I do not post as often as I should in the sea of food blogs but when I come up with a recipe that knocks off my own socks, I feel I need to share. I had a spontaneous complement from my teenage, meat eating son and husband. My daughter who is a real bacon fiend asked me if I used bacon! She didn't even complain about all the Spinach. That is how good this is. Now, the ingredients may come off weird it was because I hadn't planned on the quiche and I refuse to buy cream unless I have plans for the rest of it. I am not opposed to the fat, as you will see. I just hate waste. So there are some substitutes for the cream as well as the texture. I will admit this was time consuming but not labour intensive, only because I work from home and I can do bits, walk away and spread this cook out during the day. But honestly, you do not have to be as perfectionist as me about certain things like the double blind bake on the crust or the cheese layer on the bottom. Also, there are better ways to deal with the spinach moisture than my labour of love.
It turned out spectacular and I will be adding this to my paper cookbook notebook for repeat midweek meals!
Vegetarian Spinach Baconless Quiche
1 frozen Deep Dish vegetarian pie crust or homemade, if you fancy
250 g Frozen Spinach
2 cloves Garlic
1 small Onion, chopped (about 3" in diameter)
2 t dried Oregano
1 dried Margaram (optional)
1 t dried Dill
Custard
5 large Eggs
25 g or 2 T Butter, melted or room temperature
2 T Sour Cream
3/4 c Milk
1T + 1t All Purpose Flour
1/4 t Nutmeg
150 g Smoked Gouda (absolutely not optional)
1-2 T Mozzarella (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1. Important, bring all the Custard ingredients to the counter and let come to room temperature about 1-2 hours before you plan to put in the oven. No more than 2 hours if you are concerned.
2. Crust: At Breakfast, preheat the oven to 375. Take the frozen crust out and cover with parchment paper, make sure the paper covers the whole crust and fill with pie weights or dried legumes like black beans or chick peas. Bake for 15 minutes. Take off the pie weights and paper and continue to bake for 3-5 minutes. Use a crust shield if the edges are already turning too brown. Let cool. You can do this at anytime during your day, even the morning and let sit to cool. I let it sit with a loose foil cover in the toaster oven. Make sure it is cool before filling.
3. Spinach: In the morning or the night before, take out the frozen Spinach when you take out the crust. If you are using a bag of frozen Spinach, morning is fine but if using a block, take out the night before or defrost a bit in a microwave. A typical block of Spinach is 300g so sorry about the odd weight. You can use the whole block and use a smaller Onion or when the Spinach is defrost it, take out 2 T. Let it sit in a fine sieve over a bowl and let defrost and drain. Squeeze thoroughly in the sieve or go to town in a sturdy paper towel or clean tea towel. I drink this stuff but you can just discard. At lunchtime, in a large non stick frying pan, sautee the onions and in medium low heat in 1-2 T of until soft and starting to brown, 5-10 minutes. Add the Garlic and drained Spinach. Stir it around for a few minutes then spread out in a thin layer to dry out on low heat. I stayed in the kitchen eating my lunch because I wanted to keep an eye on it and stir every once in a while. You can leave it on the lowest heat and leave uncovered for like half an hour. Or, just do all of the above on medium high heat to move things along but avoid charring the Garlic. Let sit spread out in the pan uncovered until later when ready to cook the Quiche.
4. Custard: in a large bowl, I use my oversized measuring cup to make pouring easier and cleaner. Melt the Butter or make sure it is super soft. To help make certain that it wont just harden again, take the measured Milk out and Sour Cream 2 hours before, as well as the Eggs and leave on counter. Beat the Eggs, Milk, Sour Cream, Butter together. Whisk in the Flour a little at a time sprinkling it so it is absorbed rather than floating around like curds of cottage cheese. Add the Nutmeg and 1/2 t Salt so it dissolves.
5. Construction: 1 hour before you plan to eat, preheat the oven to 365 with rack in the middle. Take the cooled crust and place a thin layer of the Gouda cheese on the bottom and let just melt in the oven while it is preheating. If you are afraid you will forget it. Set the oven and do this right away before doing the rest and take it out and leave on a rack to tool down while you do the Custard. I preheat the oven after because I am a slow constructor and hate wasting the electricity/gas while I build.
I melted the Cheese in the crust to prevent the crust from going soggy. You can skip this but it works like a charm. Spread a layer of half the Spinach. Grate Gouda over top. (now, the weight of the cheese is approximate because I grate it in as needed). Add the rest of the Spinach and spread out and press down. Grate more Gouda over top and press all the filling down.
Place the pie pan on a larger pan on the stove top before adding the Custard. It makes for less of a journey to the oven and less risk of spilling. Slowly pour in the custard. Fill to the top. A risk averse person will stop with about half a cm from the top. I am not and hate to waste so I filled up to the top bc I originally used too much milk. You should do it slowly so it can seep into all the crevices. You can discard the rest of the egg mixture or fry it up. Carefully place in the oven and then add the Crust Shield again. I add the crust shield after so I can make sure to see that I am keeping it level and not spilling. If you do not mind a dark crust, you can add the shield half way through or disregard it altogether.
Set your timer for 45 minutes. Half way through, sprinkle the top with the Mozzarella cheese. This is optional but I like the golden top.
You can serve right away. Most people like to cool but my daughter had Karate class so I didnt have time.
Oh, extra bonus of the cheese layer at the bottom, apart from protecting the crust is that the texture makes it chewy and makes your carnivorous kids think there is bacon.
Serve with a side salad or Roasted Potatoes with Oregano and Smoked Paprika. You can cook at the same time as the Quiche if you cut to 1 inch pieces at the bottom of the oven. That will make up for the lower heat.
Enjoy! We did.