Rustic Roasted Carrot Galette with Feta Spread and Herbs

When you’re a vegetarian you always seem to get sent home with the leftovers…all of the veggie leftovers, that is. Such was the case, with me, this weekend after a BBQ that my good friend James hosted…I found myself with an entire container of roasted (well, grilled, actually) carrots. So, in the spirit of tasty leftovers, good friends, and slight hangovers…some kind of brunch recipe seemed like a good reincarnation to tackle this morning.

If you’re not familiar with a galette…don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s basically the culinary hybrid of a pie and a flatbread. Savory or sweet, you can top them with just about anything you like and make them in any size. The great thing about a galette is that you can really make it as simple, or as fancy as you like or have time for? Want to make your own pie crust from scratch? Great…want to buy the frozen stuff in your local grocer’s freezer isle? That totally works, too. For this recipe I did end up making my own vegan pie crust BUT since I was working with leftovers, I had the luxury of not having to marinate or cook the carrots. This recipe is nothing if not an exercise in improvisation…Oh yeah, and did I mention brunch?

What you are going to need to buy:

Pie Crust - (Or the ingredients to make your own: flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, vegan butter, olive oil, and ice water)

Feta Cheese - (We love the Just Like Feta block from VioLife Foods)

Minced Garlic - (we like these jarred options from Spice World!)  

White Wine Vinegar

Salt and Black Pepper

Fresh Thyme

Carrots (leftover, or otherwise)

What you are going to need to do:

To start, if you didn’t buy your pie crust you are going to want to make that dough because it really is best if you can let it rest in the fridge for 15 minutes before rolling out and baking.

Now, pie crust can be kind of a polarizing thing in the culinary world…so fair warning, this is how I made mine but if you have a tried and true family recipe you love, or if you love Pillsbury, no judgement here.

On a solid surface countertop or cutting board measure out 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. With a cold fork, cut in 6 tablespoons of ice-cold butter to the flour mixture until the butter pieces have become small, like the size of a grain of rice and are fully incorporated into the flour. slowly drizzle in 1/4 of cold olive oil and gently, but quickly combine until a shaggy dough forms. Supplement with 1-2 tablespoons of ice-cold water if the dough is too dry. Do not overwork. Mix dough until just incorporated. shape into a square or disk (depends on what you want the final shape of your galette to be, wrap in plastic and let dough rest in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

While the pie crust a resting, let’s make our herby feta spread. In a food processor (or using a stick blender) combine 1/3 cup of olive, 3 cloves of minced garlic, a pinch of salt and black pepper, 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar, (Optionally you can use lemon juice), fresh Thyme (de-stemmed) with 3 ounces of feta cheese and mix until smooth and creamy.

Preheat your oven to 400.

On a lightly oiled and floured baking sheet, roll out your chilled pie crust to desired shape, until it is about 1/4 inch thick. I didn’t worry too much about the edges of my dough because well, it’s a rustic recipe, after all, but depending on your level of perfectionism, you can always trim away the scrappy edges.

Spread the feta mixture, which should be about the consistency of sour cream, to the pie crust leaving a 1 inch border all the way around. At this point it will probably seem like too much of the spread, but don’t worry. A lot of that moisture is going to be absorbed my the pie crust when cooking.

On top of the feta spread, arrange your carrots and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Gently fold over the perimeter of the crust so it just slightly rolls over and covers the edges of the carrots. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes depending on the thickness of your crust and your particular oven.

Garnish with a little more crumbled feta and a pinch of herbs.

A note about the carrots:

Like I said in the into, I used leftovers for this dish and didn’t need to roast my carrots because they had been marinated and grilled the day before. I absolutely recommend going the leftovers route when making galette because you can, quite literally, use almost anything: sauteed squash and artichokes, cubed crispy potatoes and caramelized onions, diced tomato, mushrooms and spinach…the list goes on and on.

BUT, in case you do want to try and replicate this dish more accurately, here is what you need to do to make the carrots. 6-7 large carrots, peeled. Blanche the carrots in hot water for 2 minutes to tenderize and then marinate in a combination of sesame oil, worcestershire sauce, vinegar, liquid smoke, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a pinch of brown sugar for 30 minutes. Grill or roast carrots until fork tender.