Roasting fennel highlights the vegetable’s licorice-like flavor and brings out its inherent sweetness.

While a lot of people don’t like the idea of a licorice-tasting dish, mostly because they have bad memories associated with black licorice candy (myself included), this distaste shouldn’t scare anyone away from the vegetable itself – fennel is simply delicious, particularly when cooked, and offers a slew of health benefits.

In this tart recipe, fennel is roasted and then baked with herbs, cheese (three different kinds), and potato, all atop puff pastry dough. The resulting tart is the perfect comfort dish that’ll offer a dose of nutrition without you even realizing it.

Nutritional Breakdown of Fennel

In one cup of fennel, there are 73 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, 1000 milligrams of potassium, 7.3 grams of dietary fiber, three grams of protein, 6% of the RDA of vitamin A, 12% of the RDA of calcium, 47% of the RDA of vitamin C, and 10% of the RDA of iron.

The vegetable is a rich source of phosphorous, zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, niacin, pantothenic acid, folate, choline, beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, vitamin E, and vitamin K. Fennel is also high in dietary nitrates and is a natural source of estrogen.

Buying and Storing Fennel

Choose fresh fennel that has a clean, firm bulb with no browning, bruising, splitting, or spotting. The leaves should appear dark green while the bulb itself bares white or white-greenish color. The stalks should not be soft or capable of bending. Instead they should be firm and crunchy. Meanwhile, the fennel should give off a fragrant licorice aroma.

It’s best to use fresh fennel as soon as possible. Even so, it can store for up to five days in the refrigerator.

Roasted Fennel Tart Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the fennel

• 1 fennel bulb
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

For the potatoes

• 1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes

For the tart

• 6 ounces Gruyere cheese, shredded
• 1 cup Pecorino cheese, shredded
• 1 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon white pepper
• ½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 sheet puff pastry

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Slice the fennel in half, lengthwise, and then cut it horizontally into thin slices. Transfer the fennel to a baking sheet, drizzle the slices with olive oil, and season them with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and set side.

While the fennel is baking, prepare the potatoes. Skin the potatoes and slice them horizontally into 1/8-inch thick pieces. Add the potato slices to a pot and cover them with water. Bring the water to a boil. After two minutes, drain and rinse the potato slices. Set aside.

To prepare the tart, press the puff pastry dough into a 10-inch tart pan. Use fingers to press the dough into the bottom and up along the sides of the park. Poke holes across the bottom of the dough-lined pan with a fork. Place the tart pan in the refrigerator and let chill for 30 minutes.

While the dough chills, prepare the cheese mixture. In a small saucepan oven medium-low heat, add four ounces of Gruyere cheese along and 3/4 cup of the pecorino cheese along with the mascarpone cheese, salt, and pepper. Stir until the mixture melts.

Once the dough has chilled, start layering the fillings. First, start with the potatoes. Create a layer using half of the potato slices. On top of the potatoes, spread half of the melted cheese mixture. Repeat the same two layers, using up the remaining potatoes and cheese. Top the last layer of cheese with the roasted fennel. Top the tart with the reserved Gruyere and pecorino cheeses and sprinkle with fresh rosemary. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden-brown and sizzling hot. Let cool slightly (or completely) before serving.

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Make this black cherry tart recipe and relish in the absolute holiness of the ruby red fruit and her best accomplice: chocolate.

My love for cherries runs deep. And whenever I can feature them in my desserts, I jump at the chance. This chocolate black cherry tart recipe is dense in flavor and strikes the perfect balance between the flavors.

Growing up, I spent my summers on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, where my aunt lived, and every morning we’d stuff a bunch of local cherries into flimsy plastic bags and schlep them to the beach. For six to eight hours every day, in between throwing my body against the waves of the Karadeniz, prancing around with my shovels, backgammon racket, buckets, and other seaside accessories flailing left and right, and chasing whatever friend or dog crossed as far as the outermost spectrum of my peripheral vision, I fueled my abundant energy exclusively with cherries. I must have gone through several pounds of the plump crimson jewels each and every day.

