Vegetable Flatbread with Creme Fraiche

This easy and colorful Vegetable Flatbread with Creme Fraiche makes a really nice light dinner, appetizer, or a great lunch option too. The limitless possibilities for vegetables to use are almost endless. This can be altered for any season of the year and any palate. This fast and fresh recipe is sure to become a go to!

When Will It Be Spring?-

At his preschool, my youngest is learning all about animals that hibernate in the winter. Every day for the past few weeks, he has asked me to read the children’s book When Will It Be Spring, about a bear cub impatiently awaiting the end of hibernation, and the emergence of Spring. 

My little one asks me when Spring will come, and I tell him it will be here soon. All that talk has me wishing for Spring too. I found some early season asparagus at the local market and decided maybe Spring could come a bit early, even if it’s just in the form of this Vegetable Flatbread with Creme Fraiche. It’s got all the vegetable goodies on it, with a lovely creme fraiche spread.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

You know this blog is all about fresh, homemade, and doing things from scratch as much as possible while using fresh ingredients in season. This is the perfect dish to experiment with all sorts of seasonal vegetables.

Not only is this recipe versatile, but if you are looking for a new way to eat vegetables or add more of them to your diet, this vegetable flatbread provides an awesome opportunity to do both. The dough recipe can be easily doubled or tripled to make more than one flatbread at a time. 

I love this as a light lunch, it is not just an appetizer! It is also a fabulous dish to go with soup or a salad. This dough is also really easy to have young children help make, and they can even pick out their own toppings! 

Two Ingredient Dough

Instead of utilizing store bought puff pastry or pre made pizza dough, it is so easy to make a dough for this flatbread yourself!

If you have been on the internet at all the past few years, you have probably seen the pizza dough made with greek yogurt and self rising flour. I finally decided to try my own version of this. Boy, am I a late adopter. I chose to make my own self rising flour because it is not an ingredient I tend to keep in my pantry. Self rising flour is merely all purpose flour and baking powder in the right proportions. I used the ratio on King Arthur Baking’s website. 

This dough was actually pretty good and I will definitely use it again. It was very easy to make. In my opinion it is more of a flatbread dough than a pizza dough but hey, it works in a pinch. It is easy to work with to get it into the shape you want after the dough forms, and it was slightly chewy once cooked. I think it would take well to a wide variety of herbs or spices if you wanted to mix them into the dough.

On its own, the dough does not have much flavor so it needs salt for sure. Adding fresh or dried herbs, granulated or fresh garlic, red chili flakes, chopped jalapeno, curry powder, or many other dried spice blends would work too. 

For one flatbread, I would start with a half teaspoon of whatever seasoning or mix in you decide to use. You certainly are not limited to salt only with this dough. For this recipe, I chose to add my herbs to the creme fraiche spread on top rather than in the dough itself.

Make Your Own Self Rising Flour

DIY self rising flour is so easy! Making self rising flour is as simple as using all purpose flour and baking powder in the right proportions. I used the ratio on King Arthur Baking’s website which is 1 ½ tsp of baking powder added to 1 cup of all purpose flour. 

If you have a sifter, that is a great way to make sure the flour and baking powder are properly incorporated, but if you don’t you can use a spoon to stir them together. Just be sure you stir well so the baking powder is thoroughly mixed in.

When making the dough, it is going to seem dry at first when you add the yogurt and start stirring. The flour takes a little effort to soak up the yogurt. You will be tempted to add more yogurt to get the flour to blend, but there is no need. Once I got in there with my hands and started kneading, it came together just fine. Be careful not to over knead so the dough doesn’t become tough. 

The Creme Fraiche Spread

There are so many things you could add to the creme fraiche here, or just leave it as is. The fresh chives, shallot, and garlic are quite nice, and you can change those up as you see fit. 

You can even make your own creme fraiche for this dish very easily! I show you how in my post on How to Make Creme Fraiche. It’s really easy to make yourself. Just two ingredients you likely already keep in your kitchen anyway and a little time are all you need!

I am a big believer in making things yourself as much as possible, and making creme fraiche is so easy you’ll never buy it at the store again.

Vegetable Flatbread Variations

• You don’t have to stick with the arugula and asparagus combination used in this recipe. Any fresh vegetable that stands up to a few minutes in a high heat oven would work here. Butternut squash, spinach, kale, red onion, or shaved brussels sprouts would all be great!
• If you want to add crumbled bacon, smoked salmon, or prosciutto I am certainly not going to stop you.
• The Fontina can be substituted for any other melty cheese you like. Mozzarella, Provolone, Swiss, Gouda, Monterey Jack, or any other cheese that comes to mind. You can even leave it off if you like. 

Serving Suggestions

This would be the perfect accompaniment to my Cream of Asparagus Soup to make a terrific vegetarian meal. 

This keeps in the fridge wrapped in foil for two or three days, and you can simply pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up (without the foil of course).

A little squeeze of lemon on top gives the vegetables a little brightness.

This is a fabulous recipe to serve any time of year. It’s as simple as using fresh veggies in season. You are not limited to the arugula and asparagus used here by any means.

If you tried this recipe, I’d love to hear how it turned out! Just leave a rating or comment below, or take a picture and tag me @thecoppertable on Instagram, pin to a board on Pinterest or share with your friends on social media! If you have not signed up for my weekly newsletter, you can do that below. I have all sorts of exclusive content just for newsletter subscribers, and I’d love for you to join. Happy Cooking!