until the liquid has evaporated and the onions are browned and caramelised. Stir them so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. This step can take up to 45 minutes.
- Strip the leaves off the thyme and stir them in, then cook for just another couple of minutes.
- Take the onion mixture off the heat and let it cool down.
- Assemble the tart: Break the blue cheese into small pieces and scatter them across the baked pastry base. Cover this with the caramelised onions so they fill the tart up.
- Bake the tart in a 180 degrees C (350F) oven for about 15 minutes. Let it cool, and serve with some sprigs of fresh thyme.
Notes
You can buy ready-made shortcrust pastry, or you can make your own and then bake it before you pile all the filling in and bake it again. I use an old family shortcrust recipe, which is coming as soon as I get around to baking it again and remembering to take the photos!
A tart of caramelised onions over a bed of gooey blue cheese: delicious!
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Yummy tart, I like the white stars on top!
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Thanks. You’re not the only one who likes them. We sometimes have to make sure the number of kids equals the number of stars.
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Ooh this sounds yummy!
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Oh it is. Thank you.
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Well if the onions are going to collapse, it is our duty to save them. This looks divine.
That small space between set-up and main meal is not so small in my kitchen (as visiting friends and family will surely attest). This would be a good thing to tide them over.
Thanks for bringing this to the Fiesta.
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LOL: we all do our duty with enthusiasm every time. Thanks for the chat.
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I can see why, blue cheese and caramel oozed onions in pastry dough, divine!
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Hello again! You had me at caramelised onions! I am very impressed that the children like this – it is full of big, bold flavours. I am bookmarking this one to try when we next have a picnic…it reminds me of a recipe that I haven’t made for a while now – onion, rosemary and anchovy cooked down till it’s jam like then spread on puff pastry, and rolled into palmiers…look forward to trying yours with the blue cheese and thyme!
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yuuummmayyy!!! 🙂
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Glad you like it!
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I LOVE an onion tart… this sounds amazing with the blue cheese. If sweet onions were substituted, would you still use the apple juice? Would you not use sweet onions? Let me know! 🙂
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I would happily use sweet onions and leave out the apple juice, or at least cut down how much juice I used. When I first made this, I tasted as I went (straight out of the frying pan), and stopped at the sweetness I like. Why not give it a try and let us know?
One thing, we use unsweetened juice with no added sugar. It’s still sweet, thanks to the natural fruit sugars, but not overly so.
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OMG, this sounds like heaven on a plate! I love the combo of the onions and blue cheese! 😀
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Thank you. It is actually pretty good.
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Caramelized onions AND blue cheese? Oh be still my heart!
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Oh yeah. It seems to be a hit around here. Thanks for your visit and the kind words.
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There’s nothing better than caramelized onions, nothing! Well, maybe bacon. Or chocolate. Or margarita. Oh, well, but caramelized onions are definitely up there! 🙂
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I like your priorities!
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Your cake is really cute and I’m sure the taste is amazing!
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Thank you so much. This is a tart for blue cheese fans.
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