Greek Yogurt Fruit Tart

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I love a fruit tart. I always have. Usually, this treat is filled with custard, pastry cream, or mascarpone cream. My mom makes it with a vanilla pudding filling, which, honestly, is fantastic. Here’s my take on a healthier fruit tart.

When I was trying out different combos to make up a healthier crust I knew I wanted the sweetness to come from dates. But I’m not a dried fruit kind of girl–I would never just snack on a normal pitted date straight out of the bag. That’s just insane to me. But we’re trying to be healthier here so I decided to keep trying with the dates. For the recipe, a few batches in, I switched to Medjool dates for my first time. Yes, they look like cockroaches. But when I tried a straight Medjool date, I was shocked by the difference in taste. They have this sweet caramel taste to them. I probably still wouldn’t snack on a Medjool date, but I could. There’s definitely a big difference between a pitted date and a Medjool pitted date, just WOW. 

But before we get to the recipe, let's talk about dates and flaxseeds. 

Nutrition

Dates:

Dates come from palm trees—how weird, but also how cool? People don’t usually eat fresh dates. Fresh dates are hard, crunchy, kind of chalky, and not really sweet. Date sugar is just ground-up dates. This is definitely something I can try out in future recipes for baking (whole-food sugars don’t dissolve that well to mix into drinks, like coffee). Dates have a whopping 7 grams of fiber per serving, which is the same amount of fiber as one serving of cooked whole wheat pasta. They’re great for supporting gut health, managing blood sugar (reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes), and lowering cholesterol. They have antioxidants that help prevent cancer and cardiovascular diseases. 

There are even studies showing that dates help induce labor by stimulating oxytocin receptors. So, for all you soon-to-be moms, if your baby is done cooking and you want it out, dates could possibly assist. In one study, the group of women who ate 6 dates per day during their last month of pregnancy shaved off over 6.5 hours of labor on average compared to the group that ate no dates. CRAZY!

Flaxseeds:

So what exactly are flaxseeds? Flaxseed, also known as flax or linseed, is the seed of the flax plant. Most nutritional experts recommend ground flaxseeds over whole since whole flaxseeds can pass right through your digestive tract without allowing your body to reap the benefits from them. If you have whole flaxseeds, they do last longer than buying them already ground. Just make sure to grind them before using—in a food processor, coffee bean grinder, pepper grinder… or just chew really, really well. Like most changes in life, it’s more manageable when you start in increments. 

If you currently have a diet low in fiber, cranking it up too quickly can make you feel very bloated. So if you’re trying to incorporate more flaxseed into your daily intake, start small, like ½ tsp before adding more. Flaxseeds stick out to me when I’m looking at their nutrition label and see the amount of protein packed into this plant (two tablespoons have 6 grams of protein). However, flaxseeds are still an incomplete protein source, meaning they do not contain all nine essential amino acids, so you should definitely still incorporate other sources of protein into a meal. But I’ll take natural plant protein where I can get it. Flaxseeds also have omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, and antioxidants and have been shown to reduce your chances of cancer and heart disease.

Greek Yogurt Fruit Tart

Ingredients: 

Crust (makes 3 mini pies): 

• 1 cup pecans 

• 6 Medjool dates 

• ¼ cup rolled oats 

• ⅜ cup coconut oil

• Fresh sea salt, I did two cranks 

• 1 tsp flaxseeds, ground  

• 1 tsp chia seeds 

• Mini pie dishes (BUT if you don’t have this, a mug will do just fine)

Filling (quantities listed below are for 1 mini pie filling. If you wish to serve all three mini pies now, multiply everything by 3): 

• 5% greek yogurt (the 5.3 oz single serving is the perfect size for 1 mini pie)

• ⅛ tsp vanilla extract 

• 2 tsp honey

• ½ cup fresh fruit of your choice (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc.) 

• More honey to serve 

Instructions: 

1. The crust can be made in advance. I recommend using a food processor to blend everything together. If you don’t have a food processor, you could use a blender to blend, mix up with a spoon, blend, mix with a spoon…keep repeating until everything is chopped up. 

2. Once the crust ingredients are blended together, press the crust mixture into the mini pie dishes. Make sure the pie crust layer is a thin layer, about ⅛ of an inch or 2 quarter sizes thick. 

3. Wash the fruit. Chop the strawberries into halves or quarters, if using.

4. Prepare the filing by mixing the yogurt, honey and vanilla together. I recommend sticking with the 5% greek yogurt, so you don’t lose the thickness of the filling. After mixing, fill the mini pie dish with crust with your yogurt filling, add the fresh fruit and drizzle extra honey on top. 

   1. *Since the filling is yogurt based, we can’t place it into the crust until just before serving since yogurt always needs a good stir before enjoying.

Hope you love it!

Educational Sources: 

• https://naturesproduce.com/encyclopedia/fresh-dates/#:~:text=Fresh%20dates%20are%20often%20a,%2C%20puddings%2C%20or%20enjoy%20raw. 

• https://health.clevelandclinic.org/benefits-of-dates

• https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/flaxseed/faq-20058354#:~:text=Flaxseed%20is%20commonly%20used%20to,the%20risk%20of%20heart%20disease. 

• https://health.clevelandclinic.org/flaxseed-little-seed-big-benefits 

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21280989/