Today, whenever I cross a cherry, I equate it with exuberance and joy. Sure, my associations are nostalgic in nature, but there’s a lot to be said of the fruit’s ability to rejuvenate the body (nutritious AF) and soul (better sleep!).

Chocolate Cherry Tart Recipe: Nutritional Breakdown

A traditional tart recipe involves a white flour and butter-based crust as well as a white sugar-based fruit filling. Even though fresh fruit is often featured in traditional tart filing, the presence of white sugar can override any expected nutritional benefits. This tart recipe, however, doesn’t take away from the cherries’ health perks. Instead, it magnifies them!

Cherries are nutrition powerhouses and are particularly praised for their high antioxidant content. And while cherries may indeed live up to their free-radical-damage-reversing reputation, they offer so much more than that! One cup of fresh cherries contains 51 calories, 1.6 grams of dietary fiber, 1 gram of protein, 180 milligrams of potassium, 26% of the RDA of vitamin A, and 17% of the RDA of vitamin C. Cherries are rich in anthocyanins, quercetin, hydroxycinnamates (phenolic compounds), potassium, fiber, vitamin C, carotenoids, and melatonin (phytochemical). They may also help to prevent cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, inflammation, and Alzheimer’s.

Cherries have a high antioxidant activity, induce a low-glycemic response, inhibit COX 1 and 2 enzymes (these guys cause an inflammatory response in the body), and bear other anti-carcinogenic effects.

According to 2012 study published in the European Journal of Nutrition, cherry juice “provides an increase in exogenous melatonin that is beneficial in improving sleep duration and quality in healthy men and women and might be of benefit in managing disturbed sleep.”

To keep up to par with cherries’ inherent glory, this tart recipe takes every opportunity to be as clean, nourishing, and healthy as possible. The crust is made with coconut oil, lower-glycemic maple syrup, applesauce, coconut flour, tapioca starch, and cocoa powder. The filling is then a simple mixture of black cherries, coconut oil, cocoa powder, vanilla, and maple syrup. All of these ingredients are a few body-nurturing notches above white flour, white sugar, eggs, and butter.

The result is a tart that is animal friendly, gluten-free, and super yummy. Indulge!

Cherries: Which Ones To Choose

There are more than 50 varieties of sweet cherries, the most popular being the Bing, Chelan, Lapins, Rainier, and Tulare varieties. Sweet cherries are often enjoyed raw or used in baking, such as in this cherry chocolate tart. Darker sweet cherries tend to have a deeper, more intense flavor. Then there are sour cherry varieties, which are more commonly consumed dried, frozen, or blended with other fruit juices.

Sweet cherries are available from May to August, while sour cherries are usually only found for a week or two in the middle of June in warmer areas or as late as July or August in colder regions.

When shopping for this recipe, look for “black” cherries, or sweet cherries that are deeper in color – more vivid red – than the others. To measure freshness, look for shiny and plump cherries that feel heavy for their size, have fresh-looking stems, and show no soft or browning spots. Before using them, be sure to rinse them thoroughly and pat them dry.

Chocolate Black Cherry Tart Recipe

Serves six to eight

Ingredients

For the crust

• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon cardamom
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup almond milk

For the filling

• 2 cups black cherries, pitted and sliced in half
• 1 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened coconut flakes for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Use coconut oil to grease a tart pan.

For the crust, combine all of the ingredients into a food processor and pulse them together until well combined and starting to hold together. Remove the mixture from the food processor and use clean hands to press it into the bottom and slightly up the side of the tart pan. Pierce across the bottom of the crust with a fork. Place the rust in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

For the filling, in a small bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, cocoa powder, male syrup, and salt. Arrange the cherries evenly across the tart and pour the chocolate mixture over the cherries.

Place the tart into the refrigerator to set. After an hour or two, garnish the tart with a sprinkle of coconut flakes. Let the tart sit for 15 to 20 minutes to soften slightly before serving.

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