Spinach Artichoke Quiche! With chopped spinach and artichoke hearts, shallots, goat cheese, spring onions, eggs and cream. Perfect for a Sunday brunch!
The trees outside my bedroom window have decided to leaf this week, signaling that spring is in full bloom here. A week ago all I could see was threads of gray and brown, and now the view is awash with the bright lime green of budding leaves.
Here’s a quiche to celebrate spring greens with spinach, artichokes, shallots, and goat cheese. So good!
I have a few insights regarding the preparation of quiche.
The first is that while every proper quiche recipe recommends pre-cooking or “blind-baking” the crust, I don’t think it’s necessary. I use a frozen crust (I make my own, but you can easily use store-bought) because it keeps its shape better when you bake the quiche in it.
The second finding has to do with a homemade crust for quiche. The trick to getting the perfect crust for this quiche is to make sure there is enough fat in the batter. A ratio of 1/2 cup butter to 1 cup flour is perfect.
The butter or water does not need to be refrigerated. You don’t need any tools, you can easily prepare the dough with your hands and a bowl.
The classic egg-to-liquid ratio for quiche is 1 egg for every 1/2 cup of cream or milk. In this quiche I added another egg for more texture because it’s so packed with spinach and artichokes. Even with that extra egg, the quiche just holds together.
Spinach Artichoke Quiche
We provide instructions for making your own crust from scratch. You can also easily use a frozen pie crust, just keep frozen, do not thaw.
We use goat cheese in this recipe. You could easily substitute grated Gruyere or Monterey Jack.
ingredients
Crust:
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1 Cup all purpose flour
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1/2 teaspoon Salt
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1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces, 8th tablespoon) butter
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2 to 2 1/2 tablespoon water
Quiche:
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1/2 Cupwrapped, finely chopped artichoke hearts (boiled fresh or canned artichoke hearts in water)
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6 ounces boiled spinach (if using frozen, thaw first), squeezed to remove excess water (wrap in a clean tea towel or several layers of paper towels and squeeze), finely chopped
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1 tablespoon butter
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1/2 Cup chopped shallots
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2 teaspoon grated Lemon peel
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4 big eggs
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1 Cup milk
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1/2 Cup fat whipped cream
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4 ounces goat cheese
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1 teaspoon Salt
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1/4 teaspoon black pepper
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2 tablespoon chopped chives or scallion greens
method
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
Dice the butter and work the butter into the flour with your (clean) hands until you have a mixture that looks like a coarse flour with pieces of butter no bigger than a pea.
Gradually sprinkle water over the flour mixture and work the dough with your hands until the dough forms into a ball.
Flatten the ball into a disc and wrap with plastic wrap. Chill for at least 1 hour.
When you are ready to roll out the dough, remove the disc from the fridge and let it come to room temperature for 10 minutes.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a diameter 2 inches wider than your pan (I used a 9 inch cake pan). Drape the rolled out dough over the pie or tart tin and press the dough to the sides of the tin. Trim and ruffle the edges.
Place in freezer for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
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(Optional) Pre-cook the crust:
If you’d like, you can “blind bake” or par-bake the crust at this point. Par-baking the crust ensures the bottom crust is browned and not soggy. I often skip this step and find that while the bottom crust doesn’t brown, it’s usually perfectly flavorful.
To par-cook a store-bought crust, simply follow the directions on the crust package.
To pre-cook the homemade crust in this recipe, line the inside with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights like beans. The foil and pie weights prevent the sides of the crust from sliding down while baking.
Bake at 375F for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and weights, prick the bottom of the crust with the tines of a fork and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before filling with the quiche vanilla filling.
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Boil shallots:
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped shallots and cook until translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from stove.
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Preparation of the filling:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add the goat cheese and stir until smooth. Stir in the milk, heavy cream, salt, pepper, chopped spinach, chopped artichokes, cooked shallots, lemon zest, and chives.
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Bake quiche:
Pour the filling into the frozen pie crust. (If you’re using a tart pan with a removable bottom, you may want to set the pan on a foil-lined or rimmed baking pan.)
Put in the oven. Bake at 375°F for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F and bake for 30 minutes or until the center of the quiche has set.
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Let cool before serving:
Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before slicing and serving.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 329 | calories |
| 25g | Fat |
| 18g | carbohydrates |
| 10g | protein |
