/ Updated Jun 11, 2022 / by Carolyn Gratzer Cope / 2 Comments / This post may contain affiliate links. Learn more.
Got an abundance of produce to use up? This flexible savory galette recipe turns veggie overwhelm into a delicious meal. The easy freeform crust is flaky and buttery, and the simple formula for the filling works with what you've got. Don't miss this crowd-pleaser.
Why we love savory galettes
All year long, but especially in the summer, it's easy to find yourself with a few too many vegetables in the fridge just begging to be used up. I love frittatas and veggie-packed pastas as much as the next girl, but a savory galette recipe takes things to a whole new level.
This recipe is:
- A buttery, flaky shovel for the seasonal ingredients overrunning your fridge and countertop
- A nice, easy introduction to crust-making
- A flexible formula for making your own flavor combinations
- Easy enough for family dinner but special enough for a party
Rustic! A savory galette is the culinary equivalent of, let’s say, perfect jeans and a white button-down. Timeless and effortlessly chic. Makes you look like you care just enough. Which you do.
The crust
A savory galette uses a short crust — the same kind of buttery, flaky, slightly crumbly crust you'd make for a quiche. But there's a bonus: It's rustic on purpose.
That means it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't even WANT to be perfect. (Trust me — we talked about it.)
It also means that making a savory galette is a great way to practice your crust-making skills.
We have a whole separate post that walks you through how to make a savory tart crust. Click here for the crust recipe, and then come on back.
The filling: Ingredients, and an easy formula
To approach the filling for a savory galette, you've got two stellar options.
- Follow the formula to maximize the deliciousness of the ingredients you have on hand OR
- Follow the recipe for a savory chard and corn galette. Ingredients are pictured here, and you can get the complete recipe at the end of the post.
Use the formula
Here are the elements you'll need to make a great savory galette:
- Two tablespoons of fat for the pan. Butter, olive oil, bacon fat, or any other cooking fat you like will work great.
- One to two cups of something oniony. Sliced yellow, white, or red onion // leeks // and shallots are all good choices.
- Four cloves of garlic. (Or you can use chopped garlic scapes or ramps if that's what you've got.) Mince them up for an easy flavor win.
- Leafy greens galore. A savory galette is a fantastic way to get your leafy greens. Since they shrink down dramatically during cooking, you can use a LOT. Think six to 10 big handfuls of chopped raw greens. Try spinach // chard // kale // collards // dandelion // mustard, beet, or turnip greens // and many more.
- One to two cups of a starchy vegetable. Corn // peas // very thinly sliced potatoes or sweet potatoes // diced and roasted butternut squash
- A tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Stirring in just a little bit of acidity and sweetness works magic on bitter greens.
- ½ cup of an aged grated cheese like pecorino or parmesan
- ½ cup of something briny like chopped Moroccan oil-cured olives // chopped green olives // capers // minced anchovy fillets
- 2 ounces of a creamy, soft cheese like Taleggio // brie // fresh mozzarella // chèvre // burrata (after cooking)
Or use the ingredients
The combination of chard laced with the slightest bit of balsamic, cheese and olives, and corn in a buttery half whole-wheat crust hits all the right notes. Super-savory, a little bit earthy, a little bit sweet. Just indulgent enough, and packed with goodness too.
For the savory galette recipe pictured in this post and featured in the video, here's what we've used:
- Alliums — we used leeks in the photo, a thinly sliced yellow onion in the photos, and garlic in both
- Chard — a combination of regular Swiss chard and rainbow chard leaves, chopped and with stems removed and saved for another use.
- Corn — three ears of fresh corn or 10 ounces of frozen
- Olives — we used Moroccan oil-cured olives in the photos and green olives stuffed with garlic in the video
- Soft cheese — we used Taleggio in the photos and brie in the video
- Pecorino & balsamic
How to make a savory galette
There are three basic steps to making a savory galette. You will:
- Prep and cook the filling
- Make and roll out the crust
- Layer the fillings onto the crust // fold the crust // bake
Prep and cook the filling
- In a nice big skillet, you'll cook down your oniony and garlicky ingredients
- Add the greens by the handful. Stir as you go, and add more as they fit. Keep going until they're all cooked down. At this point, drain any excess liquid that may have accumulated at the bottom of the pan. Depending on your stove, pan, and choice of greens and onion, there may or may not be any.
- Add the starchy vegetables now if they need to be cooked with the greens. (If they don't, you layer them directly onto the crust before baking.)
- Stir in a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar to bring it all together.
Roll out the crust
You can see all the steps to make this easy savory tart dough here, and here's what you'll do to roll it out. (It's easy, promise.)
- After then dough has chilled for an hour or more, let it rest on the counter for 20 minutes. Then dust both sides with flour and put it back in between the parchment pieces.
- Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough between parchment pieces into a rough 14-inch circle. As you can see from the photos, perfection is NOT important for this savory galette recipe, and not even encouraged. Just aim for an even layer of dough.
- Peel off the top layer of parchment.
- Brush the crust with olive oil, leaving a border around the outside. That's the part you'll fold down later.
Fill // fold // bake
Now for the fun (and delicious) part.
- Sprinkle half of each cheese and the olives onto the bottom of the crust, still leaving a border.
