Vegan lemon meringue tarts – a finalist recipe in the innocent Ireland Dairy Free Cook Off

Ellen Conroy was a finalist in the innocent Ireland Dairy Free Cook Off at the weekend. Here’s her recipe for vegan lemon meringue tarts using innocent dairy free almond flavour. 

Cool as a cucumber, Ellen Conroy was taking it all in her stride in the innocent kitchen at Airfield Estate in Dundrum in Dublin last Saturday.

Prepared with all of her lunch boxes full of ingredients clearly labelled, Ellen was here to win.

She was one of the first contestants to have her dish in the oven and and on the counter cooling, ready waiting for the judges to taste.

Cookbook author Roz Purcell, image.ie digital editor Katie Byrne, and innocent Ireland’s marketing manager Johanne Lorge and Laura O’Connell, brand and communities manager, were on hand for the difficult task of tasting Ellen’s lemon meringue tarts, as well as the five other finalists’ dishes.

Ellen placed second in the innocent Ireland Dairy Free Cook Off, taking home a Nutribullet and a year’s supply of the innocent dairy free range. Here’s her recipe.

Vegan lemon meringue tarts with innocent dairy free almond

Ingredients

For the pastry

• 180g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 10g caster sugar
• 110g organic extra-virgin coconut oil (room temperature)
• 40ml cold water
• Dairy-free butter to grease tart tins

Method

Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/375F/gas mark 5. Mix flour, sugar and salt. Add coconut oil and rub with fingertips into mix until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add water as needed to form ball (use fork and work pastry as little as possible). Flour surface and dust pastry with flour. Roll out pastry 2-3mm thick. Grease tart tins should be pre prepped. Fit pastry to tart tins and trim. Prick bottom of pastry with fork. Allow to cool. Juice lemons while cooling. Place tinfoil and baking beans in tart tins to hold shape. Bake for 10 minutes. Make lemon curd when tarts are blind baking.

Remove tarts from oven. Remove ceramic baking beans. Bake for a further 5 minutes. Remove and allow to cool.

Ingredients

For the lemon curd

• 120ml juice from lemons
• 120ml innocent dairy free almond
• 150g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 1 tbsp dairy-free butter
• 1/8 tsp turmeric

Method

Add to saucepan lemon juice + sugar + 60ml innocent dairy free almond. Whisk on medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat if thick enough. Add remaining 60ml of innocent dairy free almond, dairy free butter and turmeric. Allow to cool

Ingredients

For the meringue

• Liquid from a 400g tin of chickpeas
• 50g icing sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 10g caster sugar

Method

Drain chickpeas in a sieve and keep aquafaba. Whisk on high speed for 10 minutes. Add lemon juice. Add icing sugar gradually. Add vanilla essence and caster sugar towards the end. Add to piping bag when finished. If you’ve a standing mixer, assemble tarts. Add tsp lemon curd to tart case. Pipe meringue. Blow torch meringue. Grate lemon zest, and serve.

Utensils

• Large bowl
• Lemon juicer
• Tablespoon + teaspoon + fork
• Rolling pin / clingfilm roll
• Tart tins x6
• Tinfoil + ceramic baking beans – prep
• Oven tray
• Small saucepan
• Whisk
• Bowl x2 (lemon curd + meringue)
• Sieve
• Lunchboxes – leftovers + chickpeas
• Hand mixer
• Piping bag
• Blow torch + refill
• Grater

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Follow Ellen’s recipes on Instagram @TheVeganTart.

For more on the innocent dairy free range, which has four flavours: coconut, oat, almond and hazelnut, see here.