Wild Rice Tart

Alice, from Dining with Alice, is showing off her Minnesota cooking skills again today!  We’re so excited about this wild rice tart!  She is the kitchen star for the local Twin Cities Live T.V. show and rightfully so; she is charming, talented and fun.  She also has a new e-book out with great freezer-friendly recipes for those of you who are constantly on the go.  Head to the bottom of the post for more details and a special discount code.

Sometimes it’s fun to embrace the unexpected. Like when you live in Minnesota and you get a 70-degree day in April. Fun, right? And then sometimes it’s hard. Like when you live in Minnesota and it snows, in April. Not so much fun.

Something else that is unexpected? Sneaking wild rice into a tart. When I think of tarts I usually think of something sweet and fruit-filled. But this Wild Rice Tart is actually sweet and savory and perfect for brunch or even an easy dinner.

Start with the star of the show, wild rice. I like to chop it up super fine.

Next, finely chop apple. Yes we are adding fruit to our savory tart! Then finely chop up chicken apple sausage. Combine the wild rice, apple and chicken sausage and then set aside.

I used a Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust, because it is super easy and works just as well as making your own. Well, actually that’s not true. It works better because it fits perfectly in a tart pan and my crusts always need trimming and fuss. Also my counters and floor are not covered in flour. That’s totally better.

Press your pie dough into the tart pan and then give it an egg yolk wash and if you like, you can then blind bake the crust so it’s crispy. To the crust add the wild rice mixture and top with eggs and cheese.

The tart bakes for just 30 minutes and I like to add a bit more cheese after baking.

I slice it up and we eat it for one meal and then once cooled I wrap individual pieces in parchment paper and freeze. This week, after a busy day of work, I grabbed two slices out of the freezer and gave it a quick zap in the microwave. The kids asked what we were having and I told them “Egg Pie.” Adding the word pie to anything that somewhat resembles pie in our house seems to go over really well with the kids. Usually my kids aren’t crazy about wild rice, it’s probably the texture that throws them off, but I just continue to serve it. I fully expected to see their noses turn up at this Wild Rice Tart. But what a fun surprise when they asked for seconds!

Speaking of easy freezer meals, I just released my ebook, Freezer Meals for Moms. I’m giving NellieBellie readers a very special offer to buy the book for only $5! Click here to purchase the book and use the discount code nelliebellie at checkout!