I was 18 when I ate quiche for the first time, in a French bakery in Germany. In Hungary where I grew up it was not well-known. When I started to travel to different countries I’ve got to know a lot of new food like quiche. I remember well, that first quiche was made with artichoke which was also new for me. It was so delicious and impossible to forget.
This classic salty French tart can take many variations, filled with a savoury custard and can include vegetables, meat, seafood, cheese or bacon. It really depends on you, your diet and lifestyle preferences, as the sky is the limit. So, get creative add the filling you like, the possibilities are endless.
Quiche can be served hot or cold. It’s also very good when you invite guests, easy to prepare and you can make it ahead. It’s also a great option for your lunchbox.
I added cheddar cheese in my recipe, which is a compromise to the paleo diet and a topic of discussion when it comes to the paleo diet. You can easily omit the cheese, it will still be delicious and have a great consistency.
This is my favorite (28 cm diameter) pie dish. It’s easy to take the pie out, because you can remove it together with the bottom part. Of course, you can use a porcelain or glass pie dish and serve the quiche in it.
Spinach Quiche
Equipment
- 28cm pie dish
Ingredients
Gluten Free Crust
- 200 gram blanched almond flour
- 60 gram tapioca flour
- 50 gram cold butter or ghee if you eat lactose free
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp ice cold water
Quiche Filling
- 80 gram bacon finely diced
- 1 medium sweet onion (white onion/yellow onion/Spanish onion) finely sliced
- 400 gram fresh spinach
- 2 medium carrots grated
- 1 tbsp dried Provençal herb mix
- 12 large eggs
- 80 ml unsweetened almond milk
- 100 gram cheddar cheese leave out for a dairy free quiche
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper freshly ground
Instructions
Gluten Free Crust
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Mix the almond flour, tapioca and salt in a big bowl.
- Add the cold butter and crumble with the flour, mix very quickly by hand until it's roughly the size of peas. You have to work fast as to not overwork the dough. The crust's texture will not turn out good if you warm it up with your hands.
- Add eggs and mix quickly until combined.
- Add the ice-cold water and knead the dough into a ball.
- Sprinkle the dough with a bit of tapioca flour and slightly push it in. Place the dough between two pieces of baking papers.
- Roll it out into a bit bigger circle than your pie dish.
- Grease the pie dish with a bit of butter (ghee or coconut oil) and sprinkle with tapioca flour.
- Transfer the dough to the prepared pie dish. It's not easy but do not worry if the dough breaks or tears, you can push the dough back together by hand into the dish. Press the dough up the sides of the pan too.
- Lay one piece of baking paper to the top of the dough and fill with dry beans or pie weights. I use ceramic pie weights. The pie weights ensure the dough doesn't rise while baking.
- Bake it for 10 minutes. This process is called blind-baking.
- Remove the pie weights and the baking paper, and bake it for another 5 minutes.
Quiche Filling
- During the baking time you can prepare the filling. If you made the crust ahead, you have to preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Sauté the finely diced bacon together with onion for 2-3 minutes in a pan.
- Add the spinach, carrots and Provençal herbs, sauté until the spinach leaves collapse.
- Leave it to cool for 10 minutes and then put the spinach mixture onto the pie crust.
- Whisk together the eggs, almond milk, cheddar (if you're adding it), salt and pepper.
- Pour the egg mix over the spinach and smooth the top.
- Bake it for 60 minutes until it's nice and golden brown, the top will be domed and shiny.
- Allow to cool a bit before slicing and serving. Let it cool completely before storing in the fridge.
The filling was perfect – the seasoning and veggies were delicious! I had some trouble with the pastry, but not sure if that was because I used ghee, or whether the dough was too warm when I rolled it out. Either way, it turned out great in the end, though next time I will put the dough in the fridge for 30 mins or an hour before rolling just to make sure!