Asparagus Goat Cheese Black Bean Tart

In the beginning of the month, I did a lot of baking and cooking for Mom's annual family party. One of the recipes is based very loosely on the Garlic and Basil Chickpea Tart of Roy Guste's The Bean Book. It's based so loosely on it in fact that I'd hardly call it the same at all.

I used 1 lb of black beans that I had soaked and cooked, then pureed to make the tart shell. In the future, I will add complementary spices to the beans before pressing them into the tart pans. By the way, they worked spectacularly well as tart shells. Flaky, like the best dough, yet much more healthy and interesting.

The filling is purely my creation -- goat cheese mixed with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil. That was wonderful. I should have kept some to spread on crackers or bread, it was so yummy.

Finally, I topped the tarts with asparagus I'd sauteed in olive oil with shallots, and pine nuts. The result was that the beans could have been more seasoned, but the topping was great. Lessons learned. Regardless, they were a hit with my aunt and step-uncle (who wanted the recipe). So, here's a short film about how I made the tarts.