- Add an even layer of the cooked veggies. (If you haven't yet added your starchy vegetables, layer them on here.)
- Fold up the edges of the crust around the ingredients, using your hands or a spatula. Press the seams gently to seal.
- Beat together an egg and a splash of cream or milk and brush the egg wash onto the crust. Bake for 40 minutes, turning halfway through. That's it!
Expert tips and FAQs
What's the difference between a galette and a crostata?
Galette // crostata, po-tay-to // po-tah-to. These two words mean the same thing and simply arise from different cultures. You can also call this dish a rustic tart. It makes sense that whether you speak English, French, or Italian, you might need an easy and delicious way to use up abundant produce.
How do I prevent a soggy crust?
The dough that we use here is a short crust, meaning it has a high fat ratio and is born to be flaky and crumbly. In addition, we brush the crust with a little bit of oil before filling it, and we drain all the excess liquid from our cooked vegetables before adding them to the crust. That's all you need to do!
What should I do if the crust develops cracks while I'm folding it?
If you work gently, there shouldn't be too many cracks. But if you find any, just press the dough back together with your fingers. That's the beauty of a rustic tart.
How long does this savory galette recipe last?
We find that, as with most pastry, this galette recipe is best eaten on the day it's made. If you have leftovers, you can store them in the fridge and reheat with a short stint in the toaster oven before serving.
How to serve this savory galette recipe
Packed with all those veggies, a savory galette can be a meal on its own, or a welcome addition to a brunch buffet.
It's also great with a simple salad. Try mesclun greens with one of our favorite dressings:
- Balsamic vinaigrette
- Creamy lemon vinaigrette
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Yield: 8
Savory Galette with Chard, Corn, Taleggio, and Olives
Here's a special-feeling but nice and easy way to use up lots of summer produce and get your greens at the same time. You can substitute virtually any greens, starchy vegetables, and cheeses into this recipe depending on what you have available. But here's a super-delicious version that you can follow exactly if you like.
Prep Time40 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time1 hour 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 recipe savory tart dough
- 20 (or so) large chard leaves
- 2 medium leeks
- 4 cloves garlic
- 3 ears corn
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for brushing
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 ounces Taleggio cheese
- 15 Moroccan oil-cured olives, pitted and roughly chopped
- ½ cup Pecorino Romano cheese
- One egg
- Splash of milk or cream
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Remove dough from refrigerator and preheat oven to 400° F with a rack in the center.
- Wash and dry the chard leaves well. Remove stems and save for another use. Chop leaves into ribbons or large bite-sized pieces.
- Slice the leeks in half lengthwise and trim off the roots and dark green parts. Wash well, then cut into thin crosswise slices.
- Finely chop the garlic.
- Remove the kernels from the corn cobs.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic, along with a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until leeks are softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add the chard by the handful as it fits in the pan and cook until wilted.
- Add the corn kernels and cook for two minutes more, stirring once or twice.
- Remove pan from heat. If there is any accumulated liquid at the bottom, drain it well.
- Stir in vinegar.
- By now the dough should be soft enough to roll out. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on each side of the dough and then replace the parchment.
- Using a rolling pin and turning the dough a quarter-turn clockwise every so often, roll the dough out between the parchment into a 14-inch circle (which should be about the same size as the parchment sheets themselves.
- Remove the top sheet of parchment and slide the dough (still on the bottom sheet of parchment) onto a pizza pan or baking sheet.
- Brush a little bit of olive oil over the surface of the dough, leaving a 1 ½-inch ring around the outer edge.
- Sprinkle all but the outside ring of dough with half the Pecorino cheese and some freshly ground black pepper. Tear the Taleggio into small pieces, rind and all, and dot the surface of the dough with half of them, reserving the other half. Do the same with half the chopped olives.
- Spread the chard mixture onto the dough, still leaving an outer ring. Top with the other half of the Taleggio, olives and Pecorino.
- Fold the outer ring of dough over the chard mixture in 6 to 8 roughly equal sections, pressing gently at the pleats to stick them together.
- In a small bowl, beat the egg with the splash of milk or cream to make an egg wash. Brush the dough with some of the egg wash.
- Bake for 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through to ensure even cooking. Slice into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
- Be sure to drain any liquid from the cooked vegetables before adding them to the crust.
- Don't worry about perfection when folding up the sides of the crust. The tart is supposed to be rustic, and imperfections build character.
- You'll have lots of egg wash left over. Scramble and cook it if you like!
- The galette is best eaten the day it's made, but you can store leftovers in the fridge for a few days and reheat in the toaster oven if you like.
Nutrition Information:
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 479Total Fat: 34gCarbohydrates: 37gFiber: 5.1gProtein: 13.1g
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More Savory Tarts
- Asparagus Galette with Leeks and Ricotta
- Savory Tart Dough
- Quiche Florentine (Spinach Quiche)
- French Quiche Lorraine
About Carolyn Gratzer Cope
Hi there, I'm Carolyn Gratzer Cope, founder and publisher of Umami Girl. Join me in savoring life, one recipe at a time. I'm a professional recipe developer with training from the French Culinary Institute (now ICE) and a lifetime of studying, appreciating, and sharing food. More about me.
