These vegan Lemon Tartlets are creamy, lemon curd filled pastries that are totally a crowd-pleaser. Restaurant-style dessert perfect for holidays or special occasions.
Friends, these incredible Lemon Tartlets might just become your new favorite vegan dessert.
They're creamy, flavorful with the most decadent citrus filling ever.
Add whipped meringue on top and no one will be able to resist such a yummy treat.
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Why This Recipe Works
- the cauliflower, beans, and potatoes provide plenty of nutritious (and delicious) veggies that will keep you full even without feeling stuffed;
- the savory additions of onion, garlic, and herbs load this spring soup with flavor;
- it's versatile. Apart from the cauliflower, you can throw in any other vegetables that you have in your fridge. Pinto beans can also be substituted for Cannellini beans or Kidney beans;
- it's quick and easy. Ready in just 35 minutes, this wonderful Cauliflower Beans Soup make a healthy and satisfying meal for busy weekdays.
📋 Ingredients
Here's an overview of the specific ingredients for this recipe. For the exact ingredients and measurements, please scroll to the recipe card below.
Ingredient Notes
- vegan butter - look for a vegan butter option that keeps solid and doesn't melt fast. Earth Balance brand works best, however I also had great results with Miyoko's vegan butter
- Maple syrup. I used it in the shortcrust dough and the lemon cream. You can replace with Agave if you want.
- almond milk. I used almond milk as a base for the lemon cream. You can easily replace it with soy milk or other neutral flavor plant milk
- agar-agar and cornstarch. In this vegan lemon tartlets recipe I used both thickeners because agar makes the filling firm and the cornstarch softens it to give a pudding like texture. If you use cornstarch only, the filling might be runny
💭 Top tip
Before you start making a shortcrust dough for the vegan tartlets, I recommend placing all ingredients as well as a bowl of a food processor in a fridge for 30 minutes. The colder it is, the easier it will be to make a crust.
🔪 Instructions
1. Make the dough for the lemon tartlets. In a bowl of food processor add flour, Maple syrup and vegan butter. Pulse on high for 5-6 times to break big chunks of butter. The mixture will be crumbly. With a motor running on low add water and process for 5-7 seconds until the dough starts to pull away from the walls.
If after 7 seconds, your dough doesn't pull away from the walls of food processor, add another tablespoon of ice cold water and process on low for a few more seconds until the dough comes together.
2. Gather the dough into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Cover the dough with a plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Remove the dough from the fridge and discard the plastic wrap. Lightly sprinkle your working surface with some flour and roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick. Using a 6-inch cookie cutter cut out the dough circles.
4. Place the circles of dough into 5 tartlet molds. Press excess toward the outside edge. Use your fingers to press the pastry dough in the flutes and create an even edge all around. Prick a crust with a fork. This allows the steam to escape so that the tartlet shells don't puff up in the oven. Place the shells in a freezer for 30 minutes.
Recipe note: For this vegan lemon tartlet recipe, I used 5-inch tartlet molds. You can also use tart pans with removable bottoms or smaller tartlet pans.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Remove pastry shells from the freezer and bake for 30 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
6. Make a lemon curd by combining almond milk, coconut cream and Maple syrup in a medium pot. Bring to a gentle simmer stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile in a small bowl whisk lemon juice, zest, cornstarch, agar powder and yellow food coloring (if desired).
7. Add the mixture of lemon juice and agar to a pot with almond milk and continue to whisk until the sauce thickens and no lumps remain. As soon as the sauce starts to bubble, remove the pot from the heat.
Divide the lemon sauce among the tartlet shells and leave on the counter to set for about 1 hour. Then transfer to the fridge to cool for 2-3 hours.
8. Prepare the aquafaba meringue. Using a hand mixer, beat aquafaba and powdered sugar until soft peaks, 3 to 5 minutes. Add lemon juice and continue beating for 1 minute.
9. Fill a piping bag fitted with an open star pastry tip (#32) with a meringue and pipe small stars on each lemon tartlet. You can either fill out the whole area of a tartlet or pipe just in few spots.
Using a kitchen blow torch, lightly caramelize the meringue tops. The tartlets are ready to be served.
🍽 Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! If you need to make dinner fast and have a few cans of white beans on hands, rinse them well and use instead of fresh beans. Your dinner will be ready in less than 30 minutes.
Yes. Otherwise, the cooking time will be really long. It's easier to soak the beans overnight rather than babysitting a pot of beans that have been cooking on the stove for hours.
Another benefit of soaking the beans is that water helps neutrilize lectins. These are the proteins found in all plants. They bind to carbohydrates and sometimes can cause stomach discomfort. In addition, some studies suggest that lectins prevent the absorption of important minerals such as calcium, iron and zinc.
