Flans are always very elegant and attractive; they can be a nice appetizer or a light side dish, especially if you mix classical ingredients (like eggs and cheese) with some lighter ones; in this case I’ve used soy cream instead of fresh cream. Flans can be served in different kind of ways: here is a delicious version with a velvet carrot and curcuma cream.

Ingredients (for 4 muffin tins):

for the flans:

  • 1 bunch of chards (about 21oz)
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
  • 3 tablespoons of soy cream
  • 1 coffee spoon of salt
  • 6 basil leaves

fro the cream:

  • 2 carrots
  • 1 coffeespoon of salt
  • 1 coffeespoon of curcuma
  • extra virgin olive oil (q.s. to obtain a velvet cream)

Steps:

  1. Cook the chards in hot water for 10 min.
  2. Cool in cold water and sqeeze them; chop up and sauté in a pan with one clove of garlic and 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil.
  3. Now blend all together chards, eggs, cheese, soy cream, salt and basil leaves.
  4. Preheat oven at 300F.
  5. Stain with oil four flan moulds (muffin tins) and fill them as in the picture.
  6. Cook baine-marie for about 20 min.
  7. Now prepare the carrot cream: wash and peel carrots and slice them thin; steam for 10 min.
  8. Blend all together carrots, salt, curcuma and some extra virgin olive oil till obtain a velvet cream.
  9. Serve flans on this delicious coloured cream.