Vegan Maple Caramelized Onion Tart with Cayenne Bourbon Sauce
A Beautiful Gourmet Dinner Side or Appetizer That Keeps You Coming Back For More
This Vegan Maple Caramelized Onion Tart with Cayenne Bourbon Sauce is simply delicious. It has a wonderful cooked down jammy maple balsamic vinegar onion base. Topped with butter caramel, slightly spicy cayenne carrots and red peppers all on a bed of rosemary almond flour crust. Bound all this together with a tasty warm pour over of cayenne bourbon sauce. This is so rich and yummy serve it up warm or room temperature at your next dinner party or Holiday side dish treat.
Timing and What You Will Need To Make Vegan Maple Caramelized Onion Tart
At first I thought of this dish as quit daunting when I thought up this recipe. It seemed to be a long task but actually it’s only the onions that take a long time to cook. An hour and 40 minutes to be exact. Don’t let the timing fool you. It is a slow cook kinda recipe equation. It’s really an easy recipe. You can create the other parts of the recipe while the onions are cooking down into a jam like consistency.
I have made this two different ways. First, I made the crust first and while it was cooking I cut up the onions and started cooking them. The second time I cut up all the onions and then made the crust because it takes so long for the onions to cook up to get jammy. It’s however you want to manage your time.
Making The Rosemary Almond Flour Crust
This Rosemary Almond Flour Crust is so easy. Mix all of your wet ingredients together in the recipe below and let it sit to help the flaxseed get thick. It works like an egg and helps keep the crust together. While that is set aside and thickening mix all the dry ingredients together in another larger bowl and set aside. This is where you still have time to cut parchment paper to put on the bottom of the tart dish. This helps when serving so that crust doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
The flaxseed mixture is now ready to mix with the dry ingredients. Mix the liquid mixture lightly into the almond flour mixture. It will come out very crumbly. This is the way it is supposed to be. Pour it into the tart evenly and start to press the dough up the sides of the pan. It should look like the two pictures below.
Put the crust in a pre-heated 330 degree oven for 14 minutes. Take it out when it is done and set aside to fill with the onion mixture when it is done cooking.
How To Make Vegan Maple Caramelized Onions
I start out with 2 pounds (about 4 large onions) of yellow onions. I like using yellow onions because they have such a big taste of onion even after being cooked down. Cut the onions in half and slice them thin against the grain of the onion so that they come out in half circle slices.
You can start cooking them as soon as you cut them, because they cook so slow. Heat a large frying pan on medium low heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Make sure not to brown them. When they turn brown they get bitter. You want these onions to stay sweet when they begin to caramelize.
It should take about a hour and ten minutes to get to where the photo is above of how the onions should look. This is where you add the maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and black pepper. Then cook it for another 30 minutes and it should look like the photo below. (You can cook your carrots and red peppers while the onions finish cooking.) After you turn off the onions, they will be exorbitant and there will be little liquid left. Let it sit in the pan while you prepare the butter carrots and red peppers.
How To Make Butter Caramel Carrots and Red Peppers
My Mother use to make these butter caramel carrots when I was a kid and we loved them. So I regressed to my childhood when making this Vegan Maple Caramelized Onion Tart with Cayenne Bourbon Sauce. I thought what would go well as a decoration on top and pair up to taste good as well. These butter caramel carrots and red peppers were just the thing!
Once you know how to make these you will be making them all the time. First of all you want to cook the baby carrots and small sweet red pepper cut into strips in about an inch of water in a pot with a lid. Boil for about 7 to 10 minutes or until you can just get a fork into them. Strain them when they are done and cut the carrots into 4 pieces each.
When you are done cutting them into fourths return them to the pan they were boiling in. There should be no water in the pan. When cooking these I use vegan butter, brown sugar, sea salt and a couple of dashes of cayenne just to break up the sweetness of the entire dish. Cooking the flavors together and coating the vegetables should only take about 3 minutes.
Arranging And Decorating The Vegan Maple Caramelized Onion Tart
After you have finished making the butter caramel carrots and red peppers the caramelized onions should have turned a little jammy and sucked up most of the liquid left in the pan. Now you can put the onion mixture into the pre-cooked rosemary almond flour crust. The onions will come up just to the edge of the crust. Then you can arrange the carrots and red pepper strips in any decorative pattern that you like. This is the fun part! Then put the tart back in the oven for 22 minutes at 330 degrees.
Making Vegan Cayenne Bourbon Sauce
Truly this Vegan Cayenne Bourbon Sauce is amazing. Although, I am a lover of sauces. I think it’s the French in me. The trick to this sauce is to not turn the burner on until it is all mixed together. All the ingredients have to be mixed well and have the cornstarch well blended in a small sauce pan. Then turn the heat on and cook on medium heat until it is nice and thick. It should only take about 2 minutes. Then there you go! You have an amazing topping. I like this sauce to be a little warm or hot when serving it on the Vegan Maple Caramelized Onion Tart with Cayenne Bourbon Sauce. Somehow it just rounds up the entire dish.
I hope you like this new recipe creation. This is one we will be having for Thanksgiving this year. Enjoy!
