Crab and spring onion tart
Serves: 6
Prep time: 25 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Martin Poole
Crab and spring onion tart
All alliums have a tendency to be sharp when raw, but spring onions mellow beautifully when cooked. Their enticing peppery sweetness pairs wonderfully with crab in this seasonal tart. If you don’t want to use crab, smoked salmon would also work a treat – simply stir some thin strips through the filling mixture before baking
Serves: 6
Prep time: 25 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
538Kcal
Fat
38gr
Saturates
21gr
Carbs
28gr
Sugars
5gr
Fibre
2gr
Protein
19gr
Salt
0.9gr
Sarah Akhurst
Our Food Director Sarah is a food obsessive, and spends most of her time scoping out the latest food trends, experimenting in her own kitchen, or making her family wait to eat while she photographs every dinner she makes for the 'gram! A complete Middle Eastern food junkie, she is never far from a good shawarma marinade, a pinch of Aleppo chilli or a sprig of dill
See more of Sarah Akhurst’s recipes
Sarah Akhurst
Our Food Director Sarah is a food obsessive, and spends most of her time scoping out the latest food trends, experimenting in her own kitchen, or making her family wait to eat while she photographs every dinner she makes for the 'gram! A complete Middle Eastern food junkie, she is never far from a good shawarma marinade, a pinch of Aleppo chilli or a sprig of dill
See more of Sarah Akhurst’s recipes
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 175g plain flour
- 100g cold salted butter, diced
- 50g Parmesan, finely grated
- 1 medium egg, separated
For the filling
- 3 bunches of spring onions
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 medium eggs
- 200ml single cream
- 100ml crème fraîche
- 1 tbsp brandy (optional)
- 200g white crab meat (we used The Good Tide Co.)
Step by step
Get ahead
Make the tart the day before, then remove from the fridge around an hour before serving, so that it’s not fridge-cold.
- Make the pastry: put the flour and butter in a food processor and blitz to crumbs. Add the Parmesan and blitz to combine. Add the egg yolk and 2 tablespoons of cold water and pulse until the pastry comes together in a ball. Press into a disc, wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Trim one bunch of the spring onions but keep them whole, then slice the remaining two bunches. Heat half of the oil in a frying pan and fry the sliced spring onions for 3-4 minutes, until soft. Remove to a bowl. Heat the remaining oil and fry the whole spring onions, again for 3-4 minutes, until tender. Remove from the pan and leave to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. Roll out the pastry and use it to line a 20cm diameter tart tin. Chill for 10 minutes in the freezer. When chilled, line with crumpled baking paper and fill with baking beans. Bake for 20 minutes then remove the paper and baking beans. Beat the egg white lightly and brush this over the inside of the tart case. Return to the oven for 5 minutes until dried out. Remove and reduce the oven temperature to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4.
- In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, single cream, crème fraîche and brandy if using. Flake in the crab meat and add the fried chopped spring onions, stirring carefully. Season well.
- Sit the tart tin on a baking tray and then carefully fill the tart case with the crab mixture. Line up the whole spring onions across the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the filling has set with a slight wobble. Remove from the oven and leave to cool to room temperature before serving.
