Tarte a l’Oignon, aka Onion Tart
Just too late for your 4th of July BBQ, but perhaps just in time for the rest of your life of eating deliciousness, I have something for you that made me practically sob in making it but really happy in eating it: tarte a l’oignon, or onion tart. If you host a BBQ or dinner in the near future and want something with lots of flavor that’s easy to make, I highly suggest this onion tart.
We hosted a BBQ recently and had several people over who don’t eat meat so we wanted to have a number of sides that were vegetarian. While Haitian cooking isn’t known for being vegetarian, my grandmother has several recipes that could serve this purpose. I thought the onion tart would be a good dish because of the reasons stated above and because – bonus! – it can be mostly pre-made and you don’t have to worry so much about it the day of your hosting duties. So here we go.
Ingredients:
*This made enough filling for two, 9-inch pie pans, but you can keep it to one pie dish if you want a really thick tart.*
- 6 yellow onions
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- grated Parmesan
- 4 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp flour
- 1/3 cup evaporated milk
- 2 slices ham (I opted out of this as I wanted to make a vegetarian meal.)
- pie crust (I bought refrigerated Pillsbury dough that I could easily roll out into a 9-inch pie pan.)
Directions:
- Make your pie crust. I ended up making two pie crusts since the filling was enough for two.
- While the pie crust is cooling, set oven to 350 degrees.
- Cut up into small pieces the onions – cutting up six onions had me CRYING SO HARD, I’M NOT EXAGGERATING! – and the ham if you choose to include it.
- Get a pan or pot large enough to hold six chopped onions and melt butter in said pot/pan.
- Cook the onions on low-to-medium heat. Stir every few minutes.
- Add the ham if you’re including that. Stir every few minutes.
- Slowly add the salt, pepper, sugar and flour. Keep stirring so it blends and doesn’t clump.
- Then add the milk slowly and stir.
Okay, this is where I differed from the recipe. The recipe says to add the cheese last, as in add the cheese last of all the ingredients in the pot/pan and then pour the entire mixture into the pie crust. I decided to switch that up, so here are the rest of my directions:
- Pour mixture into pie crust(s).
- Cover with cheese until your heart is content.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. (I pre-made this the day before a BBQ, so I cooked for 20 minutes the day I made it and then for 10 minutes shortly before serving the next day.)
- Let cool for 20 minutes before serving.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get great images as I was making and baking a lot the day before the BBQ and being a host the day-of, but trust me, it was delicious. One and a half onion tarts were eaten at the BBQ and we got compliments throughout the BBQ and even the next day. It’s a hit, people!