Vegan Maple Caramelized Onion Tart with Cayenne Bourbon Sauce
Equipment
- 1 Large frying pan
- 1 Medium frying pan with lid
- 1 Small sauce pan
- 1 Small whisk or small stirring spoon
- 1 Large stirring spoon
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Sharp knife
- 1 Set of measuring cups
- 1 Set of measuring spoons
- 1 9 inch tart pan or pie dish
Ingredients
Almond Flour Crust
- 1½ Tbsp Ground Flaxseed
- 3 Tbsp Water
- 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
- 2 tsp Olive Oil
- ½ tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1¾ cup Blanched Almond Flour
- 2 Tbsp Coconut Sugar or Brown Sugar
- ½ tsp Sea Salt
- ½ Tbsp Fresh Rosemary, chopped small
Maple Caramelized Onions
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 4 Lg Yellow Onions
- ¾ cup Maple Syrup
- ½ cup Balsamic Vinegar
- ½ tsp Sea Salt
- ¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper
Butter Caramelized Carrots and Red Peppers
- Water, enough to cover carrots to boil in
- 22 small Baby Carrots, pre-cut and pealed, cut into fourths after they are cooked
- 4 small Sweet Red Peppers, cut into long strips
- 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
- 1½ Tbsp Vegan Butter
- ¼ tsp Sea Salt
- 3 dashes Cayenne Pepper
Cayenne Bourbon Sauce
- ¾ cup Coconut Cream or Coconut Milk in a can, if using coconut milk skim off the top heavy cream to use
- ¼ cup Bourbon, I use Paddleford Creek
- ½ cup Agave Sweetener
- 1 Tbsp Cornstarch
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ⅛ tsp Cayenne Pepper, or to desired taste
- 2 pinches Sea Salt, or to desired taste
Instructions
Almond Flour Crust
- Heat oven to 330°
- In a medium bowl add the ground flaxseed, water, maple syrup, olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Mix together well and set aside.
- In a large bowl add the blanched almond flour, coconut sugar, sea salt, and chopped fresh rosemary. Mix all together well.
- The flaxseed mixture has to set a couple of minutes so you can cut parchment paper and fit it on the surface of the tart pan. This will help you in being able to get the tart out after it is cooked.
Vegan Maple Caramelized Onion Tart
- Then start to clean and slice the yellow onions. Cut the large onions in half and then start slicing them thin to about ¼ inch or less in thickness.
- Heat the large frying pan on medium low heat and add the 2 Tbsp of olive oil. Then add all the sliced onions. This will take about 1 hour and 40 minutes to cook down depending on the heat of your stove. Do not let the onions brown. It will make them bitter if they brown. Stir and flip the onions over every couple of minutes.
- While the onions are cooking, pour the wet flaxseed mixture into the almond flour mixture. Stir and mix until crumbly. Pour over the parchment paper and spread out loosely over the surface of the tart pan. (Like in the photos above) Then press down starting in the middle outward to the sides of the tart dish. The dough should come up about an inch up the sides. That is all you are going to need. It will not be a really deep thick filling. When the sides of the dough are up the sides press them just a little on the top to make them flatten out a little to make it look even all the way around. This will make it look nicer. (Like in the photo up above)
- Put the crust in the preheated oven for 14 minutes. Do not over cook.
- When the onions have cooked an hour and 10 minutes they should look limp and glassy. Add the maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and black pepper. Continue cooking on medium low heat for about 30 minutes or until it is like the picture above. Turn the frying pan off and let the onions set. They will thicken as it sits.
Making The Butter Caramelized Carrots and Red Peppers
- While the onions are sitting and cooling start cooking the carrots and red peppers. In a medium sauce pan on medium heat add an inch of water or enough to cover carrots and peppers. Let it heat up and then add the carrots and red peppers. Cook until the carrots are soft enough so that you can get a fork in the carrot. Do not over cook.
- Pour out the carrots and red peppers into a strainer. On a cutting board cut the carrots into fourths.(Cut them now instead of before boiling because they keep their shape for decoration) Return the carrots and red peppers back in the same frying pan on medium heat and add the vegan butter, brown sugar, sea salt and cayenne pepper. Cook until well coated for about 3 minutes. Set aside off from the burner.
Assembling the Maple Onion Tart
- The onions have set up and now you can put them into the tart. Spread them out evenly. Arrange the carrots and red peppers in any design that you like. Be creative. It is all in fun. If you like the tart I have made just fallow what it looks like. When you are done put the tart back into the heated 330° oven and cook for another 22 minutes.
Making the Cayenne Bourbon Sauce
- In a small sauce pan add the coconut cream, bourbon, cornstarch, vanilla, cayenne pepper and sea salt. With a small whisk or spoon stir the mixture. Turn the heat on to medium high. Continue stirring. Stir until the mixture becomes a nice thick sauce. Should take only a couple of minutes. When done set aside.
- When the maple caramelized onion tart comes out of the oven let it sit for 30 minutes. Reheat the bourbon sauce right before serving. Serve a spoon full over each slice. Makes 10 to 12 servings, depending on how large you want the slices of tart. Enjoy!