Fava, Feta, and Mint Tart with Lemon

Directions

1. Fava, Feta, and Mint Tart with Lemon
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
4. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Split fava pods lengthwise and slide your finger along the inside to coax the beans into a bowl. Add beans to boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes (longer for larger beans); lift out with a slotted spoon into a strainer and rinse to cool. Pierce each fava bean’s outer skin with your thumbnail and transfer inner beans to a small bowl, discarding skin. Set aside.
5. Arrange squares of puff pastry on prepared baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
6. While the pastry squares bake, add fava beans, feta, chives, mint, thyme, and lemon zest and juice to the bowl of a food processor; pulse 4 or 5 times until mixture is combined and fava beans are unevenly chopped. Add salt and pepper to taste and pulse once more. (Alternately, you can mix this all together in a medium bowl, using the back of a fork to crush fava beans to your desired size.)
7. Once the pastry squares have baked for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and spoon 1/4 of the fava mixture on top of each pastry square. Return to oven and bake 15 minutes more. Transfer tarts to a platter or individual plates. Serve sprinkled with fresh chive flowers if desired.

1. Quick Whole Wheat Puff Pastry (enough for 6, 4-inch squares) - optional, see headnote
2. Freeze the butter chunks for about 10 minutes before making the dough.
3. Place flour and kosher salt into the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add about 1/3 of the butter to the flour and pulse until the butter is in small crumbs. Add remaining butter and pulse 3 or 4 times, leaving visible chunks of butter. Add ice water and pulse until dough begins to clump – don’t overprocess or your pastry will be tough.
4. Turn the lumpy, uneven dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Shape dough into a rectangle. Use a board scraper or your hands to create relatively square edges. Lightly flour a rolling pin and the top of dough rectangle. Roll back and forth to create a 12-inch by 16-inch rectangle.
5. Fold one edge of the 12-inch side to the center of the rectangle and repeat with the opposite edge, leaving a 4-inch by 16-inch rectangle. Use your hands and dough scraper to roll dough up like a jelly roll. Roll ‘jelly roll’ out into a 4-inch by 16-inch rectangle. Roll it up again; wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or freeze for later use.
6. Note – After the hour has passed, I like to roll the dough out into a 4-inch by 16-inch rectangle and cut it into 6, 4-inch squares. I stack each square with a layer of parchment paper in between and freeze, then thaw in the refrigerator when I’m ready to use them. They thaw in just a couple of hours.