Beetroot tarts with cream cheese and chives + Photography Backdrops

Beetroot tarts filled with cream cheese, chives and nigella seeds! Delicious, crispy snack that can also serve as a main course. Can be served hot or cold!

Hey there Dear Reader!

I hope that so far, you are having fantastic start of the month, and May is giving you same fuzzy feeling as it gives me! And excuse my 'all over the place' posting schedule at the moment, but sometimes, life just happens and takes the priority 😉 

Before my passion for food photography was even born, I have always been drawn to 'rustic' things. Fatigued looking wooden tables and chairs, chipped paint, rusty baking trays, cutlery and ramekins... I want it all! Ideally, I need to win a lottery and get myself one of these old barns or farm houses, with a small green patch (see, I'm not greedy) so I can grow my herbs there. There is so much character in them, and they just... I don't know, kinda speak to me...

So to have this kind of a house is one of my big dreams. But what about all these little dreams and aspirations and things we want to achieve? Well, they are, non less, super important to me. They keep me going. Also, give me a purpose and motivate me. They are the reasons why I'm not giving up and want to keep going, developing myself and my passions. And believe it or not, one of my 'smaller' dreams, ever since my adventures with food photography started, was to find that perfect backdrop!

It may sound a bit pathetic, I know. But if you are a starting food blogger/ photographer, it can be really tricky to find that one board you are obsessed with. So I thought that perhaps, it will be beneficial to some of you, if share couple of places where you can find one. And couple of tips on how to make one yourself.

So, let's start with photo boards. If you are on a budget and perhaps just starting with photography, they are ideal! They are small backdrops designed to look like real textures. Although, I have not tried one myself, I've seen bloggers achieving great results using photo boards. There are quiet few places online, where you can get one. Photoboards.org is one of them, and I like how affordable some of them are.

If you have some extra cash to splash, or want to invest in something a bit more professional, with real, interesting textures and colours, I will highly recommend checking out Woodrow Studios. The background you can see in today's recipe for beetroot tarts comes from them, and I couldn't be happier with it. It took me really long time to find what I was looking for, and when I saw it, I decided to bite the bullet and pay a bit extra. It has this exact rustic feeling to it, that I'm so attracted to! And I know it will be with me for a very long time, so I treat it as an investment.

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Another way of getting that ideal background/ backdrop, is to make it yourself. It may sound a bit challenging, but bear with me. I've seen and read many tutorials on how to make your own, and yes, some of them can be a bit overwhelming, especially, if like me, you have no DIY skills, whatsoever. But, recently, I have come across this brilliant tutorial on IG stories by super talented Bea Lubas and I loved it! The idea is really simple, the technique seemed really easy and seeing others re-makes of it really encouraged me to make one too!

So stay tuned, because I will be making one very soon. But if you want to make yours ASAP, here is how:

• buy a large board of plywood in DIY store and ask to have it cut into smaller squares, 800mm x 800mm has been recommended in Bea's tutorial
• buy tester pots of wall paint (ideally 3-4 pots in different shade of a similar colour)
• pour small patches of each colour into plywood and using a small sponge, gently, in circular motion, start distributing the paint onto the board, do not over mix the paint, you want to see different colours on the board, and if over- mix it, they will become one
• let it dry

So that's it. Easy, right? I can't wait to try it out myself!

Now, finally, let's get into today's recipe for beetroot tarts!

The idea for these delicious filo pastry tarts with beetroot was based on the recipe from Love Beetroot. Awesome page with many, many beetroot based recipes and fun facts about...errrmmm...beetroots! 🙂

I've used all dairy- free substitutes for cheese (including vegan Parmesan!) but I have used an egg in my version. However, it can be easily omitted from the instructions, and the recipe will be 100% vegan. Rather than using ricotta cheese, as per the original recipe, I'm using vegan cream cheese. But this cashew cream cheese will also be a fantastic substitute!

Beetroot tarts with filo pastry are great to serve with salads, and they taste delicious, hot or cold. So give them a try, they are much easier to make than you may think!

Until next time!

A.

Also, just wanted to add, that this post is not sponsored by any of the companies mentioned!