Good news is soaking and then boiling the beans destroys active lectins almost entirely.
Yes! Beans are one of the healthiest plant-based foods. White beans provide a whopping 10 grams of fiber per half-cup serving. Given that most people who eat a standard American diet are deficient in fiber, eating more beans is a very good way to lower harmful LDL cholesterol which is linked to a lower risk of heart disease.
Absolutely. You can fill these vegan tartlets with orange curd, mango or pineapple. If you use any fruit that is a different color than lemons, you can either omit the yellow food coloring or replace it with a food coloring of a appropriate color.
Pastry dough becomes crumbly when it is too dry. If this happens, sprinkle about a teaspoon of cold water on your dough, knead and then reassess the texture.
If it's still crumbly, you can add some water. Pay attention not to overdo it, as the dough might become sticky and you'll have to add more flour.
If you dough is sticky, you probably added to much water. My solution would be to sprinkle your rolling pin as well as working surface with some flour. The dough will absorb flour and should no longer be sticky.
You can make the tartlet shells 2 days ahead of time. The lemon curd filling can't be made in advance.
You can omit the meringue. These vegan lemon tartlets will still be very delicious. However, there is one thing to keep in mind. Since the lemon curd filling contains lemon zest, the tartlet filling can be grainy.
One way around it is to skip adding the lemon zest into the curd. That way, the curd will be much have a smooth texture and will look good even without meringue on top.
This can happen when you add agar/cornstarch into a heated milk and don't whisk the mixture fast enough. The solution would be to use an immersion blender to whisk the lemon curd and make it smooth.
Expert Tips To Make It Perfectly
When you work with the pastry dough, don't overwork it. Kneading and rolling the shortcrust pastry for too long will result in a tough crust.
Don't skip on the freezing the vegan tartlet shells before baking. This will reduce the possibility of dough shrinkage during the baking process.
Don't use bottled lemon juice to make a curd. Always use fresh lemons.
Don't stop whisking the curd until it's off the heat. Otherwise it will result in lumpy texture.
♨️ Storing Tips
You can store these vegan lemon tartlets in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. I don't recommend freezing them since the crust will get soggy as it thaws.
🍮 Similar Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Lemon Tartlets
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1 ⅓ c flour
- 2 tsp Maple syrup
- 1 stick (½ c) vegan butter chilled
- 4-5 tbsp ice cold water
For the lemon curd
- ¾ c almond milk
- ½ c coconut cream solid part from the can of coconut milk
- 5 tbsp Maple syrup
- 2 lemons juiced
- 2 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- ½ tsp agar powder
- ½ tsp yellow food coloring optional
For the meringue
- 3 tbsp aquafaba liquid from the can of chickpeas
- 7 tbsp organic powdered sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
To make the dough for the vegan tartlets
- In a bowl of food processor add flour, Maple syrup and vegan butter. Pulse on high for 5-6 times to break big chunks of butter. The mixture will be crumbly. With a motor running on low add 4 tbsp of water and process for 5-7 seconds until the dough starts to pull away from the walls.If after 7 seconds, your dough doesn't pull away from the walls of food processor, add another tablespoon of ice cold water and process on low for a few more seconds until the dough comes together.
- Gather the dough into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Cover the dough with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and discard the plastic wrap. Lightly sprinkle your working surface with some flour and roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick. Using a 6-inch cookie cutter cut out the dough circles.
- Place the circles of dough into 5 tartlet molds. Press excess toward the outside edge. Use your fingers to press the pastry dough in the flutes and create an even edge all around. Prick a crust with a fork. Place the tartlet shells in a freezer for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Remove tartlet shells from the freezer and bake for 30 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
To make the lemon curd
- In a medium pot combine almond milk, coconut cream and Maple syrup. Bring to a gentle simmer stirring occasionally.In a small bowl whisk lemon juice, zest, cornstarch, agar powder and yellow food coloring.
- Add the mixture of lemon juice and agar to a pot with almond milk and continue to whisk until the sauce thickens and no lumps remain. As soon as the sauce starts to bubble, remove the pot from the heat.
- Divide the lemon sauce among the vegan tartlet shells and leave on the counter to set for about 1 hour. Then transfer to the fridge to cool for 2-3 hours.
To make the aquafaba meringue
- Using a hand mixer, beat aquafaba and powdered sugar until soft peaks, 3 to 5 minutes. Add lemon juice and continue beating for 1 minute.
- Fill a piping bag fitted with an open star pastry tip (#32) with a meringue and pipe small stars on each vegan tartlet. You can either fill out the whole area of a tartlet or pipe just in few spots.
- Using a kitchen blow torch, lightly caramelize the meringue tops. The vegan lemon tartlets are ready to be